Truly, i do think it an intentional product of, from my limited perspective, the american education system - we're trained against taking action, and instead to only ever dare to request and maybe potentially receive at the whim of whoever is in authority

Bathroom and hall passes, "dead lines" and due dates, raising hands to speak, etc

Some of it is certainly practical, but, the result is somebody getting mad at another for taking a break because they didnt have corpo-daddy say they could

If you want a break, and know the business's or whoevers you care about's goal wont fail if you did so, then be a free person who controls themselves, and take the break

Yeah, a lot of 'smoke breaks' aren't officially sanctioned by the company. The smokers just take them, and what's the company going to do about it?

I knew a guy at my old workplace who could just take unlimited breaks and thats what he did. They werent super long though. Like 20 or 30 minute breaks every 2 or 3 hours depending on what he felt like.

Felt like I was seeing the twilight zone when I saw him doing that....

Just not downwind of the cancer-stench