How long can you go without a drink (water)?

[magicfarawaytreestime]

Got a new colleague who is really struggling with our rules at work. No water/drinks at desks
She is really unhappy about it and keeps going out for a drink, I’ve said you do get used to it but I’m not sure if she will!
curious if others would struggle. It’s 2hrs max between breaks

I could go hours, I’m rubbish at drinking enough and it’s not unknown for me to have only had one cup of coffee (first thing) before 5pm , I’m rubbish!

I had a drink with breakfast.
Just started lunch, so will have a drink shortly.
Will drink again when I get home around 5.

So, I guess about 5 hours.

We too have similar rules about areas where food /liquids are allowed. Nothing stopping anyone going to get a drink, but absolutely no drinks in the main working area.

A few hours easily unless it’s very hot or I’m exercising obviously. Two hours wouldn’t occur to me as an issue. I do a 10k run without needing water during it so sitting at a desk for two hours is easy!

I could go all day and have done before but this isn’t a healthy metric to go by. My DH would need one every 30 mins or so or else he’d start to feel pretty ill and get a headache

Then she needs a word with the boss.

It's unprofessional and ridiculous to give staff a break every 2 hours that they wouldn't need, if they had a sports bottle 🤷‍♂️

Peri menopausal means my mouth dries up constantly, literally couldn’t do this.

My DH couldn’t either as he has asthma and needs to sip constantly.

would have been fine for me as a younger woman.

I currently have one cup of tea, one ex cup of tea, a pint of berocca, and a water bottle on my desk... so about 3 mins

I would be able to go that long fine, so long as it wasn’t boiling hot in the work place.

It shows how varied the response is because I do 10ks regularly and would start to slow down without a bottle of water with me.

I only drink after meals, so typically I guess it's 5 hours between drinks.

Don't be ridiculous, it's not 'dangerous' to not have a drink for 2 hours while doing office work.

People will be absolutely fine all day if they had to, not that they do because they have breaks every 2 hours.

They probably banned water bottles because they were sick of the sight of people glugging away at them like babies with sippy cups. A PP calling them 'emotional support water bottles' is spot on.

Like another poster, if I'm not sipping water throughout the day I get a headache and am dehydrated,

Instead of sipping water throughout the day, why not have a proper long drink every couple of hours?

I tend to sip water the entire day. And I still barely manage to drink enough.

there are medical reasons for that in my case btw.

So that rule would probably leave me mildly to fairly dehydrated on a fairly regular basis.
Unless I got up every 20-30 minutes, took a few gulps (which would probably be more comparable to sips than actual gulps…) and then got back to work? I suppose that could work.

A short „water/drink break“ after about 1-2 hours therefore seems very reasonable to me! (Or rather the bare minimum to be perfectly honest. And I’d probably still be quite dehydrated and struggling…)

edit: and some people suffer from „dry mouth“/excessive thirst, which can be caused by medications and health conditions…

I throw up if I drink more than a mouthful at a time (ARFID) so I have to sip constantly through the day. It takes me about 4 hours to finish the average can of soft drink.

I would end up seriously ill working with these restrictions.

Depends how you want to split them but you’re entitled to 1hr 15 mins in 8hrs

Oh the breaks would stay anyway, they’re very generous with breaks and lunch

Because I can’t. I wish I could but that’s simply not possible for me.

I could, and do, go all day. I‘m not a big water drinker and very rarely feel thirsty. I think the more you drink, the more you want.

Personally I could go for 2 hours without fluids.
I understand that spilled fluids can damage electronics, and I don't see what the problem is if you're allowed to leave your desk to get a drink.
People are generally lazy about getting up and walking to a place to get a drink of water, so probably most people wouldn't be bothered by the 2-hour rule.

Probably 12 or so hours

A fair few hours, easily enough. Never really understood the constantly sipping approach.

Most workplaces would just laugh. Of course you can go 2 hours without a drink.

Easily two hours although I get horrible post nasal drip with hayfever at this time of year and often cough, so do like access to a drink. I am old and didn’t grow up with constant water bottles by my side.

I couldn’t cope with this. I easily get through 3 1 litre bottles a day

When I remember to take my water bottle with me I usually leave it in the car. By the time I remember it's to much hassle to go back and get it so probably go 5hrs between ' hydration breaks'.