How long can you hold it?  A company is limiting their employees bathroom breaks to 6 minutes a day.

As KDVR reported, if you spend more than 6 minutes a day in the bathroom at a company in Chicago, you could face consequences.

That’s what a union contends the Chicago company is pulling: timing bathroom breaks and warning employees when they can’t beat the clock.

The union, Teamsters local 743, filed a complaint with the labor board claiming that the company WaterSaver unfairly disciplined 19 workers in June for “excessive use” of bathrooms.

The company’s human resources department described “excessive use of the bathroom as … 60 minutes or more over the last 10 working days,” according to the affidavit. Do the math and it works out to 6 minutes a day.

6 minutes...

The controversy stems from last winter when WaterSaver decided to install swipe card systems on the bathrooms located off the factory floor.

The company said some employees were spending way too much time in the bathrooms, and not enough time working.

WaterSaver’s CEO, Steve Kersten, said 120 hours of production were lost in May because of bathroom visits outside of allotted break times.

But there is an incentive!  The company adopted a rewards system where workers can earn a gift card of up to $20 each month ($1 a day) if they don’t use the bathroom at all during work time. CEO Kersten said a few workers have already earned them.

How long can you hold it?

What do you think of this policy?  Extreme or necessary?

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