'That would be to expensive': Boss boasts about his standing desk but won't let anyone else have one

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

May 24, 2023 12:00 PM EDT

Standing desks may have become all the rage, but some people can't stand them. Being on your feet all day can be tiring and result in aches that can't wait to be eased by a well-deserved rest. Just ask anyone who works in retail, nursing, or the service industry and has to be on their feet all day. Workers from these sectors are probably permanently bewildered by office workers' obsession with standing.

My own experience with standing desks has led me to believe that their sole reason for existence is to annoy your coworkers—the dramatic whirring determination of the motor letting them know that you've decided to swap from sit to stand, then stand to sit—and back again… for the fifth time in twenty minutes. For the person with the standing desk, it's amazing. Having the flexibility to swap from standing to sedentary whenever you please. Still, whatever your feelings on standing desks themselves, it's always frustrating to have double standards in the workplace, with rules and policies blatantly benefiting senior management at the expense of everyone else.

This worker shared their experience of this, telling how their boss had been gloating to the workers about his new standing desk and the health benefits it offered. When questioned about whether or not everyone else would be receiving one (if the health benefits were really so grand) the boss replied that it was simply not in the budget.

If this boss was truly a stand-up guy, he would have offered his workers the option of a standing desk too.

Read on to see screenshots of this thread and the responses that it generated on Reddit's r/antiwork workplace subreddit community. Next, check out this worker who was fired a month after starting her new job.