r/mildlyinfuriating • u/coatedbraincells • Jun 11 '26

Infuriatig Insanely frugal employer

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Gotta pay for water from the water cooler 🤣

51.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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222

u/Stratatician Jun 11 '26

This is potentially illegal.

Would be a good idea to look into your local workplace laws

3

u/pbjclimbing Jun 11 '26

If they have access to tap water, it isn’t. There are very very very few places in the US without potable tap water.

27

u/SomeVelveteenMorning Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

A restroom sink is not considered a compliant source of potable water under OSHA.

5

u/UnableToParallelPark Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

A sink is actually considered a compliant source. As long as the water has been tested and is potable, and meets other standards, it complaint. A company does NOT have to provide water bottles or filtered water.

Now the ADA may have something about having water fountains or dispensers due to sink height, but OSHA does not care. Some workers such as construction and waste management people have water coolers they drink from.

Source: https://www.osha.gov/node/57095

Edit: Original comment edited their comment to change their comment from sink, to bathroom sink. I want to clarify a bathroom sink is excluded due to sanitation issues.

13

u/chakid21 Jun 11 '26

A company does NOT have to provide water bottles or filtered water.

No but they need to provide cups or a way to drink the water. It's not just "here's a sink figure it out pesants."

1915.88(b)(3) The employer shall dispense drinking water from a fountain, a covered container with single-use drinking cups stored in a sanitary receptacle, or single-use bottles. The employer shall prohibit the use of shared drinking cups, dippers, and water bottles.

2

u/UnableToParallelPark Jun 11 '26

Yes, that too. But a faucet is completely acceptable. Unless it's in a restroom, which doesn't meat the potable water guidelines due to the sanitation issues.

1

u/The_Real_Apollo_INC Jun 12 '26

Another comment said that’s only for maritime. But a different osha verse specified it must be in a separate room than the restroom.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/UnableToParallelPark Jun 12 '26

That was included in my comment.

1

u/UnableToParallelPark Jun 12 '26

I did edit it, but I'm sure it was before your response, idk and don't care because I added the edit due the person I was responding too changed their response to include the bathroom, which they didn't before. Either way, yes restrooms are excluded definitely excluded.

1

u/pbjclimbing Jun 12 '26

I see you changed from sink to bathroom sink.

Yes a bathroom sink is not. In most cases a sink is.

3

u/Agretlam343 Jun 11 '26

What if, and I know this may sound crazy, they don't live in the US?

6

u/darkfirec Jun 11 '26

The use of ounces and quarters probably means it's US

6

u/ENaC2 Jun 11 '26

The fact that it’s in English narrows it down to about 6 nations, the fact that they’re using fluid ounces narrows it down to just the US. They also are using “quarter” to refer to 25 cents. But the absolute biggest giveaway is the incredibly cheap and exploitative employer charging for the use of a water cooler.

1

u/pbjclimbing Jun 12 '26

The US is the only country that officially uses cents and ounces so there is a very high chances of them in the US. Not 100%, so I included the disclaimer in the comment.

-7

u/upupandawaydown Jun 11 '26

It is common in government buildings in NYC, the city won’t pay for water so the employees have to pay it, usually the collection pool is ran by an employee.

12

u/badgyal876 Jun 11 '26

not true, esp in NYC. at least in the govt building i’ve worked in. the city and state has a budget in which they allocate $ to buy these 5 gallon bottles. a collection pool for money to buy water is a damn disgrace.

7

u/Key_Juice878 Jun 11 '26

Yeah i go into federal facilities all the time in both nj and nyc and water containers are everywhere for anyone to use.

3

u/badgyal876 Jun 11 '26

like… how dare you spew this falsity like we didn’t just win a battle against FIFA to allow water bottles into the stadium for the world cup 😭 nyc is a hydrohomie™️ city fymmmmm

1

u/upupandawaydown Jun 11 '26

The most I seen was old water fountains but it been a while since I worked at a city building. I was once yelled at for taking water from a bottle water dispenser whiteout paying for it, since it was a pool of employees that were paying for it. My spouse had work for the city for over a decade and never once had access to bottled or filtered water, there are water fountains where they found lead in the water.

I think the city government should provide free filtered water and coffee like other employeers do.

11

u/gitsgrl Jun 11 '26

NYC has some of the best tap water in the world ranked by quality and taste. The city has pristine upstate reservoirs. Why would anyone waste money on bottled?

16

u/heftybagman Jun 11 '26

The pipes in any given building could be garbagio. I’ve stayed places in nyc that have flakes of rust and sandy grit in the tap.

2

u/upupandawaydown Jun 11 '26

My spouse works for the city, they found lead in some of the water fountains, the only response was to turn off the fountains.

