The 4th floor bathroom.

If potty humor isn't your thing, don't bother reading this post.

So my company resides on the 5th floor of a 5-story building. When I first started working here, it felt really spacious. There were still a lot of empty cubes, and our cubes were pretty generously sized.

Fast forward 8 months, and now I sit in the refugee pit.

I call it the refugee camp, cause really, these cubes are pretty depressing. It's a six-cube structure, similar to what you'd find in a college library, that was built where there used to be lounge chairs. Each desk is only about 2.5"x4", with partitions. Behind my seat, there's a lot of foot traffic, people on the way to conference rooms and execs, who's offices are now only 10-20 feet away from me.  Oh what fun.

And that's reflective of the entire office. The cube section where I used to sit has been transformed into rows of desk space for our sales team. What used to seat nine people now seats 20. Even all the executive offices are full. In one, they had to break down the tables so they could cram two high-level managers in one office.

After a while, project managers start ignoring conference room reservations. The higher up the food chain you are, the higher priority you get. So instead, we've had to make due with holding conference calls in our refugee camp.

Then there are the bathrooms.

There are two bathrooms on our floor, one for men, one for women. In the men's room there are two urinals and two stalls. Not bad when I first got here, but now there have been a few times you walk into the bathroom and both stalls are taken. Not cool.

One day I thought to myself, what's on the fourth floor?

There are several empty commercial spaces down there, with open access to the bathroom. The bathroom there has a similar layout to ours, but somebody installed a privacy liner along the hinges of the stalls, so there's no awkward eye contact. Plus one of the toilet seats is flat, so when you put on the toilet liner, it doesn't automatically fall into the toilet.

So for a good two months or so, I could find a safe haven in the fourth floor bathroom. No interruptions. No intrusions. And all the time in the world to hide out and check out the latest apps on my iPhone.

Then something strange started happening. I'd run into a stray member of the sales team in the stairwell talking on the phone. I'd walk by a customer service rep on my way into the bathroom, who was on his way out of the bathroom. We both let out a laugh. Next it was a director. Today, there was another guy from our office brushing his teeth in there. And somebody in the stall next to me while we were both doing our business.

Sadly, the fourth floor bathroom is no longer a secret.

And as our company continues to expand, it just doesn't look like it's going to get any better. First it was our cubes. Now it's our toilets. Who knows what our office is going to be losing next?