Boss Takes Away Employees Chair Privileges, Forces Them To Stand For 8 Hours Straight

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Aug 12, 2023 9:00 AM EDT

Recently I've been thinking about how there are very few jobs where employees have a good balance of sitting and standing. When you work a sedentary job, it has a lot of detrimental impacts on your health. Workers who sit all day are unlikely to get enough exercise, especially if they commute by car. Having a job where you're always on your feet isn't much better. You would think that working in retail or food service would get you moving around in a way that benefits your health. Instead, most jobs of this variety make their workers stand in the same place for hours. Basically, what I'm saying is 99% of jobs are not healthy, and we should all become personal trainers and restructure the economy to accommodate that. Just kidding, but I think that bosses shouldn't take chairs away from their employees that are busting their butts and standing for eight hours a day. 

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  • 01
    Font - r/antiwork u/bobjohnson078 • 1d My job took away our chairs For context I work in a gift shop/information center for the city I live in. Our shifts are from 10-6 with a 30 minute lunch.
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  • 02
    Font - About a year ago we had an employee who had a bad hip and couldn't stand for the full shift and we finally got chairs that we were allowed to use when there were no customers. That employee eventually left but the chairs stayed, and as long as we stood up when we had customers it was fine.
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  • 03
    Font - Recently, we got a new manager and he took the chairs away because we were "abusing them and neglecting our job" and put up a list of "down time activities" (cleaning, restocking, etc, all stuff we already did).
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  • 04
    Font - Yesterday I had to stay 1.5 hours after my shift because the door wouldn't lock and I had to wait for a maintenance worker to come and fix it because my manager lives an hour away and was at the vet with his dog. Now I am at work today exhausted and forced to stand for nearly 8 hours. TLDR: used to have chairs, they got removed and we now have to stand for 8 hours.
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  • 05
    Font - LordDagnirMorn. 1d I find the mentality that workers should always be standing up such a stupid one. People can still do their work sitting down and it's normal for people to want to sit down once in a while. I have a really bad ankle injury and can't stay standing up for long periods because of pain. For that reason i cant work in some field because of the "eberyone should always be standing" mentality ... Reply 2.7k
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  • 06
    Rectangle - bobjohnson078 OP. 1d I have never gone into a store and saw a worker sitting and thought "man what a lazy POS" ... 903
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  • 07
    Font - Tinyturtle13. 1d We should make formal complaints to every store we walk into complaining that the workers have nowhere to sit. I wonder if enough people did that if it would start to change. I don't think so but it'd be cool to find out lol ... 361
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  • 08
    Font - justagirlnamed Dee . 1d I worked retail for 10+ years and no chairs was a thing for all but one job. It's ridiculous and you should absolutely be able to sit down. I'll never understand this. I'd much prefer to walk into a shop and see the person sitting down and comfortable rather than standing and despising being there. Because I know the "busy work/down time activities" are bullshit. Even worked at one (Spencer's) who told us to re-fold things that were perfect already so we'd always l
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  • 09
    Font - Emotional-Catch-2883 • 1d It's kind of funny how afraid or irate management gets about idleness. If they cared as much about other things as that, maybe the world would be a slightly less crappier place. 103
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  • 10
    Font - Confused And Living. 1d Talk to your doctor for a note. Anyone will be in pain after a few hours of standing. Everyone qualifies for reasonable accomodations. Getting the chairs back is in your power. ... Reply 166
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  • 11
    Font - Professional-Try4921. 1d In your position I would be sitting on the desk or on the floor Reply 4208
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  • 12
    Human body - allesklar123456 - 1d ● Complete cruelty. Most humans cannot comfortably stand for 3-4 hours, let alone 8. ... Reply 92
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  • 13
    Font - TheNorthFallus • 1d I used to work at a certain warehouse where the shifts could be up to 10h with a total of 30 min break. The only people that would last a year were extremely fit men. And even then the older workers all had varicose veins in their legs. Like you are not paying enough for that kind of damage. 42
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  • 14
    Font - StringAdventurous479. 1d There's an older woman, probably in her 70s, who works at the grocery store I go to. I saw her hunched over one day and it irked me. I went to the manager and asked if she could have a stool, she's obviously uncomfortable. He said she refused. So I told him she's most likely self conscious and if everyone was offered a stool, she'd use it. I also mentioned that all the grocery stores in Europe have cashiers in stools and america is an anomaly. He found that inter
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  • 15
    Font - Itavan • 1d California has a wonderful law. I love my state. "According to KPCC News, the California Supreme Court has ruled that "all employees are entitled to a seat at work." California law requires that an employer allow an employee to sit while on the job, and provide the seating, if the "nature of the work reasonably permits the use of seats." employers in California must provide a chair to any worker that wants one Chase Bank and CVS tried to argue to the Supreme Court that their c
    via u/Itavan

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Tags

standing chair boss antiwork toxic-manager stand jobs toxic-workplace job work chairs toxic-management toxic-boss sit workplace sitting toxic-work-environment
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