Hey Chicks! (and hey guys who happen to know this)

[rmd]

[Poll #1370703]

Comments

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

It depends on the setup of the workplace and the bathroom.

[istemi.livejournal.com]

There's usually a small stash in at least one bathroom, and they're free. They're of a quality that I only use when my stash is gone.

I work in private offices. If I worked in a public area, say a library or restaurant, I wouldn't expect them to be available, or if so, to cost something.

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

Being male, and not having had any excuse to go into any women's bathroom, I don't actually know the answer. But I work for a company that does not provide tissues for us allergy sufferers, so I strongly suspect they do not provide pads.

This despite the fact that the company was co-founded by a woman.

(But they do provide coffee, so I'm not complaining.)

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

No fixed workplace/bathrooms, so the run-down of the usual-suspect-bathrooms goes:
-at school where I usually teach: some bathrooms have for-pay machines, some have none available

-at my studio building: none available. also it's usually BYOTP, and when I have guests in studio, remind themto take the roll with them and bring it back.

-at other studio where I sometimes work: don't remember

-at museum where I'll be working next week: uh, I think they're available for pay in some RRs (accessible to general public) and in a basket for free in others (accessible to only staff).

-also, I often work from home or at houses of friends, so that applies, too.

SO, given all that... my answer to the second is that I have no expectation what so ever, since so many places I work have different answers.

I have, however, moved to the post-tampon-pad-economy of the AWESOMENESS THAT IS THE DIVA CUP! Woot! So I don't really care about all that any more.
It's almost worth menstruating, just so I can be this satisifed with a product.

[cutieperson]

i don't expect them to be there and am delighted when they are.
Sabur is one of my favorite brunch/drinks places anyway, but their well stocked bathroom makes them double plus good.

[smeehrrr.livejournal.com]

This one time I went into the bathroom and there was PIE.

[firni.livejournal.com]

My house is my workplace!

[donnad.livejournal.com]

The place I work is very small and all women, should one need something they can always just ask if someone has any. If nobody can help there is a CVS across the street.

I don't expect to find sanitary products in womens bathrooms anymore. It used to be the norm that offices etc. would at least have a machine for .25, but with places cutting back I wouldn't expect it.

I have in the past been amused at some places that have what I call 'T' machines. They are vending machines that carry Tampax, Tums, Tylenol and Tic Tacs.

[dot_fennel]

The reason I know this is because my office's bathrooms are all one-person rooms-- most are marked as unisex, but even the ones that aren't are used that way. (Which strikes me as weird, so I stay out of the ones intended for women unless I'm facing catastrophe. But anyway, they don't differ in supplies or facilities in any way, as far as I can tell.)

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

I work in an academic library (you know this), and pads and tampons are available for free in the staff restrooms but not in the more public restrooms. They used to be, but that changed some years ago. The bathrooms are always well-stocked.

I'd be okay if they weren't available, but it's nice that something is. I'll admit that if they weren't free, I wouldn't buy them.

[agrimony.livejournal.com]

I'm frankly lucky when they have toilet paper in the bathroom at work.

They don't have anything available, though in general if I go into a bathroom I'm happy if there is something there, whether it's for pay or for free.

[corivax.livejournal.com]

I work on a college campus. All the unisex bathrooms I've been in (it's a policy of the college to have at least one unixsex bathroom per building - usually just locking single-seaters - if the building has any bathrooms at all) either have a dispenser, or have a map showing which bathrooms have dispensers. I have to assume the women's bathrooms are the same.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I would never expect them to be there, but in an emergency, I'd ask a female colleague.

Though as long as we're on the subject, I love not having to deal with any of that because, yay, Keeper!

[coraline]

how do you count "there's a machine with costs 10c but it's broken 90% of the time?"

[ceo]

I've seen similar ones in men's rooms with Trojans, Tums, Tylenol and Tic Tacs.

[goingdriftless.livejournal.com]

So most normal places, I expect to see a dispenser in the bathroom. However, the places that I've worked (being a chick programmer), I often feel fortunate that there is a ladies room at all.

One summer internship, I worked on the ground floor of a government lab building. The only women's restroom in the building was on the fifth floor. The admin staff was on the fifth floor... and when the building was erected long, long ago, they never imagined that there would be women in the building anywhere but the admin floor... Sadly no one had ever pressed the issue because there were still so few women who worked there. I said FUCK THAT and used the men's room. They got used to it.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Generally, when I go into a women's bathroom in an office, I don't expect there to be tampons or pads; however, when there are, I usually expect to have to pay for them.

I just keep a few emergency tampons in my desk at work.

[lioritgioret.livejournal.com]

Hmm. In 1995, I worked for a dot-com that went from considering hiring a concierge so the software developers would not have to pick up their own dry cleaning to laying everybody off and folding in the space of less than two years. When I interviewed, in the concierge season, the HR recruiter said, "Oh, how cute! You wore a suit!" As part of the truly incredible-in-retrospect ambient sense of entitlement, one of the women there made quite a big deal about how it would hurt our ability to hire, as well as our customer relations, if we *didn't* provide free menstrual supplies in the restrooms. "It is,"said she, "one of the things on which I judge a company." That job was the first and last time that I worked among writers and editors who had the delusion that they might be as valuable as software developers; what pisses me off in my current position (besides the charming "if you sprinkle" notice in each stall, printed in pink and embellished with smiley faces) is that when the napkin machine is out of order, instead of dispensing napkins for free, it won't dispense at all.
By the way, when I worked in Catalog Maintenance at dancingdeer's academic library (pre-massive-renovations) a) the vending-machine sanitary napkins still came with two safety pins, and I used occasionally to buy them when I needed an emergency safety pin at work and b) it offended me for some reason that the two choices were labeled "Feminine napkin" and "Feminine tampon", and so I routinely smuggled in stickers that said, "Masculine tampon" and affixed them to the machine.

[sabyl.livejournal.com]

I've never worked anywhere that provided pads/tampons for free or for money. If stuck had to ask a coworker.

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

I'll echo what I've been seeing a lot above, which is that I often expect the machines to exist, but I usually find that they are broken and/or not stocked. I usually bring my own, but on the few occasions when I have run out and/or been caught without, I usually find the machines fail me.

-E

[whipartist.livejournal.com]

I've worked where they're free, where they're for sale, and where they're not available. I have no expectations.

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

Aha! I have figured out who you are. :) Hi.
Well, I've been there since 1994, and the pads then were much chunkier than they are now (ick, chunky) but at that point were not the safety pin style nor have been since. We also haven't had machines. They used to just be in baskets, and since the renovations they built little cabinets for the things.

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

We don't have women's bathrooms or men's bathrooms at work, just bathrooms. No, ahem, sanitary supplies provided, we all just roll our own.

I wouldn't ever expect stuff to be available in any bathroom. I'm a Diva Cup gurl myself, hopefully not for much longer.

[miss-bowtruckle.livejournal.com]

I never assume they'll be there, and/or if the machine is actually intact, it will be empty.

Hence, the permanent snack-size...oh, that's gross, btw...baggie in the bottom of my purse with one of each, just in case.

[skreeky]

Blueberry?

[catness.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I utterly *loathe* the diva cup. It is an evil necessity, but I hate everything about it.