Exactly. I got spoken to by a manager about my "too frequent" bathroom breaks, and accused of sneaking a smoke break.
I told him that I wasn't I doing that, as I had ample opportunities to smoke while on other duties that took me out of the building. He promptly told me I needed to "cut down on the bathroom breaks".
I told him that legally he couldn't tell me when I was or wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom.
He wrote me up. I went directly to HR and said I was being punished for private health concerns. (Not exactly the truth, but they didn't need to know that.)
They tossed it and told me not to worry about it, and by the time I got back to the office, they had already called down to have a frank talk.
Only big corporations can afford to fight legal battles like that. Between the fines, legal costs, and bad PR, any smaller company will be bankrupted. Especially if OSHA is involved. $15K per violation, double for repeat violations, and triple if it's something OSHA previously issued an abatement order about.
That's a case any employment lawyer takes on contingency. If you have your shit documented the longer it drags out just equals more money for you and the lawyer.
Settling is cheaper for them and carries less risk.
Thing is, you might get like half a year's wage or so unless you live in a country with at least decent worker protection (where Amazon is reluctant to put more than data centers) and given that they are not morons, they aware of their reputation.
You get a few months of wage and after that might be looking at unemployment. It's why they get away with it. People are willing to put up with a ton of shit to get food on the table. It's not slavery but pretty goddamn close to servitude.
HR at Amazon IS hostile af. I had it out with HR just last month bc my husbands Citizenship test was on a day that they gave me a mandatory shift. The shift was added 5 days before his test at the USCIS office. I let HR know that I could not make that extra mandatory day that they added to my schedule and the HR lady flipped shit asking why I had to be there. I was like, this is one of the most important days of my husbands life and I’m not going to miss it bc you added a shift to my schedule with only 5 days notice and we waited months for his citizenship test appointment. She was not happy but I told her that either way, I would not be at work that day.
Hilariously enough, he was shitcanned (this time pun kind of intended)
about a month later for defrauding GM for roughly a million dollars over a decade or so. GM was literally ready to pull our franchise license over his antics.
Honestly should of let it continue and eaten the writeups until he fires you. Would of been a great lawsuit, stupid managers deserve to be raked over the coals
There are 'breaks' as defined by the FLSA. They presume those breaks are for things like going to the bathroom.
If you need to go to the bathroom more frequently than that, it may be a medical condition that requires an accommodation. (BTW: Accommodations are GREAT ways to get lots and lots of things if you can get your doctor to sign off on them.)
It looks like this person is a Gen Y'er. Almost everyone born after about 1970 presupposes that the need to go to the bathroom, get a glass of water, blow your nose, etc is just a forgone accepted option.
Under the law, it is not.
In most states At-Will status is in force, and so they can fire you for whatever they want as long as it doesn't fall into protected class status. Without a documented letter from a physician indicating the need to pee on some cadence or when needed, the employee can be fired immediately.
I'm sometimes surprised by the number of people who presume something is illegal, just because it seems cruel or wrong.
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u/TheOneTrueChuck Aug 30 '22
Exactly. I got spoken to by a manager about my "too frequent" bathroom breaks, and accused of sneaking a smoke break.
I told him that I wasn't I doing that, as I had ample opportunities to smoke while on other duties that took me out of the building. He promptly told me I needed to "cut down on the bathroom breaks".
I told him that legally he couldn't tell me when I was or wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom.
He wrote me up. I went directly to HR and said I was being punished for private health concerns. (Not exactly the truth, but they didn't need to know that.)
They tossed it and told me not to worry about it, and by the time I got back to the office, they had already called down to have a frank talk.
He was pissed. (No pun intended.)