Chicago company monitors bathroom breaks: more than 6 minutes a day and you're penalized

a reply to: Liquesence

Interesting, I wonder what people that are on blood pressure pills with diuretics can do in this company when it comes to their need to go to the bathroom.

bladder control problems seem to be a natural process of aging,
heck, my supervisor wouldn't have been able to pass with this policy!
maybe this company has all younger employees,
maybe it's just a sly way of dumping the older (more likely to be union, wouldn't they be) higher paid workers for those nice new immigrant workers that our country finds the need to provide a home for....

www.parentgiving.com...

www.washingtonexaminer.com...

the more saturated the workforce becomes with willing desperate employees that really don't care how much they earn because the dear gov't will see to it that they at least have a roof over their head and food on the table, the more controlling the employers will try to be.

We had a supervisor whom though workers were taking to much time is the rest room and thought it would be a good idea to "look in"on what they were doing in the stalls
Need less to say after a few sexual harassment complaints were filed .He was looking for a new job.
Yes union shop (auto workers)

No one caught the real reason for them stopping bathroom breaks.

The clue was in their bathroom policies "avoid malicious gossip about the company"

The bathroom was being used as the union meeting room- so it was their stupid attempt to stop unions.

Pretty stupid company - so many lawsuits are going to come from this one: workers comp (bladder infections from holding it), (age discrimination - older workers and women go more) and of course plain old discrimination for the MANY people with IBS or other colon disorders. I would guess if a worker had an accident they could even sue for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

originally posted by: hounddoghowlie
i guess no added up the numbers,

we'll use what the the union says is lowest pay given, $11 a hour, the company said in may they lost 120 hours due to piss breaks.
$11.00 120 = $1320 a month,$1320x12= $15,840 a year.
now i'm assuming that's just time in the head, not the time it takes to walk to the head or stop and start your station,i don't know how big the plant is and don't know what required in stopping or starting equipment packing or what ever. that time could add up.

now the union says there are 80 employees that work at one company. again taking just head time, if 80 people take 60 mins each inside one 10 day work period 80employeesx60 minutes=4800minutes or 80hrs per 10 day work period, or 160 hrs a month figuring 20days a month of production.

again using the unions lowest pay, 160x$11=$1760, $1760x12=$21,120. as i said i assume that this is just time in the head and not every bit of time involved in going to and from.

Your logic is starting to creep into the assumption that all 80 people will be taking more than those 6 minutes.

True, if they ALL did it EVERY DAY that certainly is a lot of lost productivity.

What I'm wondering is, has the so-called extended bathroom breaks actually harmed the company? Are these people going to bathroom really hurting and preventing optimal production or is this simply a "numbers" issue, such as your post is making it.

I mean, by "looking at the numbers" it might seem "Holy Crap! That's a lot of lost productivity," but are there significantly less products actually being produced that is negatively affecting the company? That's a valid question.

a reply to: Liquesence

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but I have been noticing how over the edge employers have gotten about their expectations of their employees, I am a Journeyman Machine repairman in a fairly large unionized company, and their polices are rediculous. They have forced overtime because they are running so thin on manpower. You are given 6 attendance points in 6 months and no sick or personal time. They can contact you up to 1 minute before the end of your shift and force you to work another 4 hours and if you refuse its 1/2 point and this forcing happens all the time. it dosent matter how much overtime you work the points don't disappear for 6 months from the date of the infraction. you get a whole point if you leave less than 6 hours in to your shift. The problem with this is we have very good people with 600 or more hours overtime in a year that attendance problems. I could go on but my point is employers are expecting way too much from the employees. Don't get me wrong, I believe in hard work and dedication to a company, and I get paid well, but We just cant live there and enjoy a life outside of work.
Thanks Ed

originally posted by: Leonidas
To be fair, more than six minutes a day in the john means you need to adjust your fiber intake. Seriously.

And who gets the fun job of putting a stopwatch on his co-workers...jobs?

What a horrible way to treat your employees.

Not necessarily. A healthy diet and one has to 10-2 once a day; i rarely see a 10-2 last 5 minutes or less, and a good one last at least 10.

What if you have an upset stomach, or ate something that is giving you diarrhea, if you're staying properly hydrated, etc.

I work 12-15 hours a day, and I use the restroom at least once every hour or two. I don't have a small bladder, and I'm not playing on my phone in there. I'm drinking—er, hydrating—regularly through the day.

originally posted by: Kangaruex4Ewe
Make them check their cellphones at the door and those breaks would dry up pretty fast IMO. If there is nothing to do in there but use it and leave most folks would be in and out a lot faster. Instead we have people that like to text on their phones, play a bit of candy crush. Etc. and ruins it for everyone else same as always.

Teamsters playing Candy Crush in the bathroom, lol, Iove the imagery.

That said, if the issue is people playing on their phones, then that is what the company should address, not affecting everyone going to the bathroom, as you mentioned.

