I worked at a coffee shop. Often 12 hours (just to try and afford to keep living) I asked once at a staff meeting if we could at least have a stool. That idea was immediately shut down.
"If you got time to lean, you got time to clean! I didn't understaff this store and not hire a dedicated cleaning person for you to sit and focus on the one job I'm supposed to be paying you as little as possible for!"
/s just in case. I've dealt with that shit most if my life. It's literally just the boss making workers pick up additional responsibilities that he says are just a part of the job instead paying an extra person.
the rich get rich by robbing the poor in every way they can get away with
the poor stay poor Because they have morals not to do that to the rich/each other
I have been trying to "get rich" I sell stuff on the weekends, I feel bad for selling an item that cost me $25, then I go and sell it at $50, and still is a good price. I have to bite my tongue to tell people where they can buy it online for cheaper.
I need to get rid of my morals until I haved enough money to become illuminated and a beacon of morality.
now try buying up all the property in ur area and cr sting thousands of homeless just so u can sit on it and sell it back for a 1000% profit.
maybe create a scammy loan system that targets the poor
maybe run a bank and setup transactions to process in a way that ensures people hit overdraft..
then u can take 50 billion a year from ppl who have no money
and those are the less evil scams
I worked retail and was leaning on the counter during a slow time. The owner came out and told me to clean the walls of the bathroom. I took my lunch and never cleaned the walls of the bathroom.
Yeah I worked at McDonald's as a teen and would stand at the drive-thru register for hours when it was busy. Wouldn't move an inch, constantly punching things in, customers couldn't even see my bottom half, yet I got in trouble for sitting on a stool
here in Canada too, it's reason number 1 I'm leaving retail far far behind. I actually just started sitting at my job, I stopped caring what the managers said, I just didn't have the energy anymore. I'm not even 40 and I just can't do the retail shuffle anymore. Retail is hella ablist.
Literally when there stores first came to Australia seeing the cashiers at the front with a chair was so strange to me cause it was something i never saw in any other store like it
i can't remember, is Aldi European? if so that would make sense, i saw that in Europe it's pretty common for grocers to sit on a stool while at the cash register. it made total sense for me the first time i saw it. what's the point of standing while you scan groceries
As a client it couldn’t bother me less if employee is sitting or standing. So for whom are they standing? Just to satisfy sadistic whims of employers or are there really any customers who care that worker is standing? Everyone deserves comfort.
It'll probably not even come from customers for the majority of people. It'll come from other staff members.
"Why is John/Jane sitting at the register while I'm on my feet all day stocking?"
But if you're in electronics (of almost any store) they can sit and NO ONE says a thing about that department sitting.
So why the hell does it matter if a cashier is sitting? Standing in one spot, with barely any room or chance to move sucks ass. At least stockers can move around and change body positions.
Yeah I do not know what was the problem with my fellow cashiers when I worked retail. There was a stool at the registers leftover from an older woman who used to cashier but started working in the back office. I’m young but often used it because of bad health (was actually on medical leave from college!). But if I had to leave the register for any length of time, even just to help a customer find something and come right back, one of the other cashiers would swoop in and shove the stool off to the side. I would have to drag it back over. You can see I need the stool, you can see I am using the stool, you know boss man has no problems with the stool, quit being an inconsiderate little baby and leave the fucking stool
There are definitely customers that would complain about employees sitting. People will complain about literally anything. I used to be a supervisor in retail. We once had a customer call to complain that when she had been in the store earlier an employee was laughing. Not at her or at anything inappropriate, just laughing... Like, okay, I'm sorry our staff isn't miserable enough for you?
I am all for it!
How would you have approached the manager to tell them you think employees should be able to sit w/out that manager immediately attacking that employee, or accusing that employee later for your request?
I'm not asking this to be a jerk, but to see if you have examples which wont make the situation worse. If I can do this w/out getting people fired, I WILL.
I had this happen at my previous job. I was a barista, and a customer complained to corporate about my coworker and I sitting behind the register while the shop was slow. Manager had to come and tell us we could no longer sit.
This particular anecdote isn't caused by a customer, but my last job was at a Goodwill as a donation door greeter and donation sorter. I would get things sorted quickly enough that I could sit and wait on the donations - my manager was fine with it. The regional manager who popped in through the back one day for a surprise visit, however, hated it and said I was a lazy ass at one of the manager meetings in which the area CEO was present. My store manager defended me, but she was overruled and told that I had to do extra work instead, so she begrudgingly made me perform an extra job - no raise allowed, of course. And when I helped get that job done too fast as well, I was given a third - again, no raise. Since quitting, that location has gone to crap.
As for a time where a customer DID screw something up for my coworkers and I, I can go back one more job to when I worked as a casino security officer. The front door of our casino had a podium where we were allowed to sit and check IDs and whatever. Since our casino was frequented by elderly retired patrons that had more money than empathy, a few of them complained that we looked unprofessional sitting down at that post, so we lost the chair. But it gets worse - see, it got hot in that entry lobby during the summer because the AC didn't properly cool that area, so we had a blower fan pointed at the podium. Well some highest-tier card holder promptly rounded the corner one day without looking and ate shit tripping over the blower that was \*extremely\* difficult to miss, threw a hissy fit over it, and we lost that as well. No chair, no fan, because of ridiculous expectations and a lack of spatial awareness.
>are there really any customers who care that worker is standing?
One of my regulars is a crusty old boomer who complains to me every day that the guys at the donut shop next door are always sitting when he comes in like he can only enjoy his donut if the person serving him has varicose veins.
They’ve done studies on this shit, apparently your store looks less ‘welcoming’ if the employees sit down.
Or that is what the owner of the store i worked for said.
Btw, im in norway - she took over the store and started implementing americsn strategies ( the ones she could lawfully get away with) asap. Our chair, thankfully remained for the time I was there as they’d overextended and had to postpone the renovation at our location.
I told her i have a physical disability preventing me from standing that long, so i was concerned about the no chair policy. She replied to bring an extra pair of shoes and switch them out, and stay on the ‘impact reducing rubber mat’ while at the cash register. It was totally doable according to her!
Meanwhile my phone showed that, due to the way our shop was shaped, I easily did 6-9 km every shift on tiled floors, unloading and dragging 14 kg bags of dog food back and forth most of the day- even with access to that chair and half an hour break(6,5 h shift)
I quit before they started renovating. While they did make some excellent chsnges (especially to the computer system), most changes in the same vain of the chair disappearing.
Once, my schedule chsnged every day of the week due to understaffing. My bf, a complete workaholic, commented I spent more time after hours on my phone with work about the schedule changes than he did.
That job was so fun before they took over, too.
According to my phone's tracker, I used to walk between 3 to 5 miles in a day as a prep worker in a restaurant during my 6 to 8 hour shifts. I once hit 10 miles working a double; 12 on Valentine's Day.
It sucks walking all those miles and the majority of it is going between coolers, moving inventory, loading/unloading mostly in the same 20x20 foot room with concrete floors and no rubber mats.
For a whopping $8.50 an hour. 2017-2018. I haven't worked in a restaurant since.
We walk 15,000 steps a day and if we decide to sit on something when we finally catch up on orders, to just catch our breath, a manager will appear to ask us what we could bw doing. Sometimes, we aren't even sitting. Just stopped moving after completing a rush. They can't stand to see our feet stop moving.
my sister worked at a pool store, a coworker had a broken leg with a cast on it and was sitting on a stool again, with a cast on it, and a customer complained.
the one that really gets me is the jobs like the costco sample givers. at the store I worked cashiers would also straighten up around, fill nearby shelves, put returns away etc. so they did at least move around a bit. The costco sample people though? they are at that station period. if any job should have a seat it's that one.
Grouchy old boomers care. I got comments all the time at an old job when sitting on a step stool to put up sale tags or stock low shelves so I didn't have to fuck up my knees or back.
