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Antiwork

“Too much time away from the production line” when I have IBS

This morning my supervisor told us we are “spending too much time away from the production line”, so if we keep doing it he will make us work longer hours on our regular shifts. He says we are welding an “unacceptable” amount of parts. He also said we were returning from break a few minutes late which has to stop. Even though he never tells us how many we're suppose to do, and the estimates the office gives us are never reasonable due to the number of welds and size of panels varying. Standing in one spot all day bent over is draining. Yesterday was our first day back on the production line after about 2 months of not having work and being in different departments. Yet kept picking at us with his shitty comments about us being tired, working slow, and using the restroom. It was giving me anxiety…


This morning my supervisor told us we are “spending too much time away from the production line”, so if we keep doing it he will make us work longer hours on our regular shifts. He says we are welding an “unacceptable” amount of parts. He also said we were returning from break a few minutes late which has to stop.

Even though he never tells us how many we're suppose to do, and the estimates the office gives us are never reasonable due to the number of welds and size of panels varying. Standing in one spot all day bent over is draining. Yesterday was our first day back on the production line after about 2 months of not having work and being in different departments. Yet kept picking at us with his shitty comments about us being tired, working slow, and using the restroom. It was giving me anxiety as I have to use the restroom often and I can't stop it yet he never stops making generalized comments to us about it or tells me comments about my coworkers using the restroom. I'm already anxious as it is but he stresses me out more, it makes me feel like I'm not enough when I try my best but he always has something negative to say. And my other coworkers were tired of his shitty comments so they didn't work any faster yesterday due to his picking.

A person on my line complained about my bathroom usage once before which ended up with HR telling me they're “concerned” that I have a “UTI” and I had to tell them that I am literally missing my gallbladder and I will use the restroom as much as I need to. She told me to “use the bathroom closer to breaks”. Clearly when I have a flair up, I go when I need to go. I have trouble holding my pee for long periods of time too so I often pee every 1.5 to 2 hours. I do attempt to pee before we start working and the end of breaks. My supervisor knows this, it's been like this for years. He knows I ALWAYS use the restroom in the last 5 or so minutes of break (which is 10 minutes then 20 minutes for lunch so barley anytime for an actual break if I have to use it in the bathroom) and that's why I tend to be a couple minutes late, especially since the women's restroom that is closest to us is disgusting, one of the two toliets is usually clogged and there is rarely toliet paper, so sometimes I have to walk across the building to the other restrooms. He knows that too.

SO today I used the bathroom a bit before break and tried to be quick. When break came my stomach was hurting so I decided to go again. It was aching and it kept me in the bathroom for about 3 minutes after break finished. I get back, stomach still aching and I feel sick but I didn't want to take longer because I was anxious about getting in trouble. My supervisor pulls me away from the line 20 minutes later, asks why I was late and shows me the write up he had written out for me. I fucking lose it. I tell him I was in the bathroom. I get upset and start tearing up, I tell him he knows I have stomach issues and he knows I try to use the restoom on my break but I can be a couple minutes late. He tells me “Well how does it look when I tell you guys this morning to stop being late and you're late” and I ask him. “What do you want me to do? What the fuck do you want me to do?? I can't stop it. You fucking know I have stomach issues. Like??” And he tells me he won't write me up because I was in the bathroom. I was upset and couldn't stop crying, I've felt this huge stress from his comments and being pressured to use the bathroom less otherwise we're all forced to work more. He tells me “They've been putting this pressure on me for you guys to work faster, you know, how am I suppose to feel”, I just kept shaking my head. Trying to punish me then taking it back after years of his negative comments toward us. I told him I couldn't deal with this stupid shit today and left for the rest of the day.

I never showed them a doctor's note for my issues but now I'm going to be forced to take time off work to see a doctor and attempt to get an official diagnosis written up just so my asshole management can stop pestering about a problem I thought they understood. It's ridiculous and I feel belittled and humiliated. My mental health has been going down this week, this job always makes it worse no matter how hard I try to keep my life and work separate. I'm definitely getting a doctor's note this time and maybe even try to FMLA. Fuck them. I'm so tired. I've applied for other jobs but the pay is less or the drive to too far. Sometimes I feel like I'm stuck but this potty police with threats is too much.

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