If it's that big of an issue, then as another suggested, they should check their phones at the bathroom, or better yet, keep their phones in a locker before they even hit the production line, or whatever. That sounds like a much better policy.

originally posted by: dawnstar
bladder control problems seem to be a natural process of aging,
heck, my supervisor wouldn't have been able to pass with this policy!
maybe this company has all younger employees,
maybe it's just a sly way of dumping the older (more likely to be union, wouldn't they be) higher paid workers for those nice new immigrant workers that our country finds the need to provide a home for....

www.parentgiving.com...

www.washingtonexaminer.com...

the more saturated the workforce becomes with willing desperate employees that really don't care how much they earn because the dear gov't will see to it that they at least have a roof over their head and food on the table, the more controlling the employers will try to be.

Very valid points.


I hadn't considered those yet.

originally posted by: johnb
a reply to: HeroicWrath

There used to be a joke email that did the rounds about this back in the early 90's, so my question is this real or just that email doing the rounds again?

Having lived in a way I'd say this one is pretty much real. Although not as bad as it was for this person.

originally posted by: Ultralight
a reply to: Liquesence

you don't spend more than 6 minutes TOTAL per day?

They get 6 mins PLUS breaks, as I understand it? I do not agree with this absurd policy.

However, in my office bldg, I see a woman take a 3 minute smoke break every hour . She pretends to take her trash out, get something important from her car, etc ...all just to have a ciggie. I know this because she is chatty about it. Then takes regular breaks and her hour for lunch.



Have to admit, I raised an eyebrow.

Why would you raise an eye? Go join her a screw off as much as possible! STICK IT TO THE MATRIX!!

When are the Proles ever going to stick together!

Back in my distant past when I was working for a temping agency, I was sent to quite a large number of companies all of whom had similar policies to this. When I mentioned it to the agency and asked them not to send me to companies with that policy, the agency I was working for told me, "Well, you're actually paid to work, not to pee."

I left the agency very soon after.

Then a few years later, I got a full time job with another company with the same policy. One night after work, at the bar, I was talking to a middle manager who told me, the policy never used to exist, until people started spending 15 minutes every hour skiving off in the toilets.

It basically comes down to, without such a policy, some people WILL abuse their toilet privileges to skive off and avoid work. So you can't really blame the company when people take the pee in that way (pun intended)

Back in the 40's at the big auto companies they had people called turd watchers. After you used the bathroom you weren't aloud to flush the toilet until someone inspected it to make sure you went. In the 1950's half of the American workforce was unionized today it's less then 6%. Personally I think every work place should be organized giving employees the right to bargain for their wages and benefits.

a reply to: wantsome

The unions became so corrupted and the leadership completely self-serving that they became as big a problem as anything they were designed to combat.

Turns out humans can be a bunch of selfish pricks, regardless of what side of the paycheck you are on.

a reply to: Liquesence

The people I know who used the bathroom the most had medical conditions, and IBS in specific. And yes I'm smart enough to tell who was using it for goofing off on their phone vs. moaning and groaning with medical conditions.

a reply to: wayforward

Everyone I've known with a medical condition had a doctors note, and thus such rules could not be legally applied anyway.

a reply to: Puppylove


yes and when all the employers are paying the employees enough so that they can afford the medical care to begin with and have the note and the gov't actually makes moves to ensure that we all can instead of just passing a law trying to force us to buy overprices, next to worthless insurance...well, I will accept it if an employer ever demands a note from me....
as it is, the employers feel that they can penalize you and threaten to fire you when you call in sick, but if you do try to come in sick and need to use the restroom a little more than usually, they can penalize you and threaten to fire you also.....
and alot of people don't go to the doctors for minor things.....
heck some of us don't even go for the major ones.

what I said about the aging and bladder functions was really pretty much common knowledge in the last shop I worked for....of course it was staffed by alot of aging people, so they knew first hand!

Where I work the smoke breaks are a bigger issue. 15minutes an hour gone smoking is not uncommon so they have banned smoking on the property. My lab has a bathroom with a fan in it so here I am 300 miles away on the beach and my intern text me people are lining up to use it and smoke in it. I told him to shut off the breaker for the fan and put a note on the door it doesn't work. He did that but someone turned the breaker back on. I told him to lock it and shut the door and where the key is. It will not be pretty when I get back

I know a lot of guys that take "breaks" in the restroom. I'll run to the bathroom and see the same shoes under the stall door every freaking time.

I've had managers ask me to go into the bathroom to see if their employees are hiding out in there.

Look, if you're going to play the bathroom hide-and-seek game, use a bathroom on another floor -- mix it up!

originally posted by: dawnstar
bladder control problems seem to be a natural process of aging,
heck, my supervisor wouldn't have been able to pass with this policy!
maybe this company has all younger employees,
maybe it's just a sly way of dumping the older (more likely to be union, wouldn't they be) higher paid workers for those nice new immigrant workers that our country finds the need to provide a home for....

www.parentgiving.com...

www.washingtonexaminer.com...

the more saturated the workforce becomes with willing desperate employees that really don't care how much they earn because the dear gov't will see to it that they at least have a roof over their head and food on the table, the more controlling the employers will try to be.

Yep, I can't tell you how many times I'll be sitting on the john and someone comes into use the urinal and stands there forever and ever trying to pee.

I feel like coughing and simultaneously saying, *Flowmax!*

Or maybe hanging a picture of the medication in the bathroom. Having an enlarged prostate isn't a good thing anyway...