Community Chat

[sidsmom]

It's telling who's in favor of not regulating restroom breaks and those that do. I would venture to say there's a line dividing current/former exempt (salaried) vs non-exempt (hourly) workers. And I would also say there's a line dividing dedicated workers & those that aren't.

Those that are complaining the most probably abuse it the most. Just sayin'.

[Gooday]

I am SO grateful to be retired!

[LilacTree]

On 7/17/2014 Gooday said:

I am SO grateful to be retired!

LOL, Gooday! I also find so many good reasons for saying that!!

[hckynut]

On 7/17/2014 straykatz said:

Should an employer be allowed to limit the amount of time used for bathroom breaks....and my primary question after reading the following article is "Should an employer be allowed to track who goes in and out of the bathroom and how often?"

https://gma.yahoo.com/company-limits-worker-bathroom-6-minutes-day-union-201335976--abc-news-person...

The 2nd to last job I had with AT&T before I retired they had what they called "Time Study" of the jobs. These were done by white collar workers from some department that claimed to want to know what each operator of the machines did with their time.

At that point I had been with the company 26 years and I didn't really care what these people wrote on their sheets. And if they had something to say to me I was/am pretty good at putting someone that is on the offensive on the defensive. Once I did that they usually went on to someone else.

Nothing ever came back to me about how long I took to p or anything else. As long as my machine was running and spitting out product and another operator was taking care and watching over it? I did nothing to help or hinder how much product came out of that machine while I was doing what I was doing. Now I am talking maybe 5-6 minutes not 20-30 minute p breaks.

This to me is nothing new as they did these "Time Studies" on many jobs that I had over the years. The particular job I mention about was right after I took a "triple pay cut" because of the so-called Monopoly ruled by Judge Green in 1984. This job was 99% woman and the ones doing the "time study" were men. I don't think any of them knew how to handle someone that could always be a step ahead of them.

Nothing against the woman for sure, but I found the particular woman that were my co-workers, preferred airing their grievances to me as opposed to these "Time Study Analyst" or to our Supervisor. To me, I didn't care who it was a long as I knew I was not breaking any company rules.

[Lynnj]

On 7/17/2014 straykatz said:

On 7/17/2014 Lynnj said:

On 7/17/2014 straykatz said:

I once had an supervisor (new job - been there less than 1 week) take me aside and tell me that I needed to time my restroom breaks to my official breaktimes.....like I can control exactly what time I need to use the restroom....I went back to my desk...and stewed and stewed and stewed over her words....at lunch time I walked out and never went back.

I think in certain jobs, I could understand the need to time this with breaks. For example in a call center, incoming calls from customers are cycled to representatives automatically. So as soon as a representative hangs up with a customer, and new call is forwarded to them. If the company has many employees away from their desk at the same time, customer wait time to speak with a representative goes up. Call centers usually do a lot of planning to ensure everyone gets the breaks required, yet meeting customer demand. If you add 1-3 more employees who are unplanned away from their desk it can wreck havoc with the whole process, and take hours for the customer wait times to catch up.

Actually I've worked in a couple major call centers both as a CSR and as a manager.....the phone systems used in call centers allows the CSR to put their phone into break/wrap up mode that prevents the next call from coming to their desk and it rolls to the next person available....this allows them to step away when necessary....BUT....most call centers offer big fat bonuses for call quality/amount of calls/talk time per call/etc. so most CSR's make is a point not to move from their desk unless it is breaktime ... not because they can't leave their desk.

Yes, I've worked in and managed call centers also, and I should have been more specific in my post. I wasn't referring to the process of not physically being able to step away from your desk. My post was more about the total percent of staff away from their desk at the same time,,and the impact that has to call volumes at the call centers. So if you have a staff of 50, and 5 are on a scheduled break, but 2-3 others are away from their desk (potty break, or anything else unplanned) then the call center only has 40+ staff available for incoming calls. This makes the wait time of callers on hold waiting to speak to someone grow to a longer length.

[bells4me]

When I was 22 I was an ambulance dispatcher & worked several hours alone at night. I could not leave my post to use the restroom for a 3 hour stretch.

Later I went to work for the public schools, we were union & nothing could be said. Good thing because I had severe problems & eventually had surgery. People have personal health issues so no I don't think they should regulate you. If it gets to the point it interferes with your work it should be taken to the supervisor, then human resources to be handled.

Glad I'm retired too!

[esmerelda]

On 7/17/2014 straykatz said:

On 7/17/2014 nunya said:

Some places now have people put their cell phones in a locker before they clock in.

I can see that happening...cell phone usage has gotten way out of control.....there are people who simply can't survive without constantly talking on their phone to someone or texting all the time....I come from a generation that did not have cell phones in my youth or early phase of my working career so I fail to understand why people are so obsessed/glued to their phones...it affects everything/everyone around them whether they care to admit it or not.

ITA!!

[raven-blackbird]

IF I need to use the facilities.....I need to use the facilities................as for cell phones......with my work I live on one......I have a Galaxy Note......get my email on it.......sketch out my measures on it.......take notes on it.......scan documents on it......it's my palm size office...................................raven

[foundinlv]

If there's 10 stalls and an equal number of sinks.....no problem.

[Sooner]

On 7/17/2014 terrier3 said:

On 7/17/2014 ROMARY said:

Straykatz: I'm often wondering exactly who these people are texting/talking to all day long? Are they texting/talking to folks who actually have a job and are working at their workplace? Or are they talking to millions of unemployed folks? Exactly who has the time to text/talk? I don't know of anyone who wants to spend their entire day on the phone/text/etc. It's been said that the youngsters/tweens/teens will have carpel tunnel type of thumb problems by the time they are adults, which means that they possibly won't be able to work at certain jobs/careers.

Believe it or not, I had a lot of clients who preferred to text over any other form of communication.

I am on my computer because I have a client in Philly who only has time to communicate thru e-mails and we send 50 or more back & forth in a day. He has a lot of questions and likes to get answers in writing.

My best client used to work sometimes until 2AM. She told me that some reps returned her texts at that hour. I told her not to expect that from me...I don't have my phone on when I'm sleeping. She said that some reps tell her they sleep with the phone in bed with them!

SO, all these slackers are in the bathroom texting YOU????? Now we know the root of the problem!