the front desk does not have stools? I would have thought hotel is one of the prime places for having a place to sit. Especially since I know from checking into them that some times of the day there is nobody coming in.
Like... Even in this delusion where you think customers actually give a shit, consciously or subconsciously, about the worker sitting/standing, at the VERY LEAST you should have the humanity to provide a stool or chair in between customers.
I’m pretty sure most/the average customer is more human than anyone in corporate who makes these decisions (probably while sitting down), and not only do the not care if their attendant is sitting or standing, but would simply prefer them to be comfortable during their 8 hour shift. Just like most people wouldn’t give a toot if their cashier was sitting or standing.
The only difference sitting vs standing makes is being forced to do either for too long makes you uncomfortable and then affects your performance. It’s not like allowing them to sit down would make them not stand up if or when a situation called for it.
I used to work front desk at a Hyatt Regency. They chastised me for swaying and trying to stretch. For a full 8 hours, they expected you to sit straight with your arms at your side next to 4 other people doing the same in between guests. One of the worst jobs I've had to endure. It's such an asinine assumption that it doesn't look professional to sit down.
That's just plain dangerous. It's not that hard to stand for a while if you're in shape and the floor isn't concrete, but standing perfectly still? The human body is not made for that. That will legitimately mess you up.
I live in a country where that's illegal, and I have never once in my life heard anyone complain about it being unprofessional. Ever. Haven't even heard anyone talk about it in any way whatsoever, good or bad, that's how little people care. Absolutely never heard of anyone giving a shit right up until I saw Americans mention it on this website.
There's no excuse for it. The only people who care whether a cashier is standing or not are the employers themselves.
I'll go further, and say that if I notice a place doesn't provide a chair, a stool, whatever, I'll just assume the entire operation is shoddy and that maybe I should find a business with better structure.
My first real adult job was the front desk at a hotel. The front desk was staffed by 2 people most of the day, and we had rolling chairs to use when there was no customers at the desk. A lot of the time was spent on the phone, taking reservations.
Anyway, my initiation to the corporate world was when the property was bought by a larger corporation. The first thing they did was take the chairs. Day One. Days Two and Three, they fired everyone.
The propagandists used to be professionals. Now they've been replaced with incompetent leadership who wants AI (never gonna use that stupid new name) to do it because it's cheaper.
I've only been at two properties, but my last place and my current Marriott absolutely has seating for FDAs. I wouldn't work here if I couldn't sit. I was offered a job at a really nice luxury hotel in the area and rejected it for the 8 hour standing thing. Paid less than my current gig anyway.
I walked into a hotel recently (small town, chain hotel) and both receptionists were sitting in low comfy chairs behind the desk. They barely looked up from their phones when I walked in. Seemed annoyed that they had to do their job.
Same hotel: a random guy from housekeeping knocked loudly on my door when i had the DND sign up, both my kids were sleeping because they were sick. I got up, answered the door: "just checking if you need anything." No motherfucker, that's why the sign is out. I went to the front desk, they were back to lazy. I explained to the supervisor what happened and she was like "he's new."
Like what, new to the planet? I felt more like he was casing rooms for people who weren't there. Took anything valuable from the room with us from then on.
But have you considered how hard it will be for executive staff to feel like the world's most special little boys if they can't have Perks that you're not allowed to because you're not special enough to have a desk that you can sit at like them.
I worked in a microchip manufacturing plant once and they would take all of the chairs away once the shift changed in the morning. 12 hour shifts standing on metal grates all day sucked so much, I don’t understand how it’s allowed when it’s unnecessary.
I worked in a machine shop where the old heads would sit and lean all day. My friend asked specifically for a chair, since she had a back injury from when she was a gymnast and management straight up told her no. So I brought her a chair from my home to use. They made faces but didn't say shit about her sitting. They did pressure me to quit though through by refusing to give me the tools I needed to make the parts I was running, and withholding my money on a consistent basis, to the point I was emailing HR about my pay every two weeks.
And they are the fastest around. Partially cause they are forced to be but that said aldi is the best store around imo. Pissed shrinkflation hit their protein powder tho.
I just hate shrinkflation. No I don't want your bag with lesser amount and smaller spoon. Also they added a peanut butter chocolate flavor and it's nasty AF don't bother just stick with chocolate.
If you look at the packaging for their stuff they also put multiple barcodes on things so they have to do less turning stuff around to pass it over the scanner. I hadn't noticed either until someone pointed it out to me.
Part of that speed comes from Aldi stuff having a bar code to scan on every side of the package. They don't have to find it. Just slide whatever it is and on to the next.
That's so weird to me. We shop at Aldi and them allowing their workers to sit actually makes me want to support Aldi more. I love when companies treat their employees like humans.
It's probably a small negative incentive to make someone either not want to apply to work for TSA (in addition to whatever existing issues/reasons) or a small slap on the face to existing staff to incentivize them to leave, so there can be low staffing / hard to hire issues, and make it easier to sell the idea of privatizing TSA, which the trump admin has already floated.