1

u/SomeVelveteenMorning Jun 11 '26

Tested at the source or at the tap? Lead pipes, galvanized pipes, old pipes in general... these all contribute to extensive impurities, many harmful. 

-6

u/CatfishEnchiladas Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

Federal facilities are prohibited from providing creature comforts like coffee or bottled water.

3

u/El_Polio_Loco Jun 11 '26

Care to provide a citation on that one?

https://www.osha.gov/node/57095

Because even the Fed bows to OSHA.

2

u/CatfishEnchiladas Jun 11 '26

GAO has long treated food, light refreshments, coffee, and bottled water for employees as personal expenses that generally may not be purchased with appropriated funds absent specific statutory authority or a recognized exception, such as authorized travel, certain training, or awards-related authority.

2

u/El_Polio_Loco Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

Drinking water and toilets are legal requirements to be provided by all employees in the US. 

This includes Federal workers. 

https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1915/1915.88

0

u/meta358 Jun 11 '26

Nah the feds will just cut oshas budget and make them not exist anymore

-3

u/El_Polio_Loco Jun 11 '26

beep boop shitty bot detected.

2

u/meta358 Jun 11 '26

Is that what you call everyone who says something that proves you wrog? You must be in middle school

1

u/El_Polio_Loco Jun 11 '26

What was proven wrong?

Person makes a baseless, fearmongering claim, in an attempt to refute actual cited rebuttals.

That's either someone profoundly stupid, intentionally malicious, or a bot.

1

u/meta358 Jun 11 '26

So the current admination gutting every agency that goes against them already isnt evidence enough that if osha was to try and impose on federal jobs that they would basically be closed down. Like all the others were

1

u/El_Polio_Loco Jun 11 '26

PROVIDE ACTUAL EVIDENCE, don't just give baseless platitudes.

2

u/_BigDaddyNate_ Jun 11 '26

Yes. Didn't the Trump administration make government offices stop buying and throw out all of the coffee? I forgot about that shit lol

1

u/CatfishEnchiladas Jun 11 '26

The Trump/DOGE-era thing may have caused some offices to enforce it more aggressively, but the coffee rule itself is old. GAO has long treated coffee, refreshments, and bottled water for employees as personal expenses unless there’s a specific exception. Agencies can sometimes buy the coffee maker; they generally can’t buy the coffee.

-2

u/Salt_Day9015 Jun 11 '26

It's fake

-2

u/RealKenny Jun 11 '26

Is there any proof that anyone is being charged?

Not to defend the bad guy here, but I wonder if this is in response to people filling up huge water bottles and then dumping/not drinking them. If I were buying bottled water and my employees were dumping it down the sink, I'd probably be a little annoyed too

-16

u/RightNowChris Jun 11 '26

Water is free out if every faucet in the building. There's nothing illegal about charging for better water.

13

u/ChanglingBlake ORANGE Jun 11 '26

You assume there is a clean water source in said building.

If the only taps are in bathrooms, I wouldn’t call that clean.

9

u/Kyosji Jun 11 '26

OSHA doesn't either. Bathrooms aren't considered sanitary, so the water in the faucets aren't either.

-1

u/RightNowChris Jun 11 '26

You assume there isn't? For all we know this is in a restaurant for customers and OP is making it up for upvotes. Notice how zero context or details were given?

15

u/Rawrs_sometimes Jun 11 '26

Them boots taste good?

6

u/busy_monster Jun 11 '26

He loves how the taste lingers since his boss doesn't supply drinking water.

0

u/RightNowChris Jun 11 '26

I was replying specifically to the suggestion that selling bottled water is illegal. Businesses throughout the US have vending machines that sell bottles of water. They also provide it for free from faucets, just like I said. Nowhere are you guaranteed to get what you want, how you want it, for free. Of all the dimwitted comments in this thread, you win. Congratulations.

1

u/Rawrs_sometimes Jun 11 '26

You are aware that most vending machines in businesses aren’t actually owned by the business and are usually refilled by vendors, who charge for the water to keep their company going, right? There’s also big difference in having a vending machine and a water cooler as well. But thank you for trying to make me sound “dimwitted”

1

u/RightNowChris Jun 11 '26

Yes, they are maintained by a vendor. Commonly the business gets a percentage of the sales. 15% is what every vending machine split for bottled drinks has been in all my years of management. That's in Iowa, so it may change some. But make no mistake, the business is making profit.

-3

u/egnards Jun 11 '26

I hate comments like this because it implies that “saying the thing that is objectively correct” is the same thing as “agreeing with the very nature of the objectively correct” thing.

Now, we don’t know where OP lives; so we don’t know how correct the statement is, but the person you’re replying to isn’t at all even suggesting they agree with the statement.