The Scarlet Bracelet

by Liz Colville

The head of a Norwegian company recently ordered all female employees to wear a red bracelet, probably not this one, while on their period so that people would understand why they were going to the WC so much. This all came to light when workers’ unions decided to speak out about Norway’s “tyrannical” rules surrounding bathroom use. Norwegian bosses everywhere seem to think bathrooms are to blame for workers’ falling productivity, rather than, say, the Internet, or work being hard, or people being micro-managers, or bosses being bad at being bosses, or it being dark outside all the time. Some of the other bathroom-related offenses include installing CCTV cameras in the loos and having everybody sign a guest book whenever they have to do their thing. Jeez.