Thirsty passive aggression

I did an extra midwife shift today on the day unit. Several laminated signs have appeared in our small department, since I was last here. Apparently a patients partner, complained to a senior manager that he/she had seen staff drinking tea/coffee, I an area where patients could see.

In practice this (drinking tea/coffee) is normally done discretely because NHS staff generally don't have time to go to the canteen (miles away) for a 10 minute break. A drink is often forgotten about and left to go cold too. Hence workers end up dehydrated, get headaches and at the worse UTI's.

Instead of these passive aggressive laminated instructions plastered everywhere, would it not have been more pertinent for management to speak to staff about the issue? Cleary not.....it probably took more effort to make the laminated signs than it would have to send an email or speak to us.

One of our consultants has taken the matter further and is sticking up for us.