What can I do about this bathroom problem at work?

Post Reply New Topic

I got a new job and basically the place employs hundreds of people, and it's a factory type environment so they want everyone to not leave their post to go to the bathroom unless you are on a break. Which is fine with me, I understand that.

And because it's an assembly line, everyone's break on the same shift is timed, so that everyone has to go at the same time, so the assembly line doesn't fall behind. And that makes sense I am okay with that. So we all have to go on our breaks at the same time, and all have to go to the bathroom at the same time there, which I would normally be okay with and understand.

However, the bathrooms where we work, only have one toilet and urinal, and we have like a 100 people on a shift wanting to use them on breaks, all at the same time. It gets so backed up, that after the break is over, if there are still people needing to use them, the next shift goes on break 15 minutes later, and they have to wait in line for anyone who chooses to stay a little longer from the first break cause they are still in line to use the bathroom, and need to.

It's ridiculous cause it's like 200 employees all times to go at the same time, with a very small bathroom that can only accommodate two people.

The assistant manager stands in between the mens room and the womens room yelling at everyone to hurry up and go, go go, all of you get on the toilet now!, etc.

So we won't be late coming off our breaks.

I just think aside from the cold this is also a major strike I have to deal with at work, and it gets to the point where halfway through the day, I'm tired of holding it in for the line up and really want to go to the bathroom.

Am I complaining too much and this is life?

I wouldn't be surprised if you have sanitation laws against that, I'd report it to your labor department.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Okay thanks. I don't like going over my bosses head and reporting things to outside departments though, especially since it got me into trouble once in a previous job for doing something like that.

Plus this place has been in business for years, if not decades, so if the labor department could do something about it, wouldn't someone have reported it already?

Well I just figured it was legal otherwise someone would have called by now. We have OHS which is like OSHA.

But the last job they screwed us over. Basically someone called them, and they fined the company, and that forced the company to try to make everyone work overtime to make the money back, even firing people who refused to work the overtime.

So I don't like OHS cause they just end up punishing the employees in my previous experience. However, I did some research and first I need to find out how many employees work there on the shifts exactly, to figure this out. How would I find that out?

There might be a way to look at this that sort-of turns it on its head.

Bosses like efficiencies, it's that sort of thing which gets them promoted.

If the company spent a few thousand installing some more toilets, they might recoup that the first time a line hold-up is averted (perhaps?). Then, the rest is profit to the company, and the workers get to feel a bit more human at break time.. classic win-win.

Perhaps the most useful approach is one where you help your boss convince their boss that this is in the best interest of the company.

The Career Tools podcast (highly recommended) has guidance on how to put together a persuasive brief - check it out for free.

Well I'm a new employee who just started, and one of the managers is talking loudly at the employees to hurry up as they are lined up at the bathrooms. I don't know if they are interested in hearing any new ideas from me.

I did some research and according to the labor code, I think they are following all the laws right, but they have found loopholes.

The loopholes being that I think when the labor board made the laws of how many employees per toilets, they did not expect all the employees to shift scheduled, that they would all go on their breaks at exactly the same time, with so many shifts overlapping the way they are.

So I think they are following the laws, but the law cannot do anything about the loopholes, the company operates under.

I wonder what the ratio is between the cost of the employees being late from break, and the cost of renting a few portable outhouses. Bosses love more profit.

Maybe you could talk to employees who've been there a long time & you all can work together to bring it to the bosses attention & come up with a solution.

Well the boss keeps hiring more people, which makes it worse, and I think there is only two things the boss can do. Reconstruct the washrooms to have about a dozen or more toilets, or fire a few hundred of the workers (myself included possibly), and be happier with a much smaller staff, instead of trying to be so ambitious.

Not sure if anything other than these two options will work.

Sounds like a great way to make your personal breed of physically fit employees. Just fire those who are so unprofessional as to be late from breaks or fail to keep their sphincters tight against increasing pressure and fatigue. This way, you encourage them to try to outrun or simply fight one another to get into the bathroom in time. Your average employee will become tougher and tougher, as you keep hiring more people and weeding out those who don’t cut the mustard.

Your motto could be “Come ’ere if you dare—we’ll make you s**t your pants!”

What do you think I should do about it? It's starting to drive me crazy.

Well it's been getting worse since. I feel that a large percentage of the foreign workers feel different about the situation, than the native workers. A lot of the foreign workers there do not take the washroom problem near as seriously, and just make jokes about it, and laugh it off.

I was told by a friend that this makes sense as foreigners are probably more use to more hazardous working conditions in comparison. Do you think that is the case though, as to why it's hard to get a lot of the co-workers to agree with me, on the problem, when most of them are of a different culture that may be more use to things like this?

Do you have difficulty urinating in front of others in the public bathroom?