No Washroom Breaks at work: Legal?

[getbak]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

All this makes me wonder about how long is too long. How many trips are too many? Is there some sort of secret office protocol I'm not aware of? I've never bothered to care enough to monitor my coworkers trips to the bathroom. Makes me now wonder if this is a thing I've been missing out on.

I'd say that if people start to notice it, it's too much.

I've only ever worked with one person where it was a problem. He would just disappear for hours (literally hours) at a time where no one could find him. He didn't have meetings scheduled and had no reason to be anywhere other than at his desk or talking to the very people who would end up looking for him. He always had a novel at his desk and would wander away with it and come back quite a while later. I don't think anyone ever followed him, but the only explanation we could come up with was that he was taking insanely long toilet breaks.

He eventually got fired because he hardly ever did any work, and the work he did do was awful.

[Jason14h]

I want to know what company has such a serious problem with employees abusing washroom time that they need a policy? can't they just steal time on calgarypuck like everyone else

[calgaryblood]

I would R Kelly on the boss's forehead.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I have a friend who worked at a call desk for Rogers where they monitor how long you're away from your desk. So everytime you left, you had to sign off on your workstation. If he was gone for over a certain amount of time, it flags it in a record log.

That's pretty common at every call centre. It tracks

Time waiting for calls but available.

Time on calls

Time in "wrap up". Finishing up a ticket etc.

Time in release. Logged in but not available.

So if you're wrap or release for prolonged times its flagged. Nothing wrong with that. It's not spying but allows you to monitor efficiency.

[gladaki]

Originally Posted by polak

My girlfriend works in an office and her company just instituted a no bathroom break policy. They are literally only allowed to go to the washroom on their lunch hour. Is this even legal?

What a crappy company. Only reason they can pull this off is the economy out there and they know it. I really want to find out if there is something I can do about this.

I go for coffee meeting with people in between my work schedule.
I really like to know that company name
Its not like they have only one employee

[#-3]

We had a guy who was spending 3-4 hours / day in the stall playing games on his phone. Would give the TP roll a little spin every time someone flushed, because for a while we were turning the lights out of him for fun.

Eventually his supervisor found a different excuse to can him, because he couldn't find a way to bring up the bathroom issue.

[MelBridgeman]

I need to be on my crown every morning at 10:30 - this doesn't work for me

[calumniate]

If you skip breakfast it can work out ok. However I'm told skipping breakfast is bad for you

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

That's pretty common at every call centre. It tracks

Time waiting for calls but available.

Time on calls

Time in "wrap up". Finishing up a ticket etc.

Time in release. Logged in but not available.

So if you're wrap or release for prolonged times its flagged. Nothing wrong with that. It's not spying but allows you to monitor efficiency.

Totally off topic, but that reminds me of when I used to work in the call centre at Shaw and had to have a sit down with supervisors because my calls were "too efficient." These weren't on calls where I had overlooked something and the customers had to call back. I had successfully troubleshooted the issue but apparently I wasn't making enough small talk with the customers. I don't know about anyone else, but when I call for tech support, I don't really want to talk about how my day is going or what the weather is like. I want my problem fixed as quickly as possible.

One of the myriad of reasons I consider Shaw to be one of the worst places I've ever worked.

[Regular_John]

This is one of those "call their bluff" situations, because there's no way the employer comes out looking good.

1) Continue using the bathroom as needed
2) Keep accurate records of every reprimand you receive
3) Get terminated
4) Proceed immediately to the labour board and file a grievance
5) Call up the media and shame the hell out of this employer
6) Profit?

[squiggs96]

I have nothing to add, except I'm typing this during a bathroom break.

[Regulator75]

Drop a deuce on your bosses desk.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I don't know about anyone else, but when I call for tech support, I don't really want to talk about how my day is going or what the weather is like. I want my problem fixed as quickly as possible.

One of the myriad of reasons I consider Shaw to be one of the worst places I've ever worked.

Same thing happened to me with the Bank. I was taking too many calls and responding to quickly. I was one of the leaders in sales and sales referrals but they wanted me to spend more time per call with the people on the line.

[Coach]

I can't imagine being so concerned about my job, even in this market, that I would willingly work for anyone who said I couldn't take bathrooms breaks.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I can't imagine being so concerned about my job, even in this market, that I would willingly work for anyone who said I couldn't take bathrooms breaks.

The joys of being white and male.

*clink!*

[Minnie]

This was attempted at my last place of employment. I just looked at my supervisor when she brought it up and started laughing. Told her to email me the policy and the appropriate legislation backing up their attempt at introducing this. Also told her, if they really wanted to make something of it, then I'd be quite happy to get a note from the doctor telling them I had a verifiable reason to use the washroom as required and then they could deal with that noise too. They tried to introduce a lot of stuff that didn't fly - and it came from their apparent HR "expert." The "expert" would come up with some new and ridiculous policy/idea, and they'd introduce it at a staff meeting and people would just start laughing because so often, it was so out to lunch and just not something they could legally enforce. It's pretty bad when the "peons" are more aware of the legislation than the "expert" was. It was bad. Why that idiot wasn't fired - well, I was going to say that it was beyond me as to why they weren't fired, but the truth of it was that she was IRL best buddies with the director.

[iggy_oi]

How many employees do they have? #TimeToUnionize