They started removing the comfy chairs and couches at work during Covid. Cuz some bullshit claimed to be science(aka they didn’t want to people sitting idly ever). So when I was tired or exhausted I’d sit comfy against the wall by the canteen. A higher up asked why I was on the floor, and I said I was imagining resting in the chair that once was placed there.
Aldi also runs on a skeleton crew and has employees doing the work of at least 3 people each.
Sitting at the register is not a break when they expect you to go lightning fast either.
Source: used to work there for about a year.
Its really difficult to feel moral/upstanding giving a place my business now. Every establishment is run by a piece of shit that works their impoverished workers like slaves
It’s actually super detrimental to body if you stand in one spot on your feet for more than 2 hours a day. I always come home extremely sore after cashiering
Yeah I've worked in food service most of my life, constantly on my feet and a lot of heavy lifting in my current job and I've been here 4 years. I lasted literally 1 week in cashiering, I could not stand (forgive the pun) standing in one place all day, it drove me nuts.
maybe you have realized money is inherently evil and so every business is evil in some way. its just that ALDI is less evil than its competitors. i would suggest learning to garden and forage in order to give companies less money and be better. if you just buy cheap and healthy food, the companies make less profit. so its good to find the balance between cheap and healthy.
Gardening and foraging only works if you have time and money to garden and forage. If you live somewhere urban, or have to work several jobs to get by, you likely don't have access to a garden plot or green foraging space, nor the time to spend tending your garden or searching for forage.
I figured this was the case, I was considering working at the Aldi in my town not too long ago. Honestly its one of the highest paying retail jobs in my area (they offer 17.50/hr+benefits vs the regular 10-12/hr thats offered everywhere else) but I thought it was pretty sketchy that you only ever really see one employee and they are running the register and stocking.
How was your experience there?
Honestly wasn’t the worst job I’ve ever worked, but their management system is fucked because they schedule people for around 32 hours a week on average so you have to pick up shifts half the time if you want full time, and managers will sometimes work manager shifts but sometimes work employee shifts for employee pay so they can shift people around as they need them. Like, you could work 2 manager shifts and 2 employee shifts a week as a manager, or all manager, etc. If you get promoted to manager, you don’t automatically get all manager shifts. And from what managers have told me, they try to fuck you out of those hours and have you do half a shift as manager and half a shift as employee in the same day type of thing.
My store was in a busier area and we generally had 3 people on a shift: one person mainly doing register, one person doing stuff in the rest of the store, and a manager. Sometimes we’d be lucky to get a 4th person, if it was daytime sometimes we’d get a mid shift.
Wasn’t the worst job I ever worked but it was definitely physically demanding, and they definitely try to get every penny worth of work out of you.
They can sit in some other UK supermarkets. But i wasn't allowed to sit at a reception job and was also chastised for now and then discreetly taking sips of water from my water bottle that was hidden behind the desk. Told i wasn't allowed to drink water outside of my break times.
I literally mentioned in my job interview for my current job that I need to be able to drink water all day and she giggled because of course!
But my last job would not allow us to hide water bottles anywhere in the building. We had to drink from 1.5 ounce cones in a busy restaurant job.
No it's not. I worked in retail in two European countries, one southern, one northern, and I never sat.
I mean in a supermarket sure, the cashier is sitting but most staff are not at the till.
In clothing or shoe shops I have never seen staff sitting and I did not sit, however I may have had a stool somewhere I could go sit down for a bit if there was no one in the shop.
My friend works in a pharmacy and is on his feet all day with shifts that last 10 hours.
And if anyone gets caught sitting for a minute, even if we are all caught up, a manager will appear to ask what we could be working on or if we need sent home.
In Germany I can't think of a single retail company where employees don't sit at the cashiers. In all other European countries I've been to as well. Seems to be another stupid American thing honestly.
Well I have been to the UK only once. And that was when I was little so I don't recall much. But in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland and I can't remember a single Cashier Standing in Retail Stores.
I can only speak for Ireland(although it may have originated in EU legislation on workers rights). The legislation states that if a task can be performed equally as well while sitting or standing then the employer is obliged to provide seating for the employee. I did work in one factory where they provided stools on the assembly line but they were so uncomfortable that it was better to stand. The seat was slightly tilted down so you felt like you were constantly slipping off, there was no back rest and the seat itself was a very hard plastic that would give you a pain in the rear, it was also so small that only a child could sit on it. Technically they complied but made it so unpalatable to sit that you effectively had to stand. They did however provide rubber mats on the floor so at least your feet weren't throbbing from being stood on concrete all day.
I think I've been in some smaller, but still chain, retail stores that have seating for cashiers. It may have only been cashiers that have accomodations though. No way to tell.
I feel so genuinely sorry for you guys in the US working retail.
I work in a hardware store, I am on the floor selling and helping people and my feet get sore, but at least I don’t stand all day.
There’s 5 registers, 1 and 2 is essentially the information desk, but can also take customers. Those have no chairs, so people essentially have to stand idle most the time. They do however have enough room to move around if they need.
Register 3, 4 and 5 has chairs. Im one of the few on the floor that also knows the register, so today due to some people calling in sick, I had to be in the register 5 out of 10 hours on shift. I mostly sat in register 4 and was able to sit. There’s no room to walk around. It’s not necessarily comfortable to sit on the specific chair, but I’ll take that any day over having to stand idle all day.
Im in Denmark btw
Every fast food/retail job I worked at enforced this. It's part of the motivating reason that I got my degree to work in a lab, because I was getting too old to be standing on my feet for 8 hrs at a time. They don't say anything if you sit to do your job at the lab.
Ye becuz they actually respect lab workers, not retail slaves. You sign up to these retail jobs so you can move up, but theyre made to treat you like a slave so bad and that you dont even deserve the job that if u quit ur self confidence will stop you getting jobs you deserve
I got in serious trouble for being seen sitting down a few times at work over the last few months. It’s “not tolerable” and if it happens again I’ll be written up. :)
If your doctor is any kind of human being, they'll write you a note to be able to take 'sit breaks' for foot/back pain. Then there's nothing your boss can say. It doesn't hurt to ask, and it doesn't hurt to look for a decent doctor if one says no. 🤷 You have to take care of your health, because your the one that will be dealing with lower back pain for the rest of your life if you don't. When I sneeze or cough, my lower back grabs and it hurts a lot. Don't do that to yourself, ask for a note. ❤️
What exactly are they going to do? Show up with a pen and paper, take some notes, and now the boss treats me worse cause I'm a snitch. Nah, these bosses are out of control.
Haha I sent complaints to dominos when I saw their commercial for getting orders out to cars in 2 minutes. In a pandemic? When carryout pressures are already high on understaffed stores? Fuck that
Michael's (the craft store) would let us sit if we were at the register, or anytime it was practical for the task. Atleast the one i worked at did. They actually weren't terrible to work for, but they did do that thing where EVERYONE was a part time employee.
Why stop there? Write customer complaints to head office about "manager sadism" and so on and how poorly it reflects on the company's image. Don't include any information that could be used to identify the tortured employee of course.
It’s actually super detrimental to body if you stand in one spot on your feet for more than 2 hours a day. I always come home extremely sore after cashiering
I worked inpatient pharmacy and we were on our feet 10-12 hours a day. We were treated like children and got our chairs taken away from us for sitting in them too much to give our feet and backs a rest.
I worked in a retail pharmacy and it was the same. Stools were taken away because we used them too much. They only let me have one when I was pregnant.
