I haven’t had a good rant for a while, at least not a really good rant… okay. I had one about 2 weeks ago, but hey… that was TWO weeks, and in a way, this is just a continuation of the same rant. Since I never wrote about this, I give an overview of how this pimple came to a head.

I work in a area that allows some people to sit at computers and work or sit at long desks and shuffle paperwork. There are also positions that stand and run large commercial scanners. The area I work is basically a combination of all of these positions, I shuffle papers and scan various things into files using a small scanner and work a computer. All the while I work I am required to stand, basically in a stationary position for hours and hours at a time. Now if this was an occasional thing, the standing, it wouldn’t be too bad, but day in and day out, it does get tedious. Did I mention that the business incorporated computer stands to ensure the workers stand? When asked about the why we had to stand for the whole time I was told by the area “lead” that it was the policy.
Did I mention that there are stools purchased for these work areas? I digress.

For a while now I’ve been basically in charge in the work area. The “lead” went to a different department and I in all intents and purposes stepped in to fill his shoes and put out fires.

So I told the people that are working with me basically, if they are strictly working the computers… like the upstairs people are working their computers, they can sit on their stools, when they finish doing computer operations go back to standing. I also went on to tell them if they needed to work paperwork in preparation for scanning, and this work was going to perceivably take 30 or 40 minutes, they could also sit on the corners of their stools… yeah I know, I’m a slave driver. So what happens?

The evening supervisor comes over one night and tells me that “my” people need to be standing, at no time should they be sitting down and at no time should they be using the stools. Now I’m not the disrespectful type, but I did tell this person that I had told them when they were doing the same job as those in the computer department was doing I let them do what the computer department did. I in turn was told I needed to talk to the work coordinator the next day and ensure I understood the department policy, I ensured this person that as soon as I came in the next day I surely would , I then informed the people in the workspace they needed to stand the rest of the evening until I found out what was going on.

The next day I come in and prior to even clocking in I find an email informing me to see the plant manager. With no if ands or buts I am told that the people in the department I work in will stand… they will not sit… they will not squat… they will not lean, until the policy changes, the department I work in is a standing department.

It seems that the evening supervisor sent out emails after talking to me the previous night, they didn’t give me the opportunity to go to the work site coordinator and inquire about the policy and handle the situation at the lowest level, but immediately pointed fingers in my direction as an instigator out to cause trouble in the company by allowing 4 hard working people to rest their feet from hauling 40 and 50 pound boxes back and forth from pallets to computer carts.

A couple of days later I had the opportunity to ask the work site coordinator about the standing policy and was told that they were the one that had instituted the policy from the start, they felt if the people sat down, they couldn’t work as well when needed to move boxes. So I asked “how about when they are strictly doing computer operations…?” and was informed that he had someone looking into it. Encouraged I thought maybe I could get some relief for myself and worker bees
Well I and everybody in the company that works a computer did get an answer to the standing question. It sounded comically official in its attempt to sound justified. Basically it stated that my department would stand… the big commercial scanner people had to stand so why should people working computers be different, as to justify that we needed to stand neither the company safety officer and OSHA have any laws or regulations requiring the company to allow us to sit.

I mean its the pot calling the kettle black. A intelligent persons simple retort would be that there are no OSHA regulations stating you need to sit either… how I would gladly volunteer one of my off days to remove all the computer operators little desks and chairs… they can stand. How about the work site coordinators table and chair… he can stand. Lets be honest here… I was told that he did stand for a couple of days…. once, but at that time he didn’t stand all the time, he sat during his short tenure in the department when he wanted to, then made the policy of having to stand when he left the department and didn’t have to follow its hardships.

What a lame slap in the face… “you have to stand because there is no regulations in OSHA to say you need to sit”, instead of working with the hard working people in the department and making their working environment hospitable , you go and force feed a line of reasoning that has nothing to do with the question at hand. And the upper hierarchy wonders why the department often has workers requesting transfer.

I know, I know… it really seems if I’m going off about a silly little thing, but nightly now I come home feeling as a waitress does, dying to get off my feet. And anyway… thats what a rant is all about isn’t it?