Hello, everyone. This is a throwaway account for obvious reasons. I work at a very well-known bank in the US, at one of its call center locations.
Recently, our manager has told us that some people were abusing bathroom breaks and the solution to fix that was tell us that outside of break and lunches, we are only supposed to be on the phones and that they don't pay us to go to the bathroom.
When told about needing to go in between scheduled breaks (which they won't even consider making flexible to begin with), middle management will literally give you “tips” such as sit down on the toilet during your break and don't drink any water during your shift so you won't need to go, which is obviously detrimental to one's health.
When confronted about the possible adverse health effects of this new policy, they act surprised and tell you “gosh, we never said you couldn't go at all…. if you need to go, just go” however, several of my coworkers have followed this guidance for as little as six minutes in one week to find out after that the time has been taken away from their PTO. Just to clarify, if they don't any PTO left, then it will be unpaid AND they will be getting written up/fired over it.
Any advice? This feels borderly inhumane and the situation is very stressful