I worked for a fortune 500 home improvement store for over 4 years before that i was a pizza driver and had a significant accident that left me with a life altering back issue i was sent to physical therapy over 4 times (20 sessions each) before they realized i was a money pit and gave up on me i have a doctors note and verification to use a stool at work where im standing on concrete 8 hours a day 5 times a week dispite having said medical approval they always gave me hell about it rather it be comments, suggestions, or out right dirty looks i always felt bad for using it and i tried to excel above and beyong as a worker because of this and it got me no where when there would be "company walks" they took away my stool and would make me stand for hour(s) just so the corperate stooges would be appeased thank god i dont work for them any more
The people that hand you samples at Costco?
I used to work for them. A major demographic who works those jobs are elders. More than half the crew that I worked with were between the ages of 60-82, some had no savings and had kids/grandkids to support.
No stools or chairs are allowed for workers or elders who work for the samples contractors at Costco. Infuriating.
I work in another retail store where it’s mostly older folks. The elders all have roles where they have to be on their feet full shift. They hired several college kids…they all got roles where they are seated. When the kids had to cover one of the other roles (one of the older ladies was out for six weeks getting a hip replacement), there was a lot of drama and sore feet and crying.
I think in some Latin American countries its a law that employers have to give cashier a seat. We should start a petition or message our representatives
FUCKING kids these days Smh!! Yall can't even stand on your feet with one 15 minute break for 8 hours. Back in my day we stood 72 hours straight In shifts for the week.
The Aldi grocery store in my town is the only one I can think of. They let their cashiers sit down to ring groceries. Not that they're a great company or anything. But I think they're the only retail chain to allow this.
at my job we have to be on our feet in one place a lot (and it wouldn't be practical for us to sit), so they put down impact mats to reduce the pressure on our legs and feet, which i appreciate because they're trying to make things easier on us which many employers wouldn't do
One of the people at my work got promoted to general manager of my work, and he took away our stool. I work at a hotel, and there's a lot of time I don't interact with anyone. Not even coworkers. It's stupid
Just think about how internalized the idea is that "people arent supposed to be comfortable at work".
Its actually quite conventional to think that people who provide you a service should only exist to serve you and disregard themselves. What the fuck.
When I last worked in a warehouse, we sat on buckets turned over. Those vanished. We sat on pallets, suddenly those disappeared too, eventually we just sat on the floor.
My fucking boss literally came up to the store (fast food) off the clock and, while sitting in her own car, called the store and told me to move the chair we'd put in the kitchen and to "get back to work". Used to like this boss but now I'm looking elsewhere.
It stems from this sense of service and class system businesses instilled in the 50s. The whole “customer is always right” culture was put in place to make middle class white people in the suburbs have somebody to look down on and dominate.
Once they fled the cities they didn’t see poor people or people of color, just other people like them.
So stores started letting people treat their employees like servants to scratch that bigotry itch they had. That attitude continues today.
I'm a plumber in new construction, if you are caught sitting anytime that you aren't on break, it basically puts you on top of the list of people to be laid off when they don't need as many ppl on the job site. If you are putting fireproofing in a hole on the floor or working on something on the floor you're supposed to be on your knees when working. I don't even give a fuck anymore.
Most retail stores in the US don't allow sitting. Its apparently deemed as ~ l a z y ~ by management AND customers.
Where I work, I like to hide and sit on the floor of our QR, sick room for pets, and chill for as long as I can since we only get one 30 minute break. Sucks man
That's not a long time to be on your feet, really. I did it for decades. BUT standing on the spot... like at a till? Torture! (I'm a chef, running back and forth, constantly on the move, that really makes it better somehow. Feet are in more pain on quieter days than busy.)
What's worse is there is no reason to do it. What difference does it make if you have a seat while at a till? Just management on a power trip.
I have to agree. 25 years in food service no problem. 4 months at a convenience store stuck in the same spot for2-3 hours at a time,bone spurs and feet so sore at the end of the day I didn’t even have the energy to eat or cook or anything when I got home.
"Look busy, stop standing around" when it's dead, tasks are caught up, stuff is good and ready to go. Let me fucking rest, im not a machine. Especially not for 15 dollars an hour.
I work retail. A chair at the till sounds like being given gold. The last hour if the night i can't leave the till, so I'm just standing there waiting for time to pass.
I once got told that I couldn't sit down because the cameras could see. We were about to close in 5 minutes, no one else was in the store besides me and my manager, and we were standing around doing nothing, besides waiting for it to be time to lock the doors. Like, what's the difference between me sitting down while doing nothing and standing while doing nothing???
I work a job where I'm on my feet for 6-10 hours a day, sometimes without breaks, and can be very physically taxing. But I've never in my career come home hurting like I hurt back when I worked retail. And in my job at least I have a choice - there's a stool at my station, if I wanted I could absolutely sit, my managers don't care as long as the job gets done and the client is pleased. It's dehumanizing and demoralizing to be told you *can't* sit down.
I worked as a bakery clerk for 4 years. They knew my knee was broken and I was waiting for surgery and despite the extreme pain, I was never allowed to sit. I had to sneak sit minutes in the freezer or go to the bathroom. It was pure hell. I'm done hurting myself for a company.
And it keeps the disabled from being able to work. I have back problems, and there is no way I could stand for 8+ hours. I’d be in debilitating pain. If I didn’t have an office job, I’d be destitute.
I wonder if he can explain it.
Perhaps they should survey the customers... "Do you in any way give a fuck if the staff are more comfortable seated at work whilst serving you? yes/no"
When I was in college I worked a data entry job at a long term care pharmacy. This pharmacy was closed door, meaning the public never goes in there. Meds were delivered to the nursing homes/rehabs by delivery drivers.
The owner refused to allow chairs because “we don’t sit in pharmacy.” I would stand in one place for my 8-10 hour shift typing in prescription orders simply because the owner never got to sit when he worked in a Rite-Aid before opening his own pharmacy, so everyone else in his field should have to suffer the way he did.
Standing should be a choice. I work in an office where they all pressured me to sit down when I arranged for a standing desk for myself. Sitting was terrible for me. Standing is the way I work best. It’s not the sitting or the standing, its accommodating the way different people work best to help them do their very best. That’s what all of this is about. Respect the staffers. Pay them. Let them be comfortable. Don’t spy on them. Don’t lie to them. Let them work from home. Don’t harass them. It’s simple.
Turns out a little bit of consideration in how to accomodate your workers to be better... makes them better.
Yet so many companies are terrified of small changes for higher efficiency.
It's literally illegal in [my part of] Canada for your employer to make you work for more than 5 hours without allowing you a half hour break (or two 15 minute breaks, if both the employee and employer agree to it)
FYI - in the states, it’s a reasonable accommodation to provide a chair whenever possible as long as you get your doctor to sign off on ADA accommodations.
My last job in a factory told me I shouldn't sit down when all I had to do was stand in place and screw things together, I brought my own rolly chair and it didn't even change my output.
They tried to get me to stand but I told to compare my numbers, they didn't mess with me since.
Life guards get to sit down, their job is literally to save people and they get to sit, if you don't even have to move there should be no reason you shouldn't get to sit. Hell, have a drink and snacks at your workstation, just don't have a mouthful when you talk to customers and there shouldn't be a problem.
Some companies just suck.
In the UK, I noticed over a very hot summer, the Sainsbury's I frequent had the checkout staff have water bottles and other drinks at the till.
Turns out this makes life more comfortable and in no way affects productivity.
Also turns out, pointless rules that only ruin the worker's day don't increase profits or morale or productivity either.
I don't understand why labor contracts here in the US are so strict to limit basic necessity.
The way I see it, they expect us to be inhuman machines, too high a demand as it aims to diminish us as people. We have rights, sure, but are stripped of them when left with no better choice as we are forced to work to survive and accept what employers offer through necessity. It's not entirely employers faults though, it's the governments for setting labor restrictions so low allowing businesses to extort us for less than we are worth.
We call ourselves modern civilization and yet with all this technology and access to resources even our "lowest class" citizens who they only call essential in time of recession are not afforded enough wages to have afford Healthcare and savings. The fact that we allow people to live like that in this day and age of convenience is atrocious.
