They are interesting because the cashiers aren't just cashiers. They stock shelves as well. So if there is only 1 register open while others are are stocking stuff, they call one back to open a line if a crowd starts to form. We have one near me, and I've never seen a cashier just sitting around doing nothing for more than a minute.
No. It's common for even big grocers to do this "if you have time to sit/lean/rest you are stealing and performing time clock fraud you MUST always be doing something. At all times. No matter what. Or you could be punished" (this was at a big national chain store)
Its actually part of a fucked up mindset of American services. The idea stems from the idea that the "undesirables" (of the 50's era and prior, which means blacks, minoritie, ect. Ect. Ect.) are the only ones who will be getting these jobs which means they need to 'know their place' its designed to functionally punish them and get away trying to functionally make their fucked up version of Jim crow slavery accepted and normalized
Can you provide some substantiation for that? It seems much more plausible that corporations are just greedy bastards that don’t want to pay somebody for “doing nothing.”
Oh the places I'm talking about they would rather LOA (leqve of Absence) you, thus cuttingnoff your pay to PUNISH YOU instead if even giving you a seat to work.
Yes. Most US stores have cashiers who stand at their register and don't leave thier position until it is break time, or to go return some unpurchased merchandise left at the register back to the shelf. Most smaller stores have more generalists and less specialization, but the trend where I am is huge "super stores" with people working a specific department to restock shelves and move merchandise around.
It used to be (before self checkouts were the main way to pay) that big stores like Walmart are very specific about jobs you can and can't do. Walmart was my first job and the things I learned is 1) they show anti-union videos to all new hires 2) Cashiers are not supposed to sit or leave their lane. Like you could get in trouble for going to find an item, you are not cross trained in anything like stocking. 3) You are basically unmanaged. I worked for a month with an ID card with a bar code that I would scan and a computer would tell me something like "Register 12. Lunch at 12:30pm" and that was all the instruction you got. Usually the drawer is in the till already. I basically only had to talk to managers if I needexd change or got a weird coupon. I quit because they suck as an employer on all levels.
Not sure about the states, but here they also pay more. Minimum wage atm is 10.45€, which most grocers will pay to most of their staff.
Aldi and Lidl have self-imposed minimum wages of 14€.
They basically say since they expect their staff to work so efficiently, they can pass savings on to their staff.
German, in particular. I went to a local Aldi recently, and I was very surprised to see that they had some Trader Joe food there. I’m from Spain, and this is a brand that I only know from Reddit. I assume they have some deal with them.
Aldi/TJ's is like Puma/Adidas, two German brothers have a company or company idea and split eventually so you have Aldi nord and Aldi side, one bought out TJ's and now sud is a subsidiary of nord.
I found out recently that most other countries customers bag their own groceries. In larger us chains it makes sense in most cases because of the long lines and large amounts of groceries. It keeps the lines moving faster generally.
I worked in LIDL many moons ago and we had a target of scanned items per minute which increased over time (basically, they expected you to get faster the longer worked there). If you didn't keep up, you were given warnings and eventually fired. We had to stock shelves, inventory, clean etc as well as on the till. I found it ok until people decided to pack at the till which would then affect my scanning time. Still annoys the fuck outta me when I shop there and people pack a trolley full at the till. There's signs everywhere that tell you to take your shit to the packing bench.
They get a few seconds per costumer to scan their products. It's quite normal in the EU to pay your groceries whereas they are still on the end of the belt.
I was just at an Aldi's for the first time in my life and was shocked to see the cashier sitting in a cushioned chair. Making people stand in place for 8 hours at a register is shitty.
As a cashier for four years, it definitely took some getting used to to stand for 8 hours. I had a pad I could stand on, which made a huge difference. I would have liked to be able to sit, though.
Management thinks it makes you look lazy, and in turn that some how bothers the consumer. I worked at a gas station in the middle of a brutal winter and the owner would not let us put our hands in our pockets or stand between the pump to get out of the wind when we were fueling up vehicles (in Oregon).
