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Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

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Re: Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

#3

The idea that non-pregnant people shouldn't also get to use the toilet seems baffling to me. Maybe just let people use it when they need it.

Sounds right. On the flip side there are jobs where random bathroom breaks don't really work.

EG: bus driver.

So I am actually not sure how that works for a pregnat bus driver. Letting her randomly stop the bus at rush hour to pee doesn't seem fair to the commuters. Probably in practice pregnant bus drivers get assigned to a short route or something like that.

I don't know the nature of Amazon warehouse work. It's possible that unscheduled bathroom breaks affect multiple people (eg, I am peeing and you are idle because you depend on me to do your task) - that's the only condition where this feels at all conscionable.

Re: Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

#4

The idea that non-pregnant people shouldn't also get to use the toilet seems baffling to me. Maybe just let people use it when they need it.

Sounds right. On the flip side there are jobs where random bathroom breaks don't really work. EG: bus driver. So I am actually not sure how that works for a pregnat bus driver. Letting her randomly stop the bus at rush hour to pee doesn't seem fair to the commuters. Probably in practice pregnant bus drivers get assigned to a short route or something like that. I don't know the nature of Amazon warehouse work. It's po…

What the fuck?

Edit: Sorry, you're suggesting that it's OK to disallow a bathroom break that would inconvenience customers or cause a fellow employee to be unable to progress? That category of work culture should be unheard of in the USA, but it's leaking in, and if we don't viciously reject it, we might as well start the country over.

If bathroom breaks are frequently causing some kind of unacceptable complication, then the problem isn't the bathroom break, it's the design of the position.

Re: Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

#5

The idea that non-pregnant people shouldn't also get to use the toilet seems baffling to me. Maybe just let people use it when they need it.

Sounds right. On the flip side there are jobs where random bathroom breaks don't really work. EG: bus driver. So I am actually not sure how that works for a pregnat bus driver. Letting her randomly stop the bus at rush hour to pee doesn't seem fair to the commuters. Probably in practice pregnant bus drivers get assigned to a short route or something like that. I don't know the nature of Amazon warehouse work. It's po…

Turns out depending on the metro they already solved that problem.

Just let them piss.

They actually do let bus operators randomly stop the bus at rush hour to pee in some cities. In Ottawa (Ontario), for instance, as long as an operator is within their 5 minute "late standard" window, they can stop and make a quick pee break or Timmy's break as long as they keep the bus in time.

The busses lock down with a PIN when they get out of the seat (generated that morning at the depot) so you can't take it out of neutral anyways to try to steal it.

https://www.michaelsuddard.com/2013/03/oc-transpo-condoned-t...

(Best part is this old blogpost with someone cranky over the stop as well getting shown receipts by OC Transpo that their Tim's wielding bus driver that morning was in fact running on time based on GPS data.)

Re: Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

#6

The idea that non-pregnant people shouldn't also get to use the toilet seems baffling to me. Maybe just let people use it when they need it.

No where is it written here they shouldn't

Not everything needs to be a panacea to cover all edge cases

Legally a specific situation is often required

Imo it is a phony obligation to fragment people via feigned ignorance and willful ignorance, create liquidity of a sort in the litigation market making everyone fight the same fires over and over but that is currently how it works

Re: Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

#8

The idea that non-pregnant people shouldn't also get to use the toilet seems baffling to me. Maybe just let people use it when they need it.

Sounds right. On the flip side there are jobs where random bathroom breaks don't really work. EG: bus driver. So I am actually not sure how that works for a pregnat bus driver. Letting her randomly stop the bus at rush hour to pee doesn't seem fair to the commuters. Probably in practice pregnant bus drivers get assigned to a short route or something like that. I don't know the nature of Amazon warehouse work. It's po…

Both jobs already need to be designed around some expectation for how often people need to use the restroom. If individual exceptions are not feasible, they design the job so that it works for everyone.

Re: Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

#9

The idea that non-pregnant people shouldn't also get to use the toilet seems baffling to me. Maybe just let people use it when they need it.

Sounds right. On the flip side there are jobs where random bathroom breaks don't really work. EG: bus driver. So I am actually not sure how that works for a pregnat bus driver. Letting her randomly stop the bus at rush hour to pee doesn't seem fair to the commuters. Probably in practice pregnant bus drivers get assigned to a short route or something like that. I don't know the nature of Amazon warehouse work. It's po…

You've never been on a bus where the driver had to stop to go use the restroom? There is no prohibition against that.
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