My job took away our chairs
For context I work in a gift shop/information center. Our shifts are from 10-6 with a 30 minute lunch.
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.
Recently, we got a new manager and he took the chairs away because we were “taking them for granted and neglecting our job” and put up a list of “down time activities” (cleaning, restocking, etc, all stuff we already did).
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 was at the vet with his dog.
Now I am at work today exhausted and forced to stand for nearly 8 hours.
Netizens’ comments
- 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 “everyone should always be standing” mentality
- 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 nonsense. Even worked at one shop who told us to re-fold things that were perfect already so we’d always look busy. So stupid.
- In your position I would be sitting on the desk or on the floor