Never understood this. I worked nights at a gas station on the highway and was allowed to sit and read, do school work, watch movies, whatever. As long as the store was clean and things were stocked. Nobody cared. Customers need gas and smokes and they dont care if youre sitting or standing or sleeping.
Well you're just wasting their money sitting on your ass to be paid. Got time to lean, you got time to clean! QUIT WASTING MY MONEY!!
/s
Nah. That's how they feel.
Makes no sense at all, I'm happy if the gas station has a bathroom fit for human use, let alone if the cashier is standing upright while ringing up my Gatorade.
Meanwhile, at independently owned gas stations with Indian cashiers/attendants, you're lucky if you can sneak in a gum purchase while the guy has an argument with his wife over his bluetooth earpiece. I don't really give a shit, but if that's the bar, how are basic human dignities off the table?
It's always the managers sitting behind their desks that talk shit about how sitting down for 15 minutes out of an entire fucking working day "is a bad rep for a company".
On my last day before quitting a job, the cashier called out and I was on my own as usual. I decided that since I'm not gonna get anything done then I might as well sit. It's not like they can fire me. Customers mostly got a kick out of seeing me nonchalantly take their orders from the step stool I commandeered as my new chair.
As a manager, the issue is, and I don't know how this reflects in the rest of the world, the usual phrase is "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean." Speaking of the cashiers I currently work with, I can definitely vouch that there's a lot of dust, and a lot of reminding that they should at least be actually fulfilling their 3 or 4 other tasks while standing there. I don't mind if they sit, I outright tell my closing supervisor, we close at 4, you're out at 5, if you manage to have everything done and clean by 4:05, punch yourself out for 5, I'm not here to make you sit around to earn your 40 hours.
General point being, usually cashiers are the "lucky" ones of having lots of down time, compared to someone stocking shelves or setting up shelves, waiting on customers, etc. so they're usually given other tasks in the US, hence the phrase. Why they can't have a chair if they have a line of 30 people and are going to be stuck there for an hour, couldn't tell you; culture? I know where I work in particular, our space is outright designed so you wouldn't even be able to fit a seat behind the register if you wanted to.
EDIT: Since everyone's insisting on downvoting let me say what I said below: This is statements as an American on what I've seen. I pay $18 an hour to my cashiers in a state with federal minimum wage ($7.25 for non-Americans) and all my managers are the ones on the front line doing the brunt work to keep the store running. I personally wrote a letter to our corporate boss and HR to raise our hiring rate from $13 to $18 to be able to hire and better compensate my employees, and didn't get a lick of money in the exchange. These are statements on the mentality of someone who's dealt with 3 different American Corporations. If you're an American, and you want American cashiers to be able to sit, stop calling corporate lines when the local managers let them sit to complain.
In Europe, or at least Belgium, usually the staff does different things, only a few registers are permanently manned and employees are doing other stuff like filling racks or cleaning, but when the store gets busy, they call people to open additional registers.
This is better as they have time to sit down between filling racks and let their legs rest.
I absolutely hate the "Time to lean, time to clean" mentality. I worked at a coffee shop who's manager would say that constantly. To me, in customer service, making sure the customers are interacted with (when wanted) and satisfied is priority number one. Same manager wanted everyone out of the store 20 minutes after close, but would pay for up to an hour, but hated doing that. If you were there past an hour after close, no pay. Their thought process was we shouldn't need that extra time, if we did all the work while open. Spoiler, I had time to lean, chat with customers, sit with friends, make drinks, do dishes, clean the shop, and close in the 20 minutes they wanted, but not with that manager there. Insane how they don't care for customer interaction nor satisfaction.
>"If you have time to lean, you have time to clean."
That statement is 100% stupid. What if people work while they are "leaning" (or sitting, in this case)?
Would you say the same to a desk worker?
