‘I’m NOT asking permission to use my own bathroom’: Woman goes to the bathroom for 5 minutes. Then she gets a message from her boss
This workplace takes the eight-hour workday a bit too literally, to the point where it apparently limits workers' bathroom breaks.
Many workplaces expect you to be at your computer, actively working for hours at a time. They've taken it so far as to monitor employees' computer metrics, like active vs. idle time, what websites they visit, and the applications they use.
An ExpressVPN report found that nearly 80% of employers use monitoring software to track employee performance and online activity, CNBC reported.
And demand has only gone up. In March 2020, searches for employee monitoring software rose by 75%.
And in most places, it's legal as long as the activity monitoring is done on a company-owned device. But employees need to be made aware if this is the case.
But that's not realistic as to what the average workday looks like, whether you work from home or are in an office. Sure, there are days when you're so busy that you barely look away from your computer.
On other occasions, a co-worker might stop by your cubicle to chat about a project (or their weekend), or you end up taking a longer lunch break because the line at your favorite food spot was longer than usual, or you simply get a bit distracted checking Instagram.
In this case, an employee doesn't even feel like her company will let her fulfill a basic necessity in peace.
Bathroom breaks for workers limited?
In a viral video with more than 1.1 million views, work-from-home employee Tiphanie (@tiphaniecakes) shared the strange message she got from a higher-up at work.
"So apparently, at my job, you are only allowed to go in the unavailable mode for 10 minutes a day," Tiphanie said.
In the video, Tiphanie explained that she set her status to unavailable to use the restroom. And when she got back to her computer, she said she arrived at a message from "someone who, I guess, watched everybody's status changes all day."
The person said they noticed Tiphanie was unavailable for more than 10 minutes and asked if she needed assistance, she recalled.
"I felt like that was passive-aggressive because what the [expletive] are you going to help me with anyways? I'm unavailable," Tiphanie pointed out.
She said she started rapidly typing a message back but decided that sometimes no response was the best response.
But then it happened again. Tiphanie said she explained that if she's going to the bathroom and not just peeing, it might take a bit longer.
When she came back to her computer, this time, she said they told her she'd been gone for more than 5 minutes.
Tiphanie said she told the person that she was in the bathroom and didn't need assistance.
She said the person screenshotted her response and seemingly tried to tattle on her. She said they put it in a group chat with Tiphanie's manager.
"I 'liked' it because [expletive], I said what I said," Tiphanie added.
Commenters react
“Are you offering to wipe?” a top comment with more than 29,000 likes read.
"Those micromanaging jobs literally will ruin the whole wfh experience!!" a person said.
"As an ibs girly… it can take up to 30 min if I’m sick," another shared.
"Once I went into detail about my ibs when questioned about my bathroom time. They never asked again," a commenter added.
@tiphaniecakes Bye tf
♬ original sound - Cakes
The Daily Dot reached out to Tiphanie for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message.
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The post ‘I’m NOT asking permission to use my own bathroom’: Woman goes to the bathroom for 5 minutes. Then she gets a message from her boss appeared first on The Daily Dot.