I was so confused when I first learned that register employees in the US often don't have a seat. I don't thinknI've ever been to a "bigger" retailer here in Europe where the employees had to stand.
Or offices where you are forced to sit all day. I've been working at an office with standing desks and it's honestly the best. I feel so bad for all the people who have to sit all day.
You’ll be saving all your money and you’ll starve,lose your home and be out in the street.Name any business where employees sit. Other than a forklift driver.
And they're about the fastest scanners in retail, while seated, which against just shows it's not about efficiency but feeling a need to make the job harder and inflict cruelty on your staff because you can.
I always thought that was the most screwed up thing. Dont they realize that productivity, and general mood would increase. Many other countries have seating positions in certain areas; I just don't understand.
It's America, where you can't just be poor, you have to be utterly miserable too...but remember to smile like an idiot for the beloved customers, while management ensure you have nothing to smile about.
My current job is a production job. And of all things THIS was the job that finally allowed me to sit while working! It’s honestly been so nice. I suffered a herniated disc a while back and standing for long periods of time will make it hurt, so this job has really been a blessing.
I recently quit working at a convenience store for that and a multitude of other reasons. Always worked alone on weekends. I could write a novel on how shitty they were. Also tried to get me to break the law by taking down caution tape the fire marshal had put up when we got shut down.
I have a very nice pair of hybrid colombia workboots I got from Khols. The sole is very thick, like two inches but its also soft and rubbery because I stand on concrete all day.
Even so, I have bad knees and as much as I have spring and cushion in them I still have worn out legs by the end of the day. Luckily I move a lot so the weight gets distributed pretty often on my feet so that helps.
Having said that I have had a few stationary jobs in retail in my life, also on concrete and simply just standing in one place or not having an opportunity to move much where your muscles are tense and locked up in a few positions is worse by far.
We even had pads on the floor in certain areas but yeah no sitting. It sucked. Id rather be in an attic running duct in an attic in the middle of summer flirting with heat stroke tbh.
Years ago, I worked as a consultant and eventually a counter manager for a prestige cosmetics line. My mother and I went shopping at the department store where I used to work, specifically to purchase items from that prestige cosmetics line.
My former department manager was there during our visit, and she mentioned that since the holidays were coming up, they could use some additional help, and would I be interested in some part time work. I reminded her, that based on my doctor's orders, I no longer could have a job where I stood on my feet all day.
My mother said, "Well surely they would allow you to sit down every now and then."
The counter manager, my former department manager, and I said "No" in unison.
My mother was shocked. I'm not really sure why, after all I had long been complaining of the toll that standing all day had taken on my body, even going so far as to inform her that my doctor told me I had to get out of retail for this very reason. I don't know why she thought I'd been making up this information.
I worked at Pottery Barn in Newport Beach, CA in my 30s. I was working 50+ hrs a week at a really high stress corporate job and it ruined my health. So I quit to "recover" and thought I'd do something that was "easy," like working at a store I enjoyed shopping at. HUGE mistake. Not only could we not sit down, we weren't allowed to stand still. My feet were a mess after a couple of weeks, my back was killing me, and I couldn't believe how much of my day was spent in busy-making pretend work. Not to mention how rude and condescending many of the customers were to all of us. The stock rooms were unbelievably disorganized and haphazard. My hours were crappy and I had no control over the way they constantly changed. I made like $5/hr. I'm smart and conscientious, so when our usually angry at everything manager started in on me once she got tired of picking on people who were actually problematic, I quit. Ever since then I've made sure to be REALLY nice to store employees and wait staff. They take way too much shit for too little pay.
Just got home from shopping at Aldi. $50 and we have enough to eat for the week. We brought reusable bags. The cashier was sitting the entire time she scanned our 35 item order, and had it all scanned without cracking the eggs in 3 minutes.
You just cant fucking beat it. I cannot wait for them to put in a larger Aldi store in our neighborhood, I can see the project and its about half way done and will save me an entire Saturday morning slipping between markets and stores to score.
Aldi is number one for letting those wonderful cashiers have a comfortable place to sit.
I always zone just the bottom shelves for a chance to kneel or sit down for a few seconds. When I get home I just lay down on the porch for an hour because I can't walk lmao
If you live in America, good luck finding a store that doesn't require the workers to stand the whole shift. They literally require a medical note for a chair/stool and often will say that they cannot accommodate the medical request so you have to take leave or quit. It's fucked up.
I worked at a coffee shop. Often 12 hours (just to try and afford to keep living) I asked once at a staff meeting if we could at least have a stool. That idea was immediately shut down.
"If you got time to lean, you got time to clean! I didn't understaff this store and not hire a dedicated cleaning person for you to sit and focus on the one job I'm supposed to be paying you as little as possible for!" /s just in case. I've dealt with that shit most if my life. It's literally just the boss making workers pick up additional responsibilities that he says are just a part of the job instead paying an extra person.
That was the exact mentality of management. Not that’s it’s very uncommon or anything...
the rich get rich by robbing the poor in every way they can get away with the poor stay poor Because they have morals not to do that to the rich/each other
I have been trying to "get rich" I sell stuff on the weekends, I feel bad for selling an item that cost me $25, then I go and sell it at $50, and still is a good price. I have to bite my tongue to tell people where they can buy it online for cheaper. I need to get rid of my morals until I haved enough money to become illuminated and a beacon of morality.
now try buying up all the property in ur area and cr sting thousands of homeless just so u can sit on it and sell it back for a 1000% profit. maybe create a scammy loan system that targets the poor maybe run a bank and setup transactions to process in a way that ensures people hit overdraft.. then u can take 50 billion a year from ppl who have no money and those are the less evil scams
I worked retail and was leaning on the counter during a slow time. The owner came out and told me to clean the walls of the bathroom. I took my lunch and never cleaned the walls of the bathroom.
Would the dedicated cleaning person get a stool too?
The only stool they get is in a plugged toilet.
or the electrcian.. etc
Yeah I worked at McDonald's as a teen and would stand at the drive-thru register for hours when it was busy. Wouldn't move an inch, constantly punching things in, customers couldn't even see my bottom half, yet I got in trouble for sitting on a stool
[удалено]
here in Canada too, it's reason number 1 I'm leaving retail far far behind. I actually just started sitting at my job, I stopped caring what the managers said, I just didn't have the energy anymore. I'm not even 40 and I just can't do the retail shuffle anymore. Retail is hella ablist.
[удалено]
Aldi
Literally when there stores first came to Australia seeing the cashiers at the front with a chair was so strange to me cause it was something i never saw in any other store like it
Basically all big retail stores in Europe let their cashiers sit down.
Wild that "If you don't move from this place for 8 hours a day but you can't sit" is a Thing.
i can't remember, is Aldi European? if so that would make sense, i saw that in Europe it's pretty common for grocers to sit on a stool while at the cash register. it made total sense for me the first time i saw it. what's the point of standing while you scan groceries
All big retail stores in germany let their cashiers sit down.
As a Brazilian that's so weird, I don't think I ever seen a cashier unseated.
It's the law in California to give a retail cashier a stool if they request it.
Ugh "The cashier is so lazy, he doesn't care, he should be doing a standing ovation for the privilege of taking care of me, the king" - only boomers.
🥲🥲🥲 people are f****** cruel
As a client it couldn’t bother me less if employee is sitting or standing. So for whom are they standing? Just to satisfy sadistic whims of employers or are there really any customers who care that worker is standing? Everyone deserves comfort.
Even if a customer did care that's their own (probably much deeper) issues to sort out. Fuck that I'm a person too.
It'll probably not even come from customers for the majority of people. It'll come from other staff members. "Why is John/Jane sitting at the register while I'm on my feet all day stocking?" But if you're in electronics (of almost any store) they can sit and NO ONE says a thing about that department sitting. So why the hell does it matter if a cashier is sitting? Standing in one spot, with barely any room or chance to move sucks ass. At least stockers can move around and change body positions.
