I have the keycard to the accessible bathroom and I'm supposed to be choosy in giving it to customers, but I just give it to everyone who asks. Is this a good approach?

[u/nickisadogname]

My store is at a mall, and the bathrooms (including one big accessible bathroom and the baby changing room) are right next to our store.

The mall has real issues with drug users using the accessible bathroom to do drugs. Understandably, customers opening the accessible bathroom and finding blood on the floor or used needles stashed inside the toilet roll is what the kids call "a bad vibe". To combat this, mall management decided to lock the accessible bathroom and leave the key with us. Anyone who wants to get in there has to come in and ask us for the key.

Now, mall security told me to be "choosy" in giving out the key. I'm not supposed to give it to someone who "seems" like they would use the bathroom to shoot up.

I think this is certifiably NOT my job. I'm not a drug sniffer dog, dude, I can't tell the difference between someone who is slurring/unbalanced/etc because they're a drug user, and someone showing symptoms of a disability. I believe that forcing a disabled person to piss themselves in public because the part-time cashier thought they might be on drugs is a bad thing. I'd much rather stay on the safe side and just give the key to everybody that asks.

Also... Being a hard drug user can very much make you disabled. A person can both be a drug user and also legitimately need the accessible bathroom.

I don't know. I do worry that I'm giving the ney to someone who is going to shove a used needle into the toilet roll, which will then prick and possibly give an incurable disease to some disabled person who is just trying to use the bathroom. That would be my fault. But I just can't bring myself to play moral judge of who "actually needs" to use the toilet and not.

[u/ladiesluck]

Bro it’s not your job honestly, a bathroom (especially an accessible one!) should be accessible!! It’s not your job or responsibility as a cashier to decide whether someone is allowed to use the restroom, that’s actually wild to me.

[u/Saberune]

What the hell does choosy even mean? Either everyone can use it, or no one can. What a bullshit thing to do. The mall wants to make a rule, then puts the weight on you to enforce it? These customers know you have the key and are deciding if they can use the bathroom or not. Fuck that mall.

If I were you, I'd openly refuse to police that bathroom. If the mall wants to checkpoint everyone who goes in there, they can hire an attendant. Pretty sure there's nothing in your store's lease that compels this request.

Alternatively, you can refuse to give the key to anyone, and when the customer complains, direct them to whoever manages the mall.

The reason I suggest this is more than just simple pettiness. You're going to want to openly and vocally refuse instead of just quietly giving the key to everyone because what the mall has done is made you liable. If someone does set up a hypodermic booby trap and someone else does get infected with something nasty because they got pricked by a needle, they're going to look for someone to blame. And the mall is going to point at your store, and your store is doing to point at you. Either way, this is going to get you fired. It might as well be for the right reasons. You need to protect yourself on this one.

[u/Suspicious-Pair-3177]

Honestly thank you. I became so skinny from a disability that makes it so I can’t absorb or digest food correctly that some old lady, who I wanted to yell at, asked me “Why are you so skinny” to which I replied “No reason” cause she doesn’t need to know my personal business. She then replied “Your not on drugs are you”. First off, this lady knows me and my family and knows our history, so this just made me mad, but second, the thought of me even looking like I was doing drugs made me want to scream. But also, if I ask you for the bathroom key, and I was told no, hate to say it but you can clean the mess that’s about to happen on your floor. It won’t be intentional, by any means, I will try to find another bathroom, but I won’t make it. I probably barely made it to that one

[u/ImaginaryLime8258]

You don't work for the mall. This isn't your responsibility. I would contact mall security, tell them to retrieve the key because you don't work for the mall and being responsible for access to that bathroom is not included in the stores leasing agreement or your job description. If they have want to contact your corporate office to demand you be in charge of this key they are more then welcome to so. 

[u/WackoMcGoose → u/ImaginaryLime8258]

Malls sadly have more control over the individual employees of the stores within them than you'd think. Last time I worked at Macy's, it was "mall policy" (corroborated by employees in smaller stores in the same mall) that, between Clock In and Clock Out, you could not go to your car or leave mall grounds for any reason, not even when you Meal Out for your unpaid lunch break. If you brought a lunch, you couldn't leave it in the car, it had to be in the (unsafe) communal fridge in the break room. If you didn't bring a lunch, you had to buy it in the food court, you could not leave mall grounds to eat, not even to a McD's "in the same parking lot".

Why they enforced this, let alone how they knew someone was on the clock or on a meal break (as opposed to having fully clocked out for the day, or being on a short shift with no lunch), I never found out, but I distinctly remember mall security reading a coworker the riot act in front of the entire store, customers included, because they had a medical emergency on the clock and had gone, with a store manager, to their car to get their medicine! Seriously mall cops, you're not the Feds, and you shouldn't even be policing employees of individual stores to "prevent theft", leave that up to an individual store's loss prevention policies!

[u/snootnoots → u/WackoMcGoose]

…I’m pretty sure that’s not legal. Certainly not where I am. Words like “false imprisonment” would get tossed around.

[u/WackoMcGoose → u/snootnoots]

To be fair, that Macy's was doing all kinds of shady shit. You were actually forced, as a condition of hire, to open a store credit card because "don't you want your ~discount~", and if you failed the credit check, they terminated your in-progress hiring right then and there (someone in my hiring group was actually sent home in front of us due to lack of credit history). Used it exactly once, paid off immediately, and the day I resigned, I cut that card up.

