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| We have a situation where specific employees seem to take significantly more restroom breaks, and take noticeably longer to "take care of business". The result has been a backlash by other employees and a degree of resentment towards the offenders as well as the obvious reduction in productivity. Is there anything we can to limit the number of bathroom breaks taken and/or the time alloted for each break - either on a "per visit" or cumulative basis?
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Hm...that's a tricky one...As I like to say: Poop at home, puh-leez! Or I wish I could say that...As usual in HR, it's all complicated...you don't want to know too much b/c you just aren't that interested BUT if they all plead some crazy medical thing well- Ha ha!- you can start to get into some action about it as far as delicately dancing them toward a doctor's note stating they must pee for a minimum of one hour every two hours or whatever. Personally, I always wonder what information I'm NOT getting from the grapevine and if these are my coke people, sort of thing, taking turns doing lines in the bathroom (or am I stuck in the 80's and things have changed?) and the grapevine is nudging me to it. You also have to look at the motives of the resentful-- are the people in the bathroom your big work stars? Once all machiavellian mind trips have been made, you can look at your rest break policies, make sure everyone is getting an even playing field, and have people who claim to have a medical reason start producing doctor's notes (within a reasonable period of time, like 30 to 45 days). You didn't mention your smokers-- are they getting unfair advantage, as well, over the non- bathroom people? Unfortunately, if it's culture, or pregancy, you have to tread lightly. If you don't have enough restrooms to accomodate everyone while they are on break (if people go on break en masse) then it's hard to say you give enough time to everyone to cover their business during the rest break. Some people are just really slow, and maybe they are the ones who actually bother to wash their hands properly! I would be very neutral, trust no one, and get as much information as I can before taking any action. Consulting FMLA guidelines can help you as well, as far as trying to get the bottom of whether they all need a special accomodation or have medical conditions. You may also, as a total tangent, need to school your staff on the topic of diversity management and people can't be judged by their internal standard of perfection. Some people take longer! I always wonder WHAT people want who bring me these things. Am I cynical, or what? You may also want to simply remove any distractions in there, like magazines(YUCK! That only encourages the #2-at-work people) or benches or other appliances that would distract or slow them getting out of there. Even remove the mirror, and put it somewhere else, like in the break room or with their lockers. Totally a long answer to what should be a simple question, but these are usually the most complicated to negotiate-- the people rubbing each other the wrong way problems.
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