There’s a fairly lengthy list of things out there that are perfectly reasonable, but many managers hate them. Taking vacation days that you’re entitled to has to be pretty high up there; so is taking a rest at acceptable times. However, perhaps one of the worst things that horrible bosses take offense at is how we choose to use our bathroom breaks.

People go to the bathroom at work for all manner of reasons. There is the obvious, with multiple bodily functions to attend to whether you like it or not. It could be that you get upset or overwhelmed for whatever reason, and you need the privacy of the cubicle. Also, there’s the possibility that you just need to get away from things for a little while. It’s only natural to indulge in a bit of skiving now and then. When you work a crappy job, the staff toilet can become a kind of safe haven, a place of respite from the nightmare that awaits outside.

Unfortunately, this is something that supervisors are usually all too aware of, and something that many of them will do everything in their power to prevent. However, it’s not every day that you see them go as far as a sign that was spotted by @JoshuaPotash. Posted outside a workplace bathroom, it warned that any employee who spent more than ten minutes inside would be subject to a «smell test» to ensure they had been pooping and not wasting company time.

Twitter users were understandably taken aback by this nose-related approach to weeding out slackers, with many lamenting the fact that employers felt like they had a right to behave in this way. Still, it didn’t stop some enterprising people from coming up with their own solutions to the problem. When it comes down to it, the worse the working environment is, the more likely people are to abuse their rights.