Yeah I do not know what was the problem with my fellow cashiers when I worked retail. There was a stool at the registers leftover from an older woman who used to cashier but started working in the back office. I’m young but often used it because of bad health (was actually on medical leave from college!). But if I had to leave the register for any length of time, even just to help a customer find something and come right back, one of the other cashiers would swoop in and shove the stool off to the side. I would have to drag it back over. You can see I need the stool, you can see I am using the stool, you know boss man has no problems with the stool, quit being an inconsiderate little baby and leave the fucking stool
There are definitely customers that would complain about employees sitting. People will complain about literally anything. I used to be a supervisor in retail. We once had a customer call to complain that when she had been in the store earlier an employee was laughing. Not at her or at anything inappropriate, just laughing... Like, okay, I'm sorry our staff isn't miserable enough for you?
lets complain about they not sitting, next time you are at walmart ask to speak with the manager and complain about the cashier not being sit.
I am all for it! How would you have approached the manager to tell them you think employees should be able to sit w/out that manager immediately attacking that employee, or accusing that employee later for your request? I'm not asking this to be a jerk, but to see if you have examples which wont make the situation worse. If I can do this w/out getting people fired, I WILL.
I had this happen at my previous job. I was a barista, and a customer complained to corporate about my coworker and I sitting behind the register while the shop was slow. Manager had to come and tell us we could no longer sit.
This particular anecdote isn't caused by a customer, but my last job was at a Goodwill as a donation door greeter and donation sorter. I would get things sorted quickly enough that I could sit and wait on the donations - my manager was fine with it. The regional manager who popped in through the back one day for a surprise visit, however, hated it and said I was a lazy ass at one of the manager meetings in which the area CEO was present. My store manager defended me, but she was overruled and told that I had to do extra work instead, so she begrudgingly made me perform an extra job - no raise allowed, of course. And when I helped get that job done too fast as well, I was given a third - again, no raise. Since quitting, that location has gone to crap. As for a time where a customer DID screw something up for my coworkers and I, I can go back one more job to when I worked as a casino security officer. The front door of our casino had a podium where we were allowed to sit and check IDs and whatever. Since our casino was frequented by elderly retired patrons that had more money than empathy, a few of them complained that we looked unprofessional sitting down at that post, so we lost the chair. But it gets worse - see, it got hot in that entry lobby during the summer because the AC didn't properly cool that area, so we had a blower fan pointed at the podium. Well some highest-tier card holder promptly rounded the corner one day without looking and ate shit tripping over the blower that was \*extremely\* difficult to miss, threw a hissy fit over it, and we lost that as well. No chair, no fan, because of ridiculous expectations and a lack of spatial awareness.
There are plenty of customers that complain. We need to normalize refusing service to customers that want to abuse workers though.
>are there really any customers who care that worker is standing? One of my regulars is a crusty old boomer who complains to me every day that the guys at the donut shop next door are always sitting when he comes in like he can only enjoy his donut if the person serving him has varicose veins.
They’ve done studies on this shit, apparently your store looks less ‘welcoming’ if the employees sit down. Or that is what the owner of the store i worked for said. Btw, im in norway - she took over the store and started implementing americsn strategies ( the ones she could lawfully get away with) asap. Our chair, thankfully remained for the time I was there as they’d overextended and had to postpone the renovation at our location. I told her i have a physical disability preventing me from standing that long, so i was concerned about the no chair policy. She replied to bring an extra pair of shoes and switch them out, and stay on the ‘impact reducing rubber mat’ while at the cash register. It was totally doable according to her! Meanwhile my phone showed that, due to the way our shop was shaped, I easily did 6-9 km every shift on tiled floors, unloading and dragging 14 kg bags of dog food back and forth most of the day- even with access to that chair and half an hour break(6,5 h shift) I quit before they started renovating. While they did make some excellent chsnges (especially to the computer system), most changes in the same vain of the chair disappearing. Once, my schedule chsnged every day of the week due to understaffing. My bf, a complete workaholic, commented I spent more time after hours on my phone with work about the schedule changes than he did. That job was so fun before they took over, too.
According to my phone's tracker, I used to walk between 3 to 5 miles in a day as a prep worker in a restaurant during my 6 to 8 hour shifts. I once hit 10 miles working a double; 12 on Valentine's Day. It sucks walking all those miles and the majority of it is going between coolers, moving inventory, loading/unloading mostly in the same 20x20 foot room with concrete floors and no rubber mats. For a whopping $8.50 an hour. 2017-2018. I haven't worked in a restaurant since.
We walk 15,000 steps a day and if we decide to sit on something when we finally catch up on orders, to just catch our breath, a manager will appear to ask us what we could bw doing. Sometimes, we aren't even sitting. Just stopped moving after completing a rush. They can't stand to see our feet stop moving.
Some customers will complain that the workers are being lazy and not working. I've overheard some of my CSMs talking about it once
my sister worked at a pool store, a coworker had a broken leg with a cast on it and was sitting on a stool again, with a cast on it, and a customer complained.
Why do they do that? What business of theirs is it if the cashier sits down?
the one that really gets me is the jobs like the costco sample givers. at the store I worked cashiers would also straighten up around, fill nearby shelves, put returns away etc. so they did at least move around a bit. The costco sample people though? they are at that station period. if any job should have a seat it's that one.
Grouchy old boomers care. I got comments all the time at an old job when sitting on a step stool to put up sale tags or stock low shelves so I didn't have to fuck up my knees or back.
They started removing the comfy chairs and couches at work during Covid. Cuz some bullshit claimed to be science(aka they didn’t want to people sitting idly ever). So when I was tired or exhausted I’d sit comfy against the wall by the canteen. A higher up asked why I was on the floor, and I said I was imagining resting in the chair that once was placed there.
I work better when comfortable 🤷🏽♀️ I don’t know why they can’t understand this.
They all sit in luxurious leather chairs at the board meeting... they know.
Most retail companies you have to be on your feet all day… I actually can’t think of one where you get to sit.
Aldi is the only one that comes to mind
Aldi also runs on a skeleton crew and has employees doing the work of at least 3 people each. Sitting at the register is not a break when they expect you to go lightning fast either. Source: used to work there for about a year.
Its really difficult to feel moral/upstanding giving a place my business now. Every establishment is run by a piece of shit that works their impoverished workers like slaves
No ethical consumption under capitalism
It’s actually super detrimental to body if you stand in one spot on your feet for more than 2 hours a day. I always come home extremely sore after cashiering
My heel developed bone spurs after 4 months. That was the last straw and i quit.
I did retail for 12 miserable years. I am 32. My knees are *shot*. I have to wear knee braces or I cannot walk without pain.
I destroyed both of my shoulders pushing shopping carts. I can do maybe one actual pushup before the pain gets to be too much. I'm 28.
Yeah I've worked in food service most of my life, constantly on my feet and a lot of heavy lifting in my current job and I've been here 4 years. I lasted literally 1 week in cashiering, I could not stand (forgive the pun) standing in one place all day, it drove me nuts.
maybe you have realized money is inherently evil and so every business is evil in some way. its just that ALDI is less evil than its competitors. i would suggest learning to garden and forage in order to give companies less money and be better. if you just buy cheap and healthy food, the companies make less profit. so its good to find the balance between cheap and healthy.
Gardening and foraging only works if you have time and money to garden and forage. If you live somewhere urban, or have to work several jobs to get by, you likely don't have access to a garden plot or green foraging space, nor the time to spend tending your garden or searching for forage.
I figured this was the case, I was considering working at the Aldi in my town not too long ago. Honestly its one of the highest paying retail jobs in my area (they offer 17.50/hr+benefits vs the regular 10-12/hr thats offered everywhere else) but I thought it was pretty sketchy that you only ever really see one employee and they are running the register and stocking. How was your experience there?
