Workplace Nightmares·
UNPAID BREAKS AT WORK
An Ontario worker discovers their pay is docked for every bathroom, smoke, and cooling off break, triggering a battle over unfair deductions and mounting paperwork.
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A 23-year-old worker in Ontario thought the problem was a payroll mistake. Then the answer came back: every bathroom break, every smoke break, and even time spent cooling off after feeling overheated had been deducted from their pay.
The poster, a first-time Reddit user, noticed that the hours on their paystub did not match the hours they believed they had worked over the last two weeks. After running the numbers, they said they were shorted 3 hours and 40 minutes of pay, even after they accounted for regular breaks and time they said they had to subtract for panic attacks at work.
They contacted a supervisor with documentation and proof of the discrepancy. The response was not a correction. It was a list of what counted as unpaid time.
According to the explanation they received, they were supposed to log every single "break," including bathroom visits, smoke breaks, and time spent recovering from a heat exhaustion episode. The worker said they already deal with anxiety and panic attacks, and that they have documentation from a practitioner saying they need extra breaks when those attacks happen.
That note, they said, was rejected as "too vague."
Work reportedly asked for a functional cognitive abilities form instead.
The problem did not stop there. The poster said they also struggle with heat in the summer because of a medication side effect. When they told their operations manager they needed to cool down and asked to sit in their car with the air conditioning on, they were told they could not go to the car. They had to stay in the office instead, and they said they nearly passed out.
Now, they said, the company is keeping even tighter tabs on them. They have been told to write down everything they do, when they do it, and how long each task takes because they are considered "inefficient."
The worker says they have copies of the emails, their work logs, and written records of what has been said. They also say they are now asking for written confirmation after every verbal conversation, so there is a paper trail.
In their post, they asked whether anything can be done and said they were worried this could be discrimination tied to mental and physical health conditions.
Their post ended with a blunt plea: "I'm not sure what to do." "TIA!" they wrote, alongside "Location: Ontario, Canada."