The cubicles aren't really covered by the website, but I'm always struck by how little privacy is afforded by the dividing walls in toilets in the USA.
"Some [Facebook] employees even took issue with WhatsApp’s desks, which were a holdover from the Mountain View location and larger than the standard desks in the Facebook offices. WhatsApp also negotiated for nicer bathrooms, with doors that reach the floor..."
Why a company paying their people tons of money won't spend a bit on the bathroom doors that reach the floor, I do not understand.
https://qz.com/work/1299178/facebook-and-whatsapp-the-real-r...
You can find them at suppliers in major cities but you have to rely on the persistence of your office managers to track them down and spend time on something that most people don't rally around or bring up in discussions. The compromise in my office was rubber strips that cover the gaps found in normal stall doors, those are easily bought and installed by anybody.
Lack of code is also probably the cause of the randomness of urinal heights.
And a more authoritative reference here: https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/2010ADAStandards/2010ADAstandar... (Ctrl+F "604.8.1.4")
The vertical gap between the floor and where the cubicle wall starts is huge. Like, knee height. So weird.
I mean, imagine mopping one of those rooms. Bet you'd immediately be glad the partitions didn't reach the floor.
source: i am a cleaner.
I think it's just like that because that's just how it has been traditionally done in America. Their toilets are also a different shape - much wider, lower and shallower. And urinals always have flush handles.
I haven't actually seen many newer urinals with flush handles. Pretty much anywhere with a recent install is sensor based. There's plenty of old equipment around, of course.
Toilets are more hit or miss, though I'd hazard a guess that the majority of new installs are also all motion / sensor based. I can't speak to the bowl differences, though I'd suspect they're due to water efficiency, disabilities compliance and / or our heftier girth.
Google image search gives good examples:
https://www.google.com/search?q=us+toilet+stall+gaps&tbm=isc...
My favourite experiences have been in Germany and China, where typically most of the bowl is comprised of a dry "receptacle" which is then flushed with water into a smaller pipe opening.
Can’t help you with your dangling-genitals problem, however.
These folks nailed it: https://toilet-guru.com/biblical_new.php
I've even been in toilets here where I had to take measures not to have my genitals end up dipping in it.
That's a bit too high, however.
It's probably because we don't want to employ more than one janitor to mop up.
Why is this a solution that needs jerry-rigged solutions instead of a normal solution like everywhere else in an office building?
It's disturbing that the probability is quite high that whilst searching for a vacant cubicle, your eyes may well lock with the single enlarged eye of a terrified pooper. This is not a bond I want to make.
Once made, it's unbreakable though.
You can install the doors properly with no gap, but it requires everything be square and plumb and all that. And then not get damaged.
Americans tend to question them and then do whatever they want to do.
Europe also tends to cultivate a village mentality where people trust each other to follow decorum.
America tends to operate as if vaguely hostile strangers are rolling through town all the time.
This still has the same cleaning advantage: http://www.ironwood-mfg.com/Pictures/Full%20Size/European1.j...
But I see this way more often in the US: https://globalpartitions.com/wp-content/uploads/ASI-SolidPla...
Another difference not mentioned above is double-doors. Toilets in public/institutional buildings in the UK (and probably elsewhere) have an air-lock type arrangement with two doors (inner and outer) with the result that nobody can see into the inner sanctum when people enter and leave. US toilets have just one door.
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-public-restrooms-have-one-...
I have been in poorer bits of Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Pacific islands.
The USA is (so far) the only place¹ where there were gaps between the door and the "wall" of the toilet cubicle partitions. This is surely more expensive -- it requires special hinges to provide the gap. In other countries, "cheap" might mean a 2mm gap. In the USA, it's an intentional 2cm gap.
There is some other reason. I'm not American. I genuinely don't know if I should admire it (lack of shame of bodily functions), or criticize it (afford less privacy to those who use public toilets).
¹ [There are places where there are no stalls at all.]
https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/26620/why-do-publ...
If you're ever in the Boston area, try checking out a Red Sox game; the urinary dividing "walls" are legendary.
Even more so if you know the people around you.
In many places stalls are not used and toilets are fit in one small, dedicated room each.