This latest one comes courtesy of a (former) receptionist (and if she gets her way, soon to be millionaire) by the name of Rebecca Landrith. Landrith alleges that she pee-peed in her pants on multiple occasions because her former employer, Littler Mendelson, in her words “had no consistent policy or procedure as to when or how [she] could take a restroom break.”
Seriously, is this really a lawsuit? Call me crazy, but I think the vast, vast majority of us all learned how to go potty before we learned to read. And the first rule of going number one and/or number two is that you never hold it in. The second is to try and not miss the pot.I was going to put a link in that last sentence to highlight my point, but according to my editor and the company’s lawyers that apparently would not have been a good idea and would’ve probably required me to write an additional apology posting. So since I’m too lazy to write more than I have to, I decided to let that battle go. But to all you suits-and-ties in the legal department don’t think I’ll always be that easy!
Anyway, I went off on a tangent again, which apparently I also must have to curb. Back to the subject at hand.
Now some of you might think I’m being harsh here, especially those who were or currently are on an administrative staff for a law firm. Having been a former assistant at a big corporate law firm I know the difficulties of working behind the scenes, so to speak. The hours are long, the work is mindlessly boring, and worst of all your efforts often go unnoticed and un-thanked. And when the work gets really busy, you can sometimes feel like you don’t have a moment to spare. Furthermore, the double-edge of that last unnoticed/un-thanked sword is that usually as soon as you slow down or stop working, you’ll usually find yourself on the receiving end of a supervisor and/or partner’s verbal tirade.
However, as true as all of what I said is, in the end, regardless of how stressful your work is or how little time you have to do it, there is no reason why anyone, especially an adult, should not know that when they have to go, they have to go. Would you really sit there and wet your pants if you knew there was a bathroom somewhere on your floor and that you had access to it? Chances are that unless you’re working in some sweatshop you probably know that you can use the bathroom without the fear that your manager is going to fire or beat you.
One last note about Landrith: if I pissed my pants in front of all my colleagues I’d be pretty embarrassed, too. But I don’t know if I’d have the guts to demand someone pay me $1.59 million for doing it.
http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2009/09/09/crazy-lawsuits-pee-your-pants-for-1-59-million/