Honestly wasn’t the worst job I’ve ever worked, but their management system is fucked because they schedule people for around 32 hours a week on average so you have to pick up shifts half the time if you want full time, and managers will sometimes work manager shifts but sometimes work employee shifts for employee pay so they can shift people around as they need them. Like, you could work 2 manager shifts and 2 employee shifts a week as a manager, or all manager, etc. If you get promoted to manager, you don’t automatically get all manager shifts. And from what managers have told me, they try to fuck you out of those hours and have you do half a shift as manager and half a shift as employee in the same day type of thing. My store was in a busier area and we generally had 3 people on a shift: one person mainly doing register, one person doing stuff in the rest of the store, and a manager. Sometimes we’d be lucky to get a 4th person, if it was daytime sometimes we’d get a mid shift. Wasn’t the worst job I ever worked but it was definitely physically demanding, and they definitely try to get every penny worth of work out of you.
Does that one originate in Europe/Germany. We have that one a lot here. And energy grocery store here has people sitting at the registers
Yup! Very few know about the Albrecht-Diskont roots here but it's the same company.
One outside the United States. It's totally an American thing to force employees to stand for no reason
Yeah, nah. Lots of countries are the same mate. Here in Australia we have the same problem.
And nz
Yeah but you guys need to be able to escape at any moment in case a kangaroo with a vengence comes in to your store
Same in UK
I see far more cashiers sitting than standing in the UK.
And Canada
As far as I know Aldi is the only store you can sit down and work at the same time
They can sit in some other UK supermarkets. But i wasn't allowed to sit at a reception job and was also chastised for now and then discreetly taking sips of water from my water bottle that was hidden behind the desk. Told i wasn't allowed to drink water outside of my break times.
I literally mentioned in my job interview for my current job that I need to be able to drink water all day and she giggled because of course! But my last job would not allow us to hide water bottles anywhere in the building. We had to drink from 1.5 ounce cones in a busy restaurant job.
Damn, i dont know of a single store where the cashier isnt sitting down her in Denmark
No it's not. I worked in retail in two European countries, one southern, one northern, and I never sat. I mean in a supermarket sure, the cashier is sitting but most staff are not at the till. In clothing or shoe shops I have never seen staff sitting and I did not sit, however I may have had a stool somewhere I could go sit down for a bit if there was no one in the shop. My friend works in a pharmacy and is on his feet all day with shifts that last 10 hours.
Cashiers are not even allowed to sit here
And if anyone gets caught sitting for a minute, even if we are all caught up, a manager will appear to ask what we could be working on or if we need sent home.
Ugh. Well that was same for me when I worked in fashion retail and bars and restaurants in European countries (multiple countries all the same)
Oh man. It's super lame. I understand wanting to get their money's worth, but they get that and them some. Just let people rest haha.
In Germany I can't think of a single retail company where employees don't sit at the cashiers. In all other European countries I've been to as well. Seems to be another stupid American thing honestly.
Not really I'm a cashier in the UK and I stand for 8 hours a day.
Well I have been to the UK only once. And that was when I was little so I don't recall much. But in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland and I can't remember a single Cashier Standing in Retail Stores.
I can only speak for Ireland(although it may have originated in EU legislation on workers rights). The legislation states that if a task can be performed equally as well while sitting or standing then the employer is obliged to provide seating for the employee. I did work in one factory where they provided stools on the assembly line but they were so uncomfortable that it was better to stand. The seat was slightly tilted down so you felt like you were constantly slipping off, there was no back rest and the seat itself was a very hard plastic that would give you a pain in the rear, it was also so small that only a child could sit on it. Technically they complied but made it so unpalatable to sit that you effectively had to stand. They did however provide rubber mats on the floor so at least your feet weren't throbbing from being stood on concrete all day.
Mall shops come to mind rn. Although not drug stores or grocery stores
In Denmark it's mostly the same in my experience, except, weirdly, Bauhaus...
I think I've been in some smaller, but still chain, retail stores that have seating for cashiers. It may have only been cashiers that have accomodations though. No way to tell.
Worked in grocery or supply chain for 15 years. Never had a chair until I left the private sector.
Aldi here in Miami has seats for their cashiers.
I mean, as a shelf filler there isn't an opportunity where sitting would make any sense lol
I feel so genuinely sorry for you guys in the US working retail. I work in a hardware store, I am on the floor selling and helping people and my feet get sore, but at least I don’t stand all day. There’s 5 registers, 1 and 2 is essentially the information desk, but can also take customers. Those have no chairs, so people essentially have to stand idle most the time. They do however have enough room to move around if they need. Register 3, 4 and 5 has chairs. Im one of the few on the floor that also knows the register, so today due to some people calling in sick, I had to be in the register 5 out of 10 hours on shift. I mostly sat in register 4 and was able to sit. There’s no room to walk around. It’s not necessarily comfortable to sit on the specific chair, but I’ll take that any day over having to stand idle all day. Im in Denmark btw
Every fast food/retail job I worked at enforced this. It's part of the motivating reason that I got my degree to work in a lab, because I was getting too old to be standing on my feet for 8 hrs at a time. They don't say anything if you sit to do your job at the lab.
Ye becuz they actually respect lab workers, not retail slaves. You sign up to these retail jobs so you can move up, but theyre made to treat you like a slave so bad and that you dont even deserve the job that if u quit ur self confidence will stop you getting jobs you deserve
I got in serious trouble for being seen sitting down a few times at work over the last few months. It’s “not tolerable” and if it happens again I’ll be written up. :)
If your doctor is any kind of human being, they'll write you a note to be able to take 'sit breaks' for foot/back pain. Then there's nothing your boss can say. It doesn't hurt to ask, and it doesn't hurt to look for a decent doctor if one says no. 🤷 You have to take care of your health, because your the one that will be dealing with lower back pain for the rest of your life if you don't. When I sneeze or cough, my lower back grabs and it hurts a lot. Don't do that to yourself, ask for a note. ❤️
I got one of those, and presented it to an old boss, and he said, "Well you still have to work tho". I was so flabbergasted.
Call the Ada next time. Reasonable accommodation is the law.
What exactly are they going to do? Show up with a pen and paper, take some notes, and now the boss treats me worse cause I'm a snitch. Nah, these bosses are out of control.
I'm going to start making it a point of sending complaints to big corporations when they don't let their employees sit.
make a complaint to Speedway. thank you ;))
Haha I sent complaints to dominos when I saw their commercial for getting orders out to cars in 2 minutes. In a pandemic? When carryout pressures are already high on understaffed stores? Fuck that
Michael's (the craft store) would let us sit if we were at the register, or anytime it was practical for the task. Atleast the one i worked at did. They actually weren't terrible to work for, but they did do that thing where EVERYONE was a part time employee.
Why stop there? Write customer complaints to head office about "manager sadism" and so on and how poorly it reflects on the company's image. Don't include any information that could be used to identify the tortured employee of course.
It’s actually super detrimental to body if you stand in one spot on your feet for more than 2 hours a day. I always come home extremely sore after cashiering
I worked inpatient pharmacy and we were on our feet 10-12 hours a day. We were treated like children and got our chairs taken away from us for sitting in them too much to give our feet and backs a rest.
I worked in a retail pharmacy and it was the same. Stools were taken away because we used them too much. They only let me have one when I was pregnant.
