6.31 hours of bathroom breaks.... how can we control this if at all?

Hello Community!!!

Within our call centre we have an employee who takes excessive bathroom breaks (up to one hour per day) and over the fortnight equals 6.31 hours of working time. I know we cannot control bodily functions, however they appear to come back from designated rostered breaks and then go to the bathroom. I am aware that this employee is also on some anexity medication, but surely it could not effect him to such a capacity.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to approach this situation without seeming to be controlling?

Look forward to your responses.

Thanks

6.31 hours sounds like a lot, but if we break it down, it's 3.155 hours per week, or a little over half an hour a day, for a five day week.

There are many medical reasons people may need to go to the toilet frequently (to urinate), so you're going to need to be very careful how you handle this.

In addition to things like diabetes or enlarged prostate, there's even a condition called "overactive bladder syndrome". There are medications that can cause frequent urination, or he may simply be drinking too much liquid, and/or liquids contain caffeine.

We are of course assuming that his visits to the toilet are always to urinate. Maybe it's not, maybe he has irritable bowel syndrome. That can easily take a hour out of your day.


Can I ask how you know to such a precise figure, how much time this person is spending on bathroom breaks?

And have you measured it for more than one fortnight?

Is the figure of 6.31 hours over and above the norm for other staff?

If not, then what is the norm for other staff?

Hi Moz

within the call centre we have a button that on the employee phones that they select when going to the bathroom - this removes them from the queues avoiding calls to be directed to them... simliar to a make set busy button... we can pull the report stats from the system which breaks it down into the reasons they were not taking calls... IE Bathroom Break.

I agree that there are many other reasons to be going to the bathroom, rather than just to urinate, but over the course of the last 3 months we have seen this average around 6 -7 hours per fortnight, which when compared to other staff at 1.5 hours per fortnight is a significant difference.

I know that approaching this with teh employee will be a sensitive issue, but believe a discussion around it needs to be done..... as his overall performance is starting to suffer..

Wow, that's quite a difference. I think you're right, a conversation needs to be had. Perhaps on the pretext of concern for the employee's health.

BUT I should point out that I do not have any specific expertise in this area and I would suggest you get more opinions or even formal advice before doing anything.

You mentioned anxiety - could be he goes to the bathroom to get away from it all and calm himself? Do you carry out any regular medical assessments of call centre staff to check they are all travelling ok in the job? Working in a call centre is a pretty high pressure environment and not for everyone so possibility exists this is a guy not suited to this job and it could be adding to his anxiety.

I'd be worried that the job is contributing to his anxiety and if it goes on/gets worse, possibility exists for a workers compensation claim. Agree you need to be careful in your approach. After all, he is entitled to his privacy so whoever handles the chat with him needs to be a sensitive person who doesn't add to the pressure. Let's face it, knowing that the company is timing one's bathroom visits could freak out the best of us! If you have a Medical Centre you use, why not see if they have a psychologist you can have a chat with before talking to the employee - it might be you can get some tips on how best to deal with the issue. But I too agree, concern for his welfare should be top of your list.

Finally, if his performance is not up to par, I would deal with that (as you would with any drop in performance) and perhaps that can be your lead in to address the excessive bathroom visits.

Tiger