Not that George and the rest of us should give up hope. While higher stall doors are more prevalent in Europe, architects and builders in the U.S. have started requesting them more often, according to manufacturers and distributors. Ultimate-privacy partitions, available up to 72 inches tall, sit lower to the ground and go higher toward the ceiling than do standard doors. "It makes that area almost like a semi-private room," explains Cyrus Boatwalla, director of marketing at ASI Group, the parent company of Accurate Partitions, a stall manufacturer. They cost more money and come only in certain materials, such as the already popular stainless steel; plastic and laminate start to bow if a door gets too tall.

Stalls also come in different depth sizes; 60 inches is standard, but the space can get as deep as 80 inches. The farther back the toilet sits, the less likely someone will spot your shoes.

Does the gap between the door and the stall wall have to be so big?

It doesn't! "It can be almost touching; it can be a couple of millimeters," Boatwalla says, referring to the space between the stall door and the pilaster. "If it’s built right and the architect specifies right."

That sounds easy enough. So why the huge gap where a hastily flung strip of toilet paper is all that prevents awkward eye contact with co-workers on the other side? Boatwalla says it can come down to the slightest tweak in design during construction. 

Say the architect measured 20 feet of space between the walls in a bathroom in which toilets were already installed. Midway through the build, he decided to switch out the tile for something cheaper and thinner. The space is a half-inch bigger, but the builder already ordered the stalls.Though a standard bathroom stall door comes 24 inches wide, it's not uncommon for architects to ask for custom sizing to better fit a space and avoid leaving a strip between the door and partition. A partition manufacturer says it will take four weeks to whip up a new batch of right-sized doors. So what does the architect do? With everything else he has to get right in the office, bathrooms can be a low priority.

"That is the reality," says Boatwalla. "You can't fault any one trade, or manufacturer, or architect, or the guys that built the walls." Birchback, who has been in the business for 29 years, thinks she knows who to blame. "Generally, when people install them—generally, they are men, and they don’t read directions," she says. "And then they end up with bigger gaps."

In the worst case scenarios, building owners willing to spend a little bit of money can invest in privacy covers, adhesive strips that seal the gap between the door and pilaster.

What about sound; can we do anything about that?

Short of having fully enclosed stalls, there's been no acoustic innovation in bathroom design to naturally muffle sounds, says Boatwalla, who suspects that taller partitions may help. "This is not a tested, scientific fact—just a layperson's opinion."