MICROMANAGEMENT FILES #001 - “We’re not allowed to go to the bathroom during the first and last hour.”

No breaks during the first hour of work.
No breaks during the last hour of work.

An informal rule. The official reason: “operational stability.”

I work in administration. Excel, emails, calls. Nothing that’s going to collapse if someone disappears for four minutes. But at 8:32, you don’t get up. At 15:10, you don’t either.

No one says it outright: “It’s forbidden.”
You just get reminded that breaks are noticed.

During the first hour, you have to prove you’re there.
During the last hour, you have to prove you’re still there.

Once, a colleague got a comment that they “often” take breaks near the end of the shift.
Often = twice a week.

I started planning my water intake.
No coffee before 9. After 2 p.m., I reduce fluids. There’s an internal math of endurance.

At one point, I looked at the clock and thought: “12 more minutes until the allowed time.”

That’s when you realize the problem isn’t the bathroom.

The problem is the idea that productivity depends on physical immobility. As if presence equals value.

When someone disappears for five minutes, nothing falls apart.
But the feeling of being measured — that stays.

If the system is threatened by an employee going to the bathroom at 8:32, the problem isn’t the employee.

— Administrative employee, 29