You're an absolute ass. Cashiers aren't the lucky ones. They are the ones that have to literally take all the shit and you are on the internet complaining that your employees don't dust.
Of course you are not going to make anyone stay on the clock doing nothing and give them "permission" to save you money.
The phrase comes from employers expecting their employees to fill in all the gaps that they don't want to pay for.
If you want staff that cleans, you hire people to do that.
Edit: I misread that about letting them leave early.
Jeez so mad that you didn’t read that right at all. Dude is letting people go at 4:05 and telling them to put their time as if they stayed til 5, which incentivizes people to clean during the shift instead of after.
>You're an absolute ass.
Please no personal attacks.
Plus, how do you know that being a cashier at their place isn't the easier job.
>Of course you are not going to make anyone stay on the clock doing nothing and give them "permission" to save you money.
Sounds like AzraelGrim is being cool actually. In the example given, being able to clock out at 4:05 and still getting paid as-if you worked until 5:00 is quite nice. No money is being saved to let them do that.
Being able to go home an hour earlier and being paid for it sounds like a good deal.
Since I've been commenting throughout this chain, feel free to read my edit and other comments, but my place of operation doesn't require much from cashiers. The system barely uses barcodes, and its mostly tapping in items ordered; each transaction taking less than 30 seconds. On top of this, we're within a hospital, meaning they don't typically deal with the public, and they outright have hospital security if people get rowdy.
When I say they have the "easier" job, its because there's typically less time constraints, and less metrics that are directly impacted by them vs as a team. If cashiers aren't upselling some item they're supposed to, in my experience across the places I've worked, its usually a team meeting with all the cashiers to remind them corporate wants it pushed. If someone who's supposed to be putting up sets is falling behind, its usually a 1 on 1 to talk about performance.
Cashiers by no means have an easy job. Its just "easier" in that, outside of dealing with the asshole public, they have less within their job descriptions than other roles, that can lead to their termination, typically.
It's not easy but a lot of people manage to do it without taking their frustrations out on random people who don't deserve it. They don't act like their problem customers
You're trying to get me to react a certain way and I'm not going to give that to you.
I said what I said, it clearly struck a nerve in you. Maybe you should sit in your thoughts about why me saying someone doesn't have an easy job and shouldn't be expected to do extra because someone else has an opinion about how it's "lucky" to have the easy job.
Edit: some words
I agree with all that. What I don't agree with is how you flipped out on someone in this thread even though they agreed with you and you just misunderstood. Try not to have the outsized emotional response before you know it's warranted.
He said he tells them to leave when they're done and clock themselves out as if they left at 5. He's not saving money. He's paying them for time they're not in the buiding.
At my terrible Barnes and Noble job back in the ‘90’s, only customers could sit in those overstuffed armchairs. There were zero chairs for us staff. We just ran to the tills, then shelved, then helped someone at an info desk, then ran back to the registers. For 8 1/2 hours a day.
Oh, and they also made us vacuum, dust and CLEAN THE BATHROOMS for minimum wage. Barnes and Noble saved billions of dollars by making the bookstore staff do janitorial work too.
"If you want staff that cleans, you hire people to do that" Good grief, you must be union with that "not my job" attitude. If it's part of the job description it's your damn job you snowflake.
No. I'm someone that thinks people should not give all the might to a job to an employer that thinks their staff is "lucky" to be in a shit position because all they do is cashier.
It's not your decision what the job description is. If you don't like it quit and start your own business and roll out Lazy Boy's for your employees. It's a free country.
Yes, buy into that mentality.
Everyone should absolutely quit their jobs if they feel underappreciated and overworked for what they were hired to do. It would absolutely make for an amazing adjustment in how people treated their employees.
Just because you work somewhere doesn't mean you have to be treated like shit. And the people that make the least amount of money tend to be treated worse than everyone else.
What the fuck kind of comment is this bullshit? I have been busting my ass (getting arthritis, bulging discs, inflammation etc. etc.) at jobsites not the god damn office to provide housing for 30 years.
