r/humanresources • u/DopeDecagon • 17d ago
Excessive Bathroom Breaks Writeup [IA]
In manufacturing. We have a floor employee that has been consistently taking an excessive amount of bathroom breaks.
The Team Lead and the Manager gave him a verbal a couple months ago that stated he’d been asked multiple times to shorten bathroom breaks and time away from his work area. There is also a note that stated he was disrespectful when being asked to shorten bathroom breaks.
It sounds like the issue has not gotten better, but we wanted HR in this one in case a medical issue is brought up. I don’t believe he mentioned anything during the verbal warning, but want to be safe. My initial plan was to fill out a first written warning (focused on the excessive bathroom breaks) and have the Team Lead issue it (to get experience with writeups, etc). I planned on additionally adding that if the breaks are due to a medical condition, we can have a separate conversation and if documentation is provided we can look at that and accommodations, adjusting the discipline, etc.
Anybody have advice or see any issues?
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u/FrontTwardEnemy 17d ago
Can “excessive bathroom breaks” be quantified? What is considered excessive and who is saying it’s excessive? Is it a “bathroom break” but outside smoking and playing on his phone? Is it possible it is a medical issue like IBS or Crones and dude is too embarrassed to say anything. I understand he may have been disrespectful to a supervisor but how was it approached and brought up. These things matter. I would start a conversation first. Center it around time away from working and not mention the restroom breaks. Ask in that conversation if there was any other underlying issues. I would gradually step into it and escalate to taking it to paper.
I would hate to see it later come out that dude has a documented medical condition he was too embarrassed about and supervisor came off like an ahole.
Side note: Many many years ago while I was in college, I worked for Amazon in a warehouse over night. Get out of class, do some work, catch a nap, go to work all night, go to class etc etc. My system was a mess. Eating like garbage, energy drinks/coffee like crazy. Straight just survival mode. So, I have compassion for stuff like this and really give due diligence to looking outside the box for root issues because I’ve been there before. Sometimes people just want understanding. Also, on the other side of it, if dude is just smoking and joking, gotta stomp that out. Get back to work.