Story Archive

Bladder Control

Lily Prince, 51, had to go. Since she was at work, at the Electrolux factory in St. Cloud, Minn., she asked a supervisor to take over her position so she could go. He didn’t. She asked two more times. “He said he didn’t have time to give me a bathroom break,” Prince said. “I assumed he was totally dismissing me, and wasn’t going to give me a bathroom break. I got panicky and I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t want to pee in my pants at work.” So, 40 minutes after her initial request, she put a plastic liner in a box, took the box over near a trash can, and used the box instead of the restroom. The next day, she was fired. It took Prince 11 months of arbitration to get her job back, and she’s suing for discrimination. Minnesota state law says employers “must allow each employee adequate time from work within each four consecutive hours of work to utilize the nearest convenient restroom.” Electolux says its policy is in compliance, providing a half-hour lunch break and two 10-minute breaks every four hours for restroom use. Anything more frequent, they say, requires medical documentation. (MS/Star Tribune) ...Company policy: specific timing. Human policy: when you gotta go, you gotta go.
Original Publication Date: 23 March 2014
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.

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