I work at a non-profit major thrift store. During one of our meetings, the store manager was discussing about the use of breaks and bathroom breaks. He said we shouldn’t be using the bathroom unless we are on break. I understand not to just go willy-nilly, but the way he talked about it mad it seem like he would take our breaks away if we used the bathroom in the middle of working. Most of our staff is 50+ years old, you cannot indirectly threaten to take breaks away if somebody needs to take a piss a little more than others.
I live in a “Right-to-Work” state. He said (I’m paraphrasing) “This is a right to work state. It’s not required to give you breaks. You guys need to start using your breaks for the restroom. I don’t want to have to do anything drastic. I understand and emergency is an emergency, but you need to start using your breaks to do your business.” This is bullshit right? It feels like he’s making himself out to be a saint by giving us breaks when it’s the bare-fucking-minimum. There’s other stuff he said that upset me, but this really set me off. How should I go about resolving this issue? Not just for me, but for my other coworkers especially.
Also for a little more context, we aren’t given our first 15 minute break unless our shift is more than 5 hours. And then given a 30 minute lunch and/or another 15 for longer shifts such as 7+ hours.