Can my employer share the amount of bathroom time I use with my peers?
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Can my employer share the amount of bathroom time I use with my peers?
I work in a call center where everything is closely tracked, including how often I use “personal” time. “Personal” is the replacement option they have us using instead of putting in “Bathroom” time. All supervisors below the manager state the only reason to use “personal” is for bathroom usage. The manager, in an “effort to stop abuse” has started sending out emails which show how much personal time each member on each team uses to all team members. I’ve asked the manager to stop sending this out, and he has given a generic excuse about it, and continues to send it out.
Asked on January 6, 2012 under Employment Labor Law, New York
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Yes, your employer may do this. It's embarrasing and unprofessional, but the law does not make everything embarrassing and unprofessional illegal. Since the amount of time you spend in the bathroom is actually "public" in the sense that anyone could, presumably, see you entering and leaving, there is no protectable or actionable privacy expectation in it, any more than there is a protectable expectation of privacy in terms of whether you go to the company cafeteria/lunchroom or go offsite to eat.
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