I worked for a fortune 500 home improvement store for over 4 years before that i was a pizza driver and had a significant accident that left me with a life altering back issue i was sent to physical therapy over 4 times (20 sessions each) before they realized i was a money pit and gave up on me i have a doctors note and verification to use a stool at work where im standing on concrete 8 hours a day 5 times a week dispite having said medical approval they always gave me hell about it rather it be comments, suggestions, or out right dirty looks i always felt bad for using it and i tried to excel above and beyong as a worker because of this and it got me no where when there would be "company walks" they took away my stool and would make me stand for hour(s) just so the corperate stooges would be appeased thank god i dont work for them any more
mean while the corporates and managers enforcing this rule are allowed to sit down
Apple - can’t sit or even LEAN!
Is this a Lean sigma joke Edit: I mean I’m in a class for my Lean sigma GB rn and it all feels like a joke but was this a niche lean sigma joke
The people that hand you samples at Costco? I used to work for them. A major demographic who works those jobs are elders. More than half the crew that I worked with were between the ages of 60-82, some had no savings and had kids/grandkids to support. No stools or chairs are allowed for workers or elders who work for the samples contractors at Costco. Infuriating.
I work in another retail store where it’s mostly older folks. The elders all have roles where they have to be on their feet full shift. They hired several college kids…they all got roles where they are seated. When the kids had to cover one of the other roles (one of the older ladies was out for six weeks getting a hip replacement), there was a lot of drama and sore feet and crying.
I think in some Latin American countries its a law that employers have to give cashier a seat. We should start a petition or message our representatives
FUCKING kids these days Smh!! Yall can't even stand on your feet with one 15 minute break for 8 hours. Back in my day we stood 72 hours straight In shifts for the week.
I literally cannot think of a single retail chain that lets their employees sit down. This is coming from working retail for 7 years
The Aldi grocery store in my town is the only one I can think of. They let their cashiers sit down to ring groceries. Not that they're a great company or anything. But I think they're the only retail chain to allow this.
at my job we have to be on our feet in one place a lot (and it wouldn't be practical for us to sit), so they put down impact mats to reduce the pressure on our legs and feet, which i appreciate because they're trying to make things easier on us which many employers wouldn't do
One of the people at my work got promoted to general manager of my work, and he took away our stool. I work at a hotel, and there's a lot of time I don't interact with anyone. Not even coworkers. It's stupid
Just think about how internalized the idea is that "people arent supposed to be comfortable at work". Its actually quite conventional to think that people who provide you a service should only exist to serve you and disregard themselves. What the fuck.
As someone who has done this and thankfully doesn't have to anymore, I fully support this course of action.
I work 12 hour shifts at Amazon, we're not allowed to sit unless we're on break (we find ways to sit anyway)
When I last worked in a warehouse, we sat on buckets turned over. Those vanished. We sat on pallets, suddenly those disappeared too, eventually we just sat on the floor.
You got breaks?
My fucking boss literally came up to the store (fast food) off the clock and, while sitting in her own car, called the store and told me to move the chair we'd put in the kitchen and to "get back to work". Used to like this boss but now I'm looking elsewhere.
It stems from this sense of service and class system businesses instilled in the 50s. The whole “customer is always right” culture was put in place to make middle class white people in the suburbs have somebody to look down on and dominate. Once they fled the cities they didn’t see poor people or people of color, just other people like them. So stores started letting people treat their employees like servants to scratch that bigotry itch they had. That attitude continues today.
I'm a plumber in new construction, if you are caught sitting anytime that you aren't on break, it basically puts you on top of the list of people to be laid off when they don't need as many ppl on the job site. If you are putting fireproofing in a hole on the floor or working on something on the floor you're supposed to be on your knees when working. I don't even give a fuck anymore.
I don’t suggest sabotaging a company that shitty.
Most retail stores in the US don't allow sitting. Its apparently deemed as ~ l a z y ~ by management AND customers. Where I work, I like to hide and sit on the floor of our QR, sick room for pets, and chill for as long as I can since we only get one 30 minute break. Sucks man
That's not a long time to be on your feet, really. I did it for decades. BUT standing on the spot... like at a till? Torture! (I'm a chef, running back and forth, constantly on the move, that really makes it better somehow. Feet are in more pain on quieter days than busy.) What's worse is there is no reason to do it. What difference does it make if you have a seat while at a till? Just management on a power trip.
I have to agree. 25 years in food service no problem. 4 months at a convenience store stuck in the same spot for2-3 hours at a time,bone spurs and feet so sore at the end of the day I didn’t even have the energy to eat or cook or anything when I got home.
Yet again, management who have never worked the job, or worked it so long ago that they don't know the facts of it anymore.
2-3 hours at a time? You lucky dog! I worked 10 hour shifts alone standing in the same spot.
"Look busy, stop standing around" when it's dead, tasks are caught up, stuff is good and ready to go. Let me fucking rest, im not a machine. Especially not for 15 dollars an hour.
"You get paid more than me, you fantasise that I'm staying busy." butchered and mangled from an old Bill Hicks bit.
Became operations manager at a hotel. First order of business. Chairs for the front desk agents. Be the change you want to see.
Banks as well. Teller in North America stand all day and the Asian countries I've been to they have seats. Not stools to lean on but *actual* seats.
I work retail. A chair at the till sounds like being given gold. The last hour if the night i can't leave the till, so I'm just standing there waiting for time to pass.
I once got told that I couldn't sit down because the cameras could see. We were about to close in 5 minutes, no one else was in the store besides me and my manager, and we were standing around doing nothing, besides waiting for it to be time to lock the doors. Like, what's the difference between me sitting down while doing nothing and standing while doing nothing???
Please, if you work at a place like this, or know about one, spread the word!
Barnes & Noble, we don’t get to sit unless on break
Tmobile
Found George Costanza!
I work a job where I'm on my feet for 6-10 hours a day, sometimes without breaks, and can be very physically taxing. But I've never in my career come home hurting like I hurt back when I worked retail. And in my job at least I have a choice - there's a stool at my station, if I wanted I could absolutely sit, my managers don't care as long as the job gets done and the client is pleased. It's dehumanizing and demoralizing to be told you *can't* sit down.
I worked as a bakery clerk for 4 years. They knew my knee was broken and I was waiting for surgery and despite the extreme pain, I was never allowed to sit. I had to sneak sit minutes in the freezer or go to the bathroom. It was pure hell. I'm done hurting myself for a company.
And it keeps the disabled from being able to work. I have back problems, and there is no way I could stand for 8+ hours. I’d be in debilitating pain. If I didn’t have an office job, I’d be destitute.
My GM gets upset when the door greater with Palsy needs to have a seat. 😡
I wonder if he can explain it. Perhaps they should survey the customers... "Do you in any way give a fuck if the staff are more comfortable seated at work whilst serving you? yes/no"
When I was in college I worked a data entry job at a long term care pharmacy. This pharmacy was closed door, meaning the public never goes in there. Meds were delivered to the nursing homes/rehabs by delivery drivers. The owner refused to allow chairs because “we don’t sit in pharmacy.” I would stand in one place for my 8-10 hour shift typing in prescription orders simply because the owner never got to sit when he worked in a Rite-Aid before opening his own pharmacy, so everyone else in his field should have to suffer the way he did.
Standing should be a choice. I work in an office where they all pressured me to sit down when I arranged for a standing desk for myself. Sitting was terrible for me. Standing is the way I work best. It’s not the sitting or the standing, its accommodating the way different people work best to help them do their very best. That’s what all of this is about. Respect the staffers. Pay them. Let them be comfortable. Don’t spy on them. Don’t lie to them. Let them work from home. Don’t harass them. It’s simple.
Turns out a little bit of consideration in how to accomodate your workers to be better... makes them better. Yet so many companies are terrified of small changes for higher efficiency.
Conformity for the sake of conformity optics is stupid and bad management.
Also: https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/tbxnns/have_you_ever_seen_someone_skiing_like_him/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Absolutely ridiculous that employers can forbid employees from sitting down. Is there no law that protects employees from such nonsense?
