A company has revealed on Reddit that they have an employee who spends "one day a week" on the toilet.
Taking to the r/smallbusiness subreddit, the person wrote: "We have an employee who is VERY good at his job, but as soon as he gets to work he goes to the toilet and spends about 20 minutes there.
"By the time he's back at his desk and whatnot it's 9:30. Half an hour until he starts. Then he goes again anywhere between 2-3 more times during the day. Each for about 20 minutes.
"The FINAL toilet break is half an hour before he finishes and he basically spends the whole time there."
They added: "Each week he's working for 4 days and on the toilet for 1. We're seriously paying him an extra day to sit and s*** and read his phone."
He explained that for all the employee spends a remarkably long time on the toilet, they do not want to fire him as he's "good guy" who produces work to the required standard.
They added that the company is based in Australia where "strong labor laws" make it "almost impossible to fire him even if we wanted to".
After the post was made, people flocked to the comments section to give their two cents on the unusual situation.
One social media user explained that they had been "that guy" when it came to excessive toilet breaks, and it was because they had a then undiagnosed illness.
A second similarly wrote: "Is he salaried? What do you care if he gets his work done? Entirely possible it's an embarrassing health issue, as well."
A third advised: "If his work is worth more than he is paid, I would just let it go. Sensitive issues like this can turn a good employee into a resentful one."
A fourth wrote: "If he's very good and producing well then is it worth it to even care? If he's missing deadlines etc then bring it up in that context."
However, not everyone was so sympathetic about the situation and another suggested making sure that there was no way for the employee to use his cell phone in the bathroom.
What would you do in this situation? Give the employee the benefit of the doubt or implement a policy to ensure they aren't using bathroom breaks as a chance to slack off? Let us know in the comments!
