The Bathroom Spoon

My wife is originally from Japan.

She came here first as a student and then was on a business visa before we married.

She frequented restaurants with other foreign students in San Francisco and was rather puzzled by what was clearly American bathroom customs.

Frequently she observed people speak to the wait staff, then receive a spoon to take to the bathroom. Not only did it appear that everyone needed this big spoon to go to the bathroom (at various restaurants) but everyone seemed to use the same spoon.

This puzzled her for some time until she ended up going to the restroom one day. The door was locked and when she spoke to the waiter, she was brought the key...

attached to the end of a large spoon.

We don't always understand the reasoning for some practice that was clearly created for a purpose and shared across similar businesses.

This is the same for maintaining buildings and equipment. Preventative maintenance isn't something that 'comes natural' or is intuitive. It often takes facing problems and finding out how to avoid them in the future to learn. This is an expensive way to learn.

I have gone through all of that already, let my experience help your investment.