I used to work in a plastic factory. I operated a plastic press. My job was essentially to stand in front of a machine, push buttons, and sort the resulting plastic thingies into boxes. I did this for eight hours a day (with forty minutes of break time).
I didn’t move during all the time I was working at that machine. But I did stand all day. There was no physical necessity for it; I could have sat in a chair all day and done the same job.
I observe the same thing in stores. People at the check out lines are all standing. Why? They could check customers out while sitting in a chair.
Why do businesses do this? You’d think it would wear your employees down faster and make them less productive. Is that incorrect? Have studies shown people somehow work better when they’re standing in place rather than sitting in place? Or is it just a short-sighted savings because businesses don’t want to provide chairs and don’t worry about the loss productivity? Or is it because businesses don’t like the appearance of having their employees sitting all day (which seems like a silly concern in a factory)?
Some of those jobs- like cashiers- actually move around a lot more than you would think, although their movement is within a confined space. Reaching down to get bags, or a new roll of register tape, or picking up a box to look for the UPC code may be more easily done from a standing position. Way back when I was a bank teller, I had a chair but I only sat in it when the bank was empty. It was a high barstool type chair, and climbing on and off it everytime I needed to get into the bottom drawer or go to the back counter just wasn’t worth it. Come to think of it , height differences may also be part of the reason. Even though I’m short, I’ve never had an issue using cash registers and such set up for average height people if I’m standing. But I wasn’t kidding about climbing up on that chair - if I use a chair and desk meant for an average height person, I have to raise the chair as much as possible and let my feet dangle. Or keep my feet on the floor and reach up to write using the desk surface. There’s no good solution. I’m pretty sure there isn’t any set-up where 5’2" me and my 6’10" friend could sit down at the same checkout lane. Even if we each had a personal chair.
When a person sits for long periods of time, Bad Things tend to happen–blood clots and the like.
I worked at Walmart for a while, and got curious about how much I was walking. Even on the days when I was on a register much of the shift, I got thousands of steps per shift.
Cashiers sit pretty much everywhere outside of North America. The reasoning commonly given in America is that sitting implies laziness and is unsightly for the customers so employees are forced to stand. It’s a dumb, horrible, inefficient, stupid tradition which America proudly continues to uphold.
I think a full examination of this would lead to a lot of different reasons, some applying to all such jobs, some applying to just a few.
[ul]
[li]Some tasks put more strain on neck, arms, back when done seated than when done standing.[/li][li]For some machinery it wouldn’t be feasible to sit next to it, or to make the necessary room underneath for your legs.[/li][li]For some jobs you only work at the bench for short periods at the time.[/li][li]In some settings sitting down is perceived as lazy in some cultures.[/li][/ul]
Cashiers at a supermarket chain in Québec (Provigo) did start using chairs/stools in the 1990s. It was a union demand, IIRC. The chairs disappeared within a few years.
Technology to the rescue! Here’s the chairless chair, an exoskeleton allowing you to sit wherever with the utmost dignity.
The cashiers in Aldi supermarkets sit and they are blazing fast. And they place every item in a waiting cart after they scan it. Then they place your empty cart at the end of the counter ready to go. Their work station is specially designed so they are at the very end of the conveyor belt, there is no second belt.
Cashiers who don’t do bagging are the only ones I’ve seen sitting. Like bank tellers and typists.
In production jobs, people in chairs are doing relatively long (or absolutely long) periods of observation; or are doing fiddly hand movements where they have to keep their body core stable.
Both jobs where you’re standing all day and jobs where you’re sitting all day are ergonomically problematic.
As my local back-pain furniture dealer told me, ''The most ergonomic position is the next one." As a writer, my ideal set up is an adjustable stand-up desk with a constantly shifting position.
I like the idea of the exo-skeleton chair as presumably the person chooses when to sit and when to stand and can alternate at their leisure.
[QUOTE=JpnDude]
Not true for Japan. In most restaurants, supermarkets and retail shops, the register worker or clerk will be standing.
[/QUOTE]
Japan is just as weird as America though, internationally speaking. Plus I have heard from folks living there that Japanese culture is particularly draconian toward its workers.
