Timing bathroom breaks !!!

yvonne13_2

Bit more of an update:

My friend came round after she finished work and she was in such a state I couldn't belive how she looked never mind what she was telling me.

Basically the manager gets a bonus based on the team, so last week when they had a team brief the manager said he want's everyone to work harder so they can be the best team in the centre and he can get his 4% bonus.
Anyway yesterday he sent an email with the teams stats plus the bathroom breaks to the whole contact centre yet when the other team managers sent their's there was no bathroom breaks included.

A couple of them complained and he said they can raise their issues to HR or the contact center manager as the two ten minute breaks are paid breaks therefore he can do whatever he wants. Plus they get 30 minutes for dinner which isn't paid so they can go then too.

I asked her how long was the bathroom breaks on the email and she said the highest was 12 minutes and lowest was 4 minutes for the whole day. (His argument is that the max is ten minutes per break so the 12 minutes is 2 minutes over) Hey!!!!!

Today she goes in and once again the manager has sent an email saying that he wants them to take the bathroom break's in the two ten minute allocated break's plus get drink's ect and they are not to have any drinks or sweets at the desk anymore. (They usually have a drink and sweets at the desk due to them being on the phone for such a long time).

I asked her how the breaks are decided and she said they get an email each morning from upstairs that tells them what times they have to take breaks and dinner so everyday it's at a different time.

I asked her did she speak to HR/contact center manager and she said HR is on holiday until Monday and the contact centre manager is on her honeymoon until Tuesday.

Due to the managers demands one of her co-workers got sent home after he had a bathroom accident at his desk and the manager was more concerned about him making a mess of the chair saying the chair was expensive and that he had ruined it.
Following this she said when some people went on their afternoon break and never came back causing the manager to have a word with the reast of them when they finished work saying no-one had better phone in on Monday claiming to be sick because there is nothing wrong with them.

I cannot for the life of me comprehend what she has told me, I have never heard of a manager basically intimidating people just so they can get a bonus. I also find it strange that the other team managers have not done this so perhaps it's something he thinks he can implement I don't know but I'm glad I don't work there because I think I would have been sacked on the spot more so when he started going on about the chair on not the welfare of his staff member.

in_the_Cotswolds

I used to work at a large car plant in Swindon on the line and we could go to the toilet no problems. We had to get someone to cover but the team leader knew all the processes and used to cover us.

Pupnik

I wonder, does the list of toilet break times include the manager's own times too? If not I would start recording it and do a reply all with his times. I'd also take to wearing adult nappies and use my allocated 10 minute slot to go and change my nappy, bringing the soiled one back and disposing of it in the manager's waste paper bin.

If I still had a job at that point I would put laxatives in his food/ coffee so he has has toilet issues of his own to deal with.

meer53

I'm logged on to a phone for the whole of my shift. It records what i do and if i'm away from my desk (not what i'm doing whilst i'm away from my desk though !) My bonus is paid dependant on whether i meet the targets i'm set for the amount of time i spend doing certain tasks. My loo breaks/drinks runs are included in the "away" time so it's up to me to make sure that i only take what time is absolutely necessary. If i'm not meeting my targets, my bonus is reduced accordingly.

I agree the OP's friends situation is ridiculous but companies have to monitor how much time their employees spend actually working don't they ? If one employee is abusing the breaks then it usually means that everyone suffers doesn't it ?

Have just finished work tonight at 10.30 pm, started at 5 pm and realised that i haven't been to the loo AT ALL since i started work ! It was a very fast drive home !

yvonne13_2

Pupnik wrote: »

I wonder, does the list of toilet break times include the manager's own times too? If not I would start recording it and do a reply all with his times. I'd also take to wearing adult nappies and use my allocated 10 minute slot to go and change my nappy, bringing the soiled one back and disposing of it in the manager's waste paper bin.

If I still had a job at that point I would put laxatives in his food/ coffee so he has has toilet issues of his own to deal with.

I think you would get the sack for spiking the food tee hee, fun and joke aside though there must be something seriously wrong with that manger as he is the same person that bit into a doughnut last month to find a razor blade waiting for him.

I don't know the full story but no-one deserves that.

Humphrey10

yvonne13 wrote: »

two ten minute breaks

Is this what everyone gets (both men and women)? Women take longer to urinate than men, so giving everyone the same time seems wrong. Plus if you have your period, that takes longer. Plus people with continence pads etc, they need longer too. Giving a blanket 10 mins for everyone seems wrong.

yvonne13_2

Humphrey10 wrote: »

Is this what everyone gets (both men and women)? Women take longer to urinate than men, so giving everyone the same time seems wrong. Plus if you have your period, that takes longer. Plus people with continence pads etc, they need longer too. Giving a blanket 10 mins for everyone seems wrong.

Yes the breaks are the same for everyone.

Mrs_Ryan

I used to have this problem when I worked in a call centre until I told my male manager in minute detail about my gynae problem and also the unpleasant side effects that the tablets I took for it gave me. Nothing more was said

duckandcover

Wow, that's really interesting (and ridiculous!) to hear. I can't believe they'd a) start that kind of policy and b) send out everyone's personal times! If it was things like smoking breaks then that would be a bit more understandable, but not bathroom breaks. I could even understand it if it was breaks for making tea/coffee, although where I work we just...get up and go and make it!

I don't see how places where these kinds of policies are created ever get any work done, as the managers will be focusing on them all day and so will the staff!

debtfreenow

Unbelievable! HE wants the staff to work harder so HE personally can have a little bonus (that 4%). How selfish is that? What's in it for the staff THEMSELVES if they work harder?

Maybe one way to tackle the Misfit Manager is to have everyone in his section put in at once together for a transfer to a different section and hopefully higher management will get the clue and do something about him.

A few people need to find a way to get the message back to management about this 10 minute timing/no extra time for women and, most importantly, how "shock/horror - HOW humiliating for that poor guy having the 'accident' over his chair and I wonder how much it will cost for the FIRM to replace it?". There must be some chance somewhere to get these comments relayed back through the system to higher management (maybe during a lift to work/maybe whilst going up in a lift/sharing a room to eat lunch in/etc). I think it would be useful for higher management to have a barrage of these sort of comments coming back at them from various different people at every possible opportunity, with comments about the "poor employee who was humiliated so much over experiencing the chair episode - how awful for him" predominating.