4 ms·
Reminds me of a couple paragraphs in this [1] story: >Over and over again, I'd listen to someone's story of how back pain meant they could no longer work, or h
by cmsmith 11y ago
Reminds me of a couple paragraphs in this [1] story:
>Over and over again, I'd listen to someone's story of how back pain meant they could no longer work, or how a shoulder injury had put them out of a job. Then I would ask: What about a job where you don't have to lift things, or a job where you don't have to use your shoulder, or a job where you can sit down? They would look at me as if I were asking, "How come you didn't consider becoming an astronaut?"
>One woman I met, Ethel Thomas, is on disability for back pain after working many years at the fish plant, and then as a nurse's aide. When I asked her what job she would have in her dream world, she told me she would be the woman at the Social Security office who weeds through disability applications. I figured she said this because she thought she'd be good at weeding out the cheaters. But that wasn't it. She said she wanted this job because it is the only job she's seen where you get to sit all day.
It's easy to denounce things like this as a burden on employers. But I think it's certainly better for society than having a bunch of people not working because in order to work, you need to either have a college degree or be willing to stand for 8 hours straight every day.
[1] http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/ http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/
- pc86 11y agoI don't think anything can make a straight-faced argument that having to provide cashiers or tellers with a chair is a "burden." You can literally find a metal folding chair on the side of the road and buy a $1 pillow from a dollar store or Goodwill.
- mlrtime 11y agoit starts at a $1 chair and ends when lawsuits demand $1000 Herman Miller chairs.
- jessriedel 11y agoI know mlrtime's comment probably isn't conducive to a good discussion, but it's worth noting that his example isn't that crazy. There are lots of extremely expensive adjustable desks for folks who want to stand up while they work, and most are bought by government agencies or large lumbering firms. http://store.focalupright.com/sphere-standing-desk-p/let-1000.htm http://store.focalupright.com/sphere-standing-desk-p/let-100... http://www.thehumansolution.com/uplift-950-electric-sit-stand-l-shaped-solid-wood-desk.html http://www.thehumansolution.com/uplift-950-electric-sit-stan... http://www.ergodepot.com/Focal_Locus_p/focal-locus.htm http://www.ergodepot.com/Focal_Locus_p/focal-locus.htm It's not that courts mandate super expensive desks per se, but their mandate interacts with several other institutional disfunctions and, in real life, leads to mid- and lower-level employees buying $10k desks on someone else's dime.
- pc86 11y agoIt's a pretty large mental leap to go from "you have the right to sit down" to "you have the right to sit in this specific chair that [in the case of cashiers or bank tellers] costs 4-6 months of your salary"
- SilasX 11y agoSort of funny how office jobs have the opposite problem: of people who are suffering pain because they have to sit without standing for long periods, and can be accomodated with adjustable, standing desks. (I suspect these will be standard in the future because of findings about the long term damage of sitting.) Also funny, in a gallows humor kind of way, how people are being considered disabled (both by themselves and the social insurance system) despite the existence of trivial accommodations. It's like if someone's "dream job" were where they could move up close to the stuff they work with so they could see it better, since "the faraway stuff is so blurry".
- tremon 11y agoAlso funny, in a gallows humor kind of way, how people are being considered disabled despite the existence of trivial accommodations It's about as funny as how companies are letting their employees acquire disabilities despite the existence of trivial accommodations.
- 3825 10y agoI find it easier to drink lots of water while at work. It is difficult to remember to drink water and if I drink more water, I will use the restroom at least once every hour. Thankfully, I've yet to work at a place that prohibited employees from going to the restroom every hour. If they want to check if I am really using the restroom, they're free to do so I guess (although I would start looking for a new job if this were the case).
- mc32 11y agoI'm all for providing sensible working conditions for workers. There ought to be some minimums set by OSHA, sensible minimums, rather than bare minimums. Yet... There is a disparity between what people will put up from other people and from themselves. Say someone set up a food truck. If they run their own food truck, they'll have internal minimum working conditions (I won't work more than 14 hrs per day and I'll take a couple bathroom breaks). But if they were working that same food truck but for someone else, even if the money in the bank were the same, they'd likely have different internal minimums.