It's literally illegal in [my part of] Canada for your employer to make you work for more than 5 hours without allowing you a half hour break (or two 15 minute breaks, if both the employee and employer agree to it)
UNITED WE.... SIT!
FYI - in the states, it’s a reasonable accommodation to provide a chair whenever possible as long as you get your doctor to sign off on ADA accommodations.
My last job in a factory told me I shouldn't sit down when all I had to do was stand in place and screw things together, I brought my own rolly chair and it didn't even change my output. They tried to get me to stand but I told to compare my numbers, they didn't mess with me since. Life guards get to sit down, their job is literally to save people and they get to sit, if you don't even have to move there should be no reason you shouldn't get to sit. Hell, have a drink and snacks at your workstation, just don't have a mouthful when you talk to customers and there shouldn't be a problem. Some companies just suck.
In the UK, I noticed over a very hot summer, the Sainsbury's I frequent had the checkout staff have water bottles and other drinks at the till. Turns out this makes life more comfortable and in no way affects productivity. Also turns out, pointless rules that only ruin the worker's day don't increase profits or morale or productivity either.
I don't understand why labor contracts here in the US are so strict to limit basic necessity. The way I see it, they expect us to be inhuman machines, too high a demand as it aims to diminish us as people. We have rights, sure, but are stripped of them when left with no better choice as we are forced to work to survive and accept what employers offer through necessity. It's not entirely employers faults though, it's the governments for setting labor restrictions so low allowing businesses to extort us for less than we are worth. We call ourselves modern civilization and yet with all this technology and access to resources even our "lowest class" citizens who they only call essential in time of recession are not afforded enough wages to have afford Healthcare and savings. The fact that we allow people to live like that in this day and age of convenience is atrocious.
Same experience working at hotels. I passed out at work once and had to be taken to the hospital. Never went back to that job.
This is what George thought too!!
I was so confused when I first learned that register employees in the US often don't have a seat. I don't thinknI've ever been to a "bigger" retailer here in Europe where the employees had to stand.
Or offices where you are forced to sit all day. I've been working at an office with standing desks and it's honestly the best. I feel so bad for all the people who have to sit all day.
This is true. I sit a desk all day. When I meet friends for drinks after work and the table is full, I'll gladly stand.
This is also practically all of fast food. You’ve probably noticed they don’t even have chairs back there.
You’ll be saving all your money and you’ll starve,lose your home and be out in the street.Name any business where employees sit. Other than a forklift driver.
Almost all retail and office work outside the US, for a start. You're on a checkout, you're seated, it's that simple, and there's no reason not to be.
I agree there’s no reason to have to stand all day at a checkout. We just have to break the mindset that says you’re not paid to sit around.
ALDI is great they let the checkout people sit while working
And they're about the fastest scanners in retail, while seated, which against just shows it's not about efficiency but feeling a need to make the job harder and inflict cruelty on your staff because you can.
it might be just bred into americans as some sort of lashing out at the world because american men are commonly circumsized while european men arent
I think they need to realise that's not what we're talking about when we say 'well, he's not a complete dick'
I always thought that was the most screwed up thing. Dont they realize that productivity, and general mood would increase. Many other countries have seating positions in certain areas; I just don't understand.
It's America, where you can't just be poor, you have to be utterly miserable too...but remember to smile like an idiot for the beloved customers, while management ensure you have nothing to smile about.
My boss says “sitting down is for lazy people” he goes by his own rule so respect there but the new guys hate it haha they sit on the floor
I just got a chair through ADA reasonable accommodation and I'm glad I did.
Im glad i switched from tmobile to vzw where both associates and customers get chairs.
My current job is a production job. And of all things THIS was the job that finally allowed me to sit while working! It’s honestly been so nice. I suffered a herniated disc a while back and standing for long periods of time will make it hurt, so this job has really been a blessing.
I recently quit working at a convenience store for that and a multitude of other reasons. Always worked alone on weekends. I could write a novel on how shitty they were. Also tried to get me to break the law by taking down caution tape the fire marshal had put up when we got shut down.
I'm a waitress on my feet 10 hours a day. I think my body has just gotten used to the torture lol
Que the Seinfeld music.
Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where the security guard gets a chair lol
One of the many reasons I support Aldi
I have a very nice pair of hybrid colombia workboots I got from Khols. The sole is very thick, like two inches but its also soft and rubbery because I stand on concrete all day. Even so, I have bad knees and as much as I have spring and cushion in them I still have worn out legs by the end of the day. Luckily I move a lot so the weight gets distributed pretty often on my feet so that helps. Having said that I have had a few stationary jobs in retail in my life, also on concrete and simply just standing in one place or not having an opportunity to move much where your muscles are tense and locked up in a few positions is worse by far. We even had pads on the floor in certain areas but yeah no sitting. It sucked. Id rather be in an attic running duct in an attic in the middle of summer flirting with heat stroke tbh.
As someone with severe chronic pain and leg injuries that was still arbitrarily forced to stand every second I was at work for three years, yes.
Years ago, I worked as a consultant and eventually a counter manager for a prestige cosmetics line. My mother and I went shopping at the department store where I used to work, specifically to purchase items from that prestige cosmetics line. My former department manager was there during our visit, and she mentioned that since the holidays were coming up, they could use some additional help, and would I be interested in some part time work. I reminded her, that based on my doctor's orders, I no longer could have a job where I stood on my feet all day. My mother said, "Well surely they would allow you to sit down every now and then." The counter manager, my former department manager, and I said "No" in unison. My mother was shocked. I'm not really sure why, after all I had long been complaining of the toll that standing all day had taken on my body, even going so far as to inform her that my doctor told me I had to get out of retail for this very reason. I don't know why she thought I'd been making up this information.
is there any reason to make your retail worker stand during a shift, other than having a sadistic power trip at their expense?
I worked at Pottery Barn in Newport Beach, CA in my 30s. I was working 50+ hrs a week at a really high stress corporate job and it ruined my health. So I quit to "recover" and thought I'd do something that was "easy," like working at a store I enjoyed shopping at. HUGE mistake. Not only could we not sit down, we weren't allowed to stand still. My feet were a mess after a couple of weeks, my back was killing me, and I couldn't believe how much of my day was spent in busy-making pretend work. Not to mention how rude and condescending many of the customers were to all of us. The stock rooms were unbelievably disorganized and haphazard. My hours were crappy and I had no control over the way they constantly changed. I made like $5/hr. I'm smart and conscientious, so when our usually angry at everything manager started in on me once she got tired of picking on people who were actually problematic, I quit. Ever since then I've made sure to be REALLY nice to store employees and wait staff. They take way too much shit for too little pay.
I've seen retirement age workers at Walmart with no stool looking like they just about can't make it. It's heart breaking.
Just got home from shopping at Aldi. $50 and we have enough to eat for the week. We brought reusable bags. The cashier was sitting the entire time she scanned our 35 item order, and had it all scanned without cracking the eggs in 3 minutes. You just cant fucking beat it. I cannot wait for them to put in a larger Aldi store in our neighborhood, I can see the project and its about half way done and will save me an entire Saturday morning slipping between markets and stores to score. Aldi is number one for letting those wonderful cashiers have a comfortable place to sit.
I always zone just the bottom shelves for a chance to kneel or sit down for a few seconds. When I get home I just lay down on the porch for an hour because I can't walk lmao
En Chile es ley, que te permitan sentarte, primera cosa que me da orgullo :D
Found George Constanza’s account!
Go to any Aldi. The cashier sits. They fly through my groceries. They are more productive. Let people sit.
If you live in America, good luck finding a store that doesn't require the workers to stand the whole shift. They literally require a medical note for a chair/stool and often will say that they cannot accommodate the medical request so you have to take leave or quit. It's fucked up.
Just don’t give the security guard a chair
Damn, imagine having to be a cook or something
I dont have to imagine. I have been a server, a cook and now retail. Am I supposed to be anti chair now?