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This policy wasn't instituted b/c of stellar employees - it was instituted because less-than-stellar employees were using the bathroom as a breakroom.
Then they need to target the bathroom "offenders" instead of making everyone suffer.
I really don't see this policy working out in the long run. They're going to lose good people. Somebody is going to have an accident and sue or report them to the appropriate agency.
This is a Medieval policy. If an older male there develops a prostate problem, what are they going to do fire him?
Why do you work at such a terrible job in slave conditions?
Assuming you weren't just rhetorically asking that question. It's not my job of choice. But I'm 50+ years old, and was a SAHM for a number of years, and intended it to be that way forever.
The economy took a nose-dive, and my husband's business likewise, and you do what you have to do.
Then they need to target the bathroom "offenders" instead of making everyone suffer.
I really don't see this policy working out in the long run. They're going to lose good people. Somebody is going to have an accident and sue or report them to the appropriate agency.
This is a Medieval policy. If an older male there develops a prostate problem, what are they going to do fire him?
Where are the unions when you actually need them?
I agree 100%.
I think employers are way more oppressive than they used to be and that's because they can be. They can get away with it, because of the job market. If you don't like the rules, quit. There are at least 300 people that will take the job, if you don't want it.
An example of that. Several months back, my aged mil (lives local), was hospitalized in an emergency situation. She is elderly, she gets addled and fearful. I felt it best to accompany her and make sure she was okay, which necessitated that I call out of work. Something I've rarely done.
When doing that, one has to call in to the 1-800#, and may reach a (virtual) supervisor in one of any number of locations throughout the country. Not necessarily someone that knows you personally in your own work setting.
I called in to report the above, and was met with these words, "Okay well just so you know, this is an *unplanned absence* and as such, you could be placing your job in jeapordy*.
I spent the remainder of that day, while trying to help my aged mil and navigate her various needs and calm her nerves, addled and agitated myself, near tears, for fear that I would return to a verbal or worse reprimand at work.
When I got back, and questioned my specific supervisor as to the verbiage I'd encountered, I was informed that's what they are now required to say, all supervisors who answer the hotline, as to absences, and it's because some people abuse it.
My question exactly. So why aren't you addressing the offenders instead of making this a blanket policy to recite this to everyone and cause them undue stress and hardship.
This will be quite the inconvenience to those who want to play Candy Crush on the toilet, or who otherwise need the extra time. Period.
This is much more common than most people realize and it costs employers a lot of money. But even if it weren't their employees get 60 minutes free bathroom time over a 10-day period. Plus, they have 60 minutes a day in the form of 2 breaks and lunch, so 3 planned opportunities to use the bathroom. As a teacher I only had my one planning period and 20 minute lunch to use the bathroom and there were no extra 60 minutes over 10 days allowed. I had children I couldn't leave, if I had tummy issues or was on my period I was SOL. This is a lot of ado about nothing.
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Then they need to target the bathroom "offenders" instead of making everyone suffer.
I really don't see this policy working out in the long run. They're going to lose good people. Somebody is going to have an accident and sue or report them to the appropriate agency.
This is a Medieval policy. If an older male there develops a prostate problem, what are they going to do fire him?
Where are the unions when you actually need them?
This is a unionized shop, which probably makes it harder to weed out the offenders without a lot of documentation and warnings - thus the need to track who is actually breaking the rules.
What agency would the employees report them to? What they are doing isn't just legal, it's above and beyond what it required. The floating 60 minutes is not required by law like the planned breaks.
What they can't do legally is fire someone because they have a medical condition that can be reasonable accommodated. But if the person doesn't request the accommodation and violates the policy, they can most certainly fire them. If they lose good people because those people find an employer with less strict rules that can use their skills, that's their problem. It's the free market at work.
Some jobs are dependent on people being at their station for long periods of time. You wouldn't want to call 9-1-1 and the dispatcher be away from his desk "dropping the kids off at the pool". Making water faucets isn't as critical as emergency services, but an assembly line manufacturing environment is more likely to need people in place on time than an office environment.
This is a unionized shop, which probably makes it harder to weed out the offenders without a lot of documentation and warnings - thus the need to track who is actually breaking the rules.
Not true. If you read the article and posts in the thread you would know the employees have swipe cards that log them into and out of the bathroom and managers get spread sheets showing how much time is spent in the bathroom for each employee. It would have been very easy to address this with the offenders.
This reminds me of the company that was rewarding their workers for not being fat and took a lot of crap for it. That one didn't work out so well and this one probably won't end well either.
But yes, some people do abuse this in every office. There's a guy here who spends at least 2 hours per day. If someone said something to him he would claim medical issues that cause this (he's about 350lbs).
The company in this article has limited bathroom time to six minutes a day and has decided to reward people with gift cards if they don't take any bathroom breaks at all during work time.
This sounds like something you would read on the Onion. How happy will they be when people start developing health issues because they're not going to the bathroom when they need to?
This seems to be a trend lately. Instead of addressing the employees that are the real problem, management implements a new rule for everyone. It's ridiculous. They need to grow a spine and deal with problems head on instead of doing stupid things like this.
I hope every employee gets a doctors note saying the employee must be allowed to go to the bathroom when they need to go to the bathroom, but you know that won't happen because people will want to get those gift cards.
what's the show where the CEO goes in disguise to do all the jobs in the company? Well, Waste Management was an episode, and the CEO went on a garbage truck route. He was shocked to see the female driver taking bathroom breaks into a bottle that she kept on the truck, because they're not allowed to stop for a break.
It's amazing to me how those of us who works in spreadsheets all day figuring out ways to shave a penny per transaction her or there, or seconds per transaction here or there, completely forget that those numbers in the spreadsheet ultimately have human beings behind them somewhere.
so some "team" figured out that not allowing bathroom breaks would save X minutes per day on the garbage truck route, which means they can cover a few more houses, which means maybe a few less trucks doing routes in each town, etc. etc.
Not realizing the horrible work situation they've created...How do they completely forget about the people?
It's easy enough to figure out who's abusing bathroom breaks in a factory...this is a perfect example of how the spreadsheet people make a decision not thinking about the human aspect of it.
And i get it - because i'm in a job currently where i'm one of those spreadsheet people.
I think the difference we're seeing is the difference between management/office employees who are, to some extent, responsible for their own time management and line employees in manufacturing.
I worked in both capacities in industry many years ago and the line employees were very proscribed in what they could do, 1/2 hour lunch and a 10 minute break on either side of that. Other than that you couldn't leave your work station unless you were about to die (not literally, although we did have a couple guys who died at work now that I think about it). And we had to clock in and out for both lunch and the breaks (although they were part of the paid day). This was 40 years ago.
As OldHag mentioned, teachers can't leave the classroom and have only the usually short lunch or Planning to take care of personal needs. The procedure, if during class time, is to call the office and they will send someone. If they can find a teacher on Planning to go. Or if one of the VPs can pull themselves away from on-line Solitaire or their various sports brackets. Or not.
The thing I'm struggling with is, what kind of culture has nobody at the top saying this isn't a good idea? If they had thought this through they probably wouldn't have done this. Nobody needs this kind of press and now that the union is involved it creates a whole new issue for them.
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