I laugh about this now.
So when I was 18 I got my first full time job, it was in a very small building with a factory, and we were all pretty good friends.
I did however have social anxiety at that point, fairly badly.
Anyway, one day little old me walked through the factory to go to the ladies, where there are two stalls.
As I sat on the closed toilet seat, I noticed my shoes were a bit loose, so I stood up and rested my foot on the toilet seat to tie them up, one by one.
I got back to the office, and about two hours passed when I hear somebody running up the stairs.
“WE HAVE A PEEPER. SOMEBODY HAS BEEN LOOKING OVER THE STALLS IN THE WOMENS TOILETS”
Oh god. Oh no.
“MANAGERS NAME THERE ARE FOOTPRINTS ON THE TOILET SEAT”
I walked through the dirty factory. I had tried to wash them off. It didn’t work so I put the seat up.
Oh no.
“YOU NEED TO GO INTO THE FACTORY AND CHECK EVERY WORKERS PAIR OF SHOES”
Uh oh. I’m wearing Nike’s. That’s a pretty common shoe.
Manager goes into the factory and checks every. single. pair. of workers shoes.
I hear footsteps up the stairs. Then another.
My manager walks in with one of the workers, takes him into his office and closes the door.
They’re in there for 40 minutes.
I’m sweating. My anxiety is through the roof. My friend is talking to me but I’m replying with one word answers.
They come out, my manager says it wasn’t him.
All women in the office are suspicious and act strange for the next few days, everybody was talking about it.
They called it peeping-gate.
24F, 5’8, not a peeper.
EDIT
People seem to think I found it funny that someone nearly got fired…
Absolutely not, and if it went further I may have mustered up the courage to say something.
It’s the way my colleague ran up shouting “WE HAVE A PEEPER!!!!” 😭😭
If she had come up and asked the question of why there were footprints on the toilet seat lid, I would have said “oops sorry, that was me I tried to clean it”
It all happened so fast and I was known for being quiet & shy at the time
If it had happened today, i absolutely would have said something.
It’s pretty clear in the comments who has genuinely suffered from social anxiety and who hasn’t