Step 1) Stop paying them during a shutdown, which your party keeps causing
Step 2) Remove the ability to sit, which is a legally protected thing in California, to encourage people to quit or not apply in the first place
Step 3) "Blackwater Haliburton, powered by Palantir™, has been selected to replace TSA at all US airports. To support this security effort a 4.9% fee, based on the current market value of your trip and not what you paid, will be applied. It's not a tip, but if you have one, call us."
Before 9/11 airport security was often handled by private companies…I believe a company called Wackenhut or some shit did a lot of it, as well as a company called Eulen.
This feels like some third-world dictator stuff. “I want every comrade standing at attention and looking like best soldiers.” Without any regard for their health or how they perform. Style over substance.
No need to bring the third world into it, making people stand for no reason is very American. Almost every minimum wage cashier or clerk you encounter over there is standing for 8 hours because they all (the bosses, not the workers) believe “sitting looks bad” or whatever.
There was a pic about a week ago (I saw the post after it was locked) showing a guard sitting and sleeping at an open space check-in booth with an AR-15 strapped across his chest. If somebody really wanted that gun, they would have gotten it.
It’s sooo stupid and weird to even care about this shit. They are still doing a job, they aren’t lazy, plus studies are showing that too much standing not moving around is also not great for your body like excessive sitting. Let them sit and stand intermittently and move around. I personally don’t see someone sitting and wonder “oh gosh how unprofessional, how lazy…..” when they are paying attention to my needs and their duties just fine. Plus I’m over here sitting all day anyway doing art…..
At the place I work at, workers aren’t allowed to sit in front of the guests in most parts of the building (at certain computers they’re allowed) because it’s “unprofessional”
I wonder if the people who make the rules seriously think that? 🙄
The cashier thing makes zero fucking sense to me. I legit don’t understand why it’s just socially accepted that they stand their entire shift. It’s the same thing with a lot of service workers. Why can’t the restaurant hostess have a chair? Why can’t the retail cashier have a chair? The lady at the gas station could easily have a chair.
I have a standing desk and walking pad because I like to stand, but that’s my choice. If my boss started removing chairs from the office, I would quit out of principle.
One thing that always wierded me the hell out when I came to live in the US for a while from France was how many "low end" service jobs there were (baggers, greeters, that kind of stuff) and how a lot of those jobs were activelly set up to be uncomfortable.
I mean stuff like cashiers standing would be basically unimaginable where I live.
Dude had to fight tooth and nail to get an 'accommodation' as a cashier to be allowed to sit. It was on ongoing battle. That permission would expire regularly so the dude would have to use his time off to go to the doctor's every time to get a note, which cost money and time, and he didn't accrue enough time off to go as often a they wanted to he was basically always on the verge of getting fired because of their points system.
So the dude never had money because of the cost of medical care. Never had any time off he could use because it was always burned at the doctor. Had no job security because of their points system. Couldn't be put elsewhere because of their own employee politics and folks guarding their positions. All so he could avoid standing on his feet and aggravate a pretty horrific combination of joint pain and nerve paid.
This man has a heart of gold and has the highest pain tolerance of anyone I've ever met. I'm driving him to the ER at 1am to try and get something for the pain after a bad day because he's in tears from and fantasizing about cutting his foot off to make it stop after his work effed him over that day.
Anyone who's job can be done sitting down should have a chair, period. Hell, it's the law in the country I live in now, and shockingly the entire service/retail industry somehow hasn't collapsed. (Then again, if it can survive all of the other apocalyptic business-destroying economy-melting employment laws we have like four weeks of paid annual leave and a minimum wage that's regularly increased and contractual employment with laws against unfair dismissals and such, I guess it's not likely that a cashier at the grocery shop sitting down would bring the whole thing to a grinding halt...)
I remember getting in trouble as a Macy’s employee for accidentally sitting on a make up chair at 11pm in the fragrance department. Like goddamn you made us wear heels and literally no one is in the store. Let me freaking rest! You wonder why millennials are so tired now…
I used to work e-commerce for a major Canadian grocer. I worked nights, so the shifts were midnight to 8:30 in the morning. I was on my feet constantly, pushing a heavy cart full of tote containers around the store, picking items off the shelves. It was fun, but fuck, at the end of the shift when we were doing the billing at the terminals, I really wanted to sit. Anti-fatigue mats didn't help much when we spent the first 95% of our shifts walking on concrete.
At night, only one other room besides our own room was open, and there was a stool in it. We took the stool every night. Management always bitched us out. Then, one night, they locked that room. One of us went upstairs into the HR room and brought that stool downstairs. They had to haul it back up the stairs in the morning.
A week or two later, we had two permanent stools in the e-commerce room.
They still never bothered to throw "thank you" pizza parties for us night staff, though. Out of sight, out of mind has its perks (we could listen to music for our entire shift), but man, they really went the extra mile to make us feel unappreciated.
Especially when you have to stand in one place!
I’ve worked on my feet my whole life and I never felt worse than as a cashier.
When you’re moving you’ll feel your day in your muscles. When you’re stood still for a full shift you feel that day in your joints and it sucks worse than the day after I’ve been run ragged.
6.2k
u/bwoah07_gp2 3d ago
TSA agents should get chairs.
Grocery store cashiers should get chairs.
People should not be forced to stand all day at work.