Employees Aren’t Humans; They Don’t Need Water!

My job banned employees from keeping drinks with them. It was for everybody, too: cashiers, back room, stock, floor, etc. But after some of us threatened to call OSHA on them, since we needed access to at least water, they finally said, “Okay, fine. You can all have water, but ONLY water, no other drinks, and especially not soda!” Their concern was that stuff like soda would damage items if spilled, and hey, that part is fair.

My coworker kept bringing Gatorade to the register with her.

Me: “They said water, not Gatorade. They’re going to yell at you for having that.”

Coworker: “Oh, I don’t drink water, so this is fine!”

Needless to say, other people started bringing in soda, Gatorade, and other non-water drinks, so they banned drinks again.

Bosses: “You can get water whenever you want. You just have to keep it in the break room. We’re not breaking OSHA rules.”

However, the front-line manager was insane, so cashiers could never leave to get water. It was a struggle to even escape her to run to the bathroom; she would purposefully try to block you from leaving.

Paired with the fact that the air conditioning system barely worked — plus there was no AC by the registers — we were super dehydrated and cooked alive every summer.