When The Backroom Becomes The Bathroom

It’s my first day and I am walking the shop floor with a trainer.

Trainer: “So, that’s the tour. Any questions?”

Me: “When are bathroom breaks?”

Trainer: “We don’t really have a policy. Go when you need to as long as a manager knows. Mostly, we try to use the backroom loophole.”

Me: “The backroom loophole?”

Trainer: “Yeah! Guaranteed twice a day you’ll be asked by a customer to check the back, even if you’ve already told them we don’t have s*** in the backroom. We usually just go use the bathroom for five minutes, and then come back and tell them we checked and it’s not in stock.”

Me: “Oh! That’s…”

Trainer: “Keeping the customer always right and the bladder always empty!”

In the five months that I was there, the trainer was right. I got to “check the back” at least twice per shift!