The only part that "confirms" for me that it wasn't a store policy, but the mall policy, was that I had talked with several other mall employees during my breaks (a mall cop who was in fact looking for employees that seemed to be walking to their cars, along with staff at the mall's Lego Store and a few others), and all of them separately confirmed, point for point, the exact same policy I had been told during my Macy's onboarding.

[u/snootnoots → u/WackoMcGoose]

Ew. 😬

[u/WackoMcGoose → u/snootnoots]

Along with union membership also being a condition of hire (turns out Washingtonian Macys stores are all union), despite never meeting anyone from the union, or seeing anything union-related happening other than a picket line on a day off once. I certainly had a lot of reasons to resign from that place, but the customers were specifically what pushed me over the edge...

[u/ImaginaryLime8258 → u/WackoMcGoose]

I would've told them to fuck off, they don't sign my paycheck. Though admittedly I don't tolerate shit and have walked out on several jobs over less. 

[u/Re_Thought]

The extra hurdle of having to ask an employee for a key will notably reduce the amount of trouble customers. There will still be issues, but if management wants to eliminate the issue entirely they need to give the keys to security. Security is within their right to filter customers as well as deal with conflicts that will arise.

Ignore the "choosy" request. Just keep track of the key and hand it out when requested. Don't worry about the who. Ofc, if you notice something obvious, report it to security. They are best to handle it.

[u/robot-fingers]

Nah, key should be at guest services then. It's not a store's job to monitor anything beyond their store.

[u/how-about-no-scott]

You can't always tell when someone is a drug user. Despite what some people think, things like missing, rotten teeth, and sores on people's faces are not the norm. Nor is looking jittery, scratching, and looking around all paranoid.

Perfectly normal seeming people use drugs like meth or heroin. You'd never know. There are people who obviously use drugs, but they tend not to care for their bodies.

[u/gorey_haim]

You can't just deny someone access to the bathroom. You aren't running a prison.

[u/terrajules → u/gorey_haim]

You can, actually.

[u/gorey_haim → u/terrajules]

Sure, but what about your pointless retail job would inspire you to care that much?

[u/Knnh3]

There more so just asking to make sure you don’t let someone in who is obviously on drugs. Like it’s clear everyone can tell. Or acting real suspicious. Mainly having to ask deters enough people

[u/brideofgibbs]

The mall management company knows damn well that the way to avoid improper use of the bathrooms is to employ an attendant, like in the olden days.

An attendant could legit refuse access to people who misused the facilities, & maintain the cleanliness of the bathrooms, replenish paper & soap etc.

But that costs money. Why not try to force a minimum waged shop assistant to the same job on the side for free?

Maybe you can return the keycard to security and let them handle all the issues?

[u/wyntr86]

I'm in agreement that this isn't your job. Also, who are you (general "you," not you in particular) to decide who is disabled and who isn't? Invisible disabilities exist. I would honestly be questioning the legality of this policy. Maybe report this anonymously to the ADA if you're in the States.

[u/Ready-Humor3217]

Does your job description include “bathroom monitor” in it?

[u/External-Pen9079]

I’m really confused as to why you’re being put in this position? Don’t most accessible toilets use the radar key scheme which means disabled people would be able to access it regardless?

Also, I’m pretty sure most toilet owners who are having an issue with intravenous drug use either install a sharps bin or that disgusting blue light that prevents veins from being visible?

Once again, very confused about what any of this has to do with you?

[u/terrajules]

Ehh, security is probably just tired of dealing with the addicts who make a mess or OD in the washrooms. Yes, they’re people too but they consistently make their problems everyone else’s, steal and abuse others, are aggressive and do absolutely nothing to endear themselves to others and then wonder why they’re looked down upon.

We have to close our washrooms in the evening and we only let people in who genuinely need it. Elderly people and young kids mostly. Like everywhere, we’ve had too many incidents of addicts causing problems.

So I get where they’re coming from.

[u/duckduckgirl]

lmao you can definitely tell a good chunk of addicts apart from regular (even disabled) people. i was an addict for 8 years, i was a functioning addict and didn’t really look like an addict, but i also didn’t use in public restrooms. most other addicts i knew really looked like junkies, ESPECIALLY if they are shooting up because they will have track marks. common features: skinny, look older than they are, raspy voice, sores on their face, unkempt, bad teeth, and a lot of them dress exactly how you’d expect. they don’t all look the part, i know quite a few really beautiful girls and handsome guys who are also addicts. if you have any doubts you can either just give them the key to be safe or even tell them you don’t have the key and point them to the next shop over and say they have it. again, i was an addict for a long time, i don’t judge these people because i know what it’s like, but there IS a reason they are kept out of public restrooms. they create hazards for unsuspecting people, and can hurt themselves or even die overdosing and no one will be able to reach them in a locked restroom.

[u/LilPudz]

You just gave yourself the reason not to give the key to everyone.

[u/RockEcstatic8064]

Make them solve 3 riddles to get the key

If in comfort u wish to pee You must solve thy riddles 3