This shouldn't be allowed & I have ruined my life

[deli00]

I work in a call centre ( currently wfh) 12.5 hours

07.45-20.15 one 30 minute break

Im allowed personal breaks but I'm expected to tell the team when I am going for a wee , poo etc and tell them when I return on teams .

I can't cope with this set up much longer :( my back and hips hurt .

Surely it's not allowed to only have one 30 min break . Also I feel I have ruined my life going into this type of work.

@WitchesGlove That will depend, it is easily possible to have a shift where you don’t take anyone to hospital especially if you’re on a car. Many of the houses we go to you wouldn’t want to use their loo and if you’re job to job using a possibly filthy service station loo is equally impossible. It’s a huge compliment if a paramedic asks if they can use your loo as it means your house is lovely and clean.😀

Can you all agree to call it a confort break? No one needs to be told a colleague is going to the toilet.

Comfort

I trained to work for 111 and couldn’t believe they had timers running for how long people had been in the toilet/away from their desk apparently if you went over a certain time they would have a word with you about time wasting. So I decided it wasn’t for me so I went back to working 12 he night shifts with a 30 min break at a care home until I found something else. I couldn’t stand the thought of sitting down for that long.

It's not the req
Solution but have you thought about a standing desk? IKEA do reasonable ones. You would need to build up to using it gradually.

Poor you. Sounds horrendous. No advice, but feel bad for you.

And why should people know all workplace law anyway

Because they are there nearly every day. And simply, it's for their own benefit to know basics. No one expects people to be well versed in employment law or equality law, but how could someone be so indifferent to their own rights to not know them. I don't get it... Gov couldn't make that information easier to read unless it was in emojis🤷🏻
I would bet that all the people not knowing simples like their break entitlment know their consumer rights ok though...

I think it’s an issue with the culture in the firm, I worked for a well known bank that when we weren’t available to answer a call you had to put your phone on ‘idle’. Then all your ‘idle’ time was calculated across a week and you would be challenged on why you were ‘idle’ for so long.
The irony was ‘idle’ time was the time writing up customer notes of the conversation, so record keeping, carrying out the customers instruction like cancelling their standing order or changing their address etc, so an absolute piss take as you were still working.
Toilet breaks had to be keyed in the phone as
‘idle code 8’ so they calculated over the week how many minutes you had spent on the toilet, and if it was in excess of what was deemed to be acceptable yes you were challenged on it. Awful awful practice.
Get out of there Op, not every firm treats their staff like this.

I work 8.5hrs in a contact centre and we get 2 x 15 and a 30 break
No teams, no explaining (except if you were say in personal for 15 mins)

To add I can stand up, but yes can't move from desk unless on a break due to headset

@Tanfastic

Do you really think people are lying on their bed? Fuck sake maybe I'm doing something wrong

I know for a fact some are. I’ve a friend who wfh in recruitment who comfortably does his job whilst snug as a bug in bed with his mobile and laptop!

@Xenia

I work for myself and on a few days I have been so busy I have had to wee into a glass at my desk whilst on a conference call (not a video call) back in the day.......

Can't begin to imagine the coordination required... nor do I want to, indeed.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

And why should people know all workplace law anyway

Because they are there nearly every day. And simply, it's for their own benefit to know basics. No one expects people to be well versed in employment law or equality law, but how could someone be so indifferent to their own rights to not know them. I don't get it... Gov couldn't make that information easier to read unless it was in emojis🤷🏻
I would bet that all the people not knowing simples like their break entitlment know their consumer rights ok though...

So on the one hand you say they should and on the other hand you say they shouldn't?

Who gets to decide which bits are the bits "everyone" should know then?

Everyone buys stuff, but everyone doesn't know all consumer law. See also banking, education, etc etc.

Call centre work is toss OP, sorry but I started out in them after leaving school around university and it was good at that time in my life but no career.

Can you retrain by going to college/uni?

So on the one hand you say they should and on the other hand you say they shouldn't?

What.
Is it the "they should know basics, but don't have to know all the law (be well versed in it)"?

With that I mean:
People should know their basic rights- breaks, minimum wage applicable, work rest and working hours, contract, wages, being payee or not.
What they don't need to know is:
Case paw, statutes, and bits which don't apply to them. There is no need to know everything into a detail, but not even knowing how long should a break be, is just not bothering.

It's nkt all or nothing

Kind of like how we all know we shouldn't kill someone (most of us keep to it), but most people probably can't explain mens rea and actus reus and talk about case law like Re A or R v Nedrick.

Know the basics, no need to know into depth unless you need it (to get away with murder😁)

My dh worked somewhere once that was 12 hour shift and 1 30 minute break , perfectly lethal because after 6 hours you had your break then 6 hours later you went home.
My dh hated it and left after a few weeks luckily he’d got another job . Funnily enough this company had a high turnover of staff . He still talks about with a shudder 10 years later .
Leave / find something else , health is important.

Legal not lethal

It isn't ideal but I know some people are using their ironing board as a standing desk

That's far too much. You should be regularly getting up away from the screen and stretching every hour, plus proper breaks. So bad for your eyes, too. I'm sure it's not allowed.

It bloody is allowed-it’s awful. Some people have clearly never had to work in a call centre. It’s shit.

@TeachesOfPeaches

It isn't ideal but I know some people are using their ironing board as a standing desk

I did that in the autum. Just for 15 min then back. Friend has the adjustable table but I am too stingy. He presses button and voilà! A standing table😁 yes, envy

@AlwaysLatte

That's far too much. You should be regularly getting up away from the screen and stretching every hour, plus proper breaks. So bad for your eyes, too. I'm sure it's not allowed.

It is allowed. That is a “proper break” in law. What’s more, she is getting more than the legal minimum.