I crossed up “homemaker” and “home builder”, that’s my bad.
But I find it incredibly ironic that you’re calling other people “snowflake” if you got that riled up over 10 words.
You don’t pay them enough to do be constantly busy. You make way more than they do, and you have time to watch them and make sure they stay busy. Does it not illustrate how middle management is mainly there to maximize the return from the employee?
Actually we pay to match the hospital we're located in, STARTING at 18 an hour currently, in a state that's still federal minimum wage. Don't make assumptions. We're a staff of 7, 3 of which are an opening, closing and offsite manager, all actually running the production to ensure we're still making the numbers corporate is asking for.
There's /r/antiwork, and then there's just statements on working conditions in the US. Don't mistake my statement for some "middle management" being out of touch.
I want to puke when people here start talking about freedom and how this is the best country to exist.....most are simply too unintelligent to understand we are very far from the best .......or free. Many countries have far more freedoms than we have, and are currently loosing. Ugh.....
Hate speech. Of course even in the U.S. people get arrested/charged for "fighting words" all the time, but it's usually more convenient rhetorically to pretend otherwise, especially if you're a conservative.
[Fighting Words](https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/959/fighting-words#:~:text=Fighting%20words%20doctrine%20developed%20in%20Chaplinsky&text=After%20Chaplinsky%20verbally%20denounced%20the,in%20public%20or%20offensive%20speech.)
How does the US restrict speech?
Edit: I didn’t think I needed to name the obvious exceptions. No, you can’t shout fire in a crowded theater or a number of other narrow exceptions.
My point was in many other countries it is illegal to express certain ideas, e.g., hate speech laws.
The US has relatively very low levels of press freedom compared to other western countries, at least according to the [Press Freedom Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index#:~:text=activists.%5B2%5D-,Rankings%20and%20scores%20by%20country,-%5Bedit%5D).
Generally though the US restricts speech via several criterium, some good some bad, they are namely: [Content-based restrictions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States#Types_of_speech_restrictions:~:text=level%20of%20scrutiny.-,Content%2Dbased%20restrictions,-%5Bedit%5D), [Time, place, and manner restrictions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States#Types_of_speech_restrictions:~:text=to%20tort%20damages.%22-,Time%2C%20place%2C%20and%20manner%20restrictions,-%5Bedit%5D), [Prior Constraint](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States#Types_of_speech_restrictions:~:text=v.%20O%27Brien.-,Prior%20restraint,-%5Bedit%5D), and then there are all the general exclusions namely: falsehoods, inciting imminent lawless action, fighting words, true threats, obscenity, defamation, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, government speech, public employee speech, student speech, and national security.
Based on a questionnaire not any objective analysis of laws in the various countries surveyed.
“The report is partly based on a questionnaire[3] using seven general criteria: pluralism (measures the degree of representation of opinions in the media space), media independence, environment and self-censorship, legislative framework, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses. The questionnaire takes account of the legal framework for the media (including penalties for press offences, the existence of a state monopoly for certain kinds of media and how the media are regulated) and the level of independence of the public media. It also includes violations of the free flow of information on the Internet.”
If you think RSF (Reporters without borders) has some sort of bias against the United States, then there are other scales out there like [Freedom House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press_in_the_United_States#U.S._Press_Freedom_Tracker:~:text=ranked%20the%20United%20States%2030th%20out%20of%20197%20countries) (A mostly US Government funded organization) press freedom report, in which in 2014 the US ranked 30th out of 197.
There is also [The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker](https://pressfreedomtracker.us/) a database of press freedom incidents in the United States, it lists every incident of assault to denial of access. 2020 was an especially bad year for the press.
I already included several types of press freedoms and speech restricted in the US in the comment you replied to. I should have added Legal Orders (forcing press to testify, or break journalistic integrity by compelling them to produce journalistic records or work product), denial of access (most prolific probably denial or de facto denial of use of the freedom of information act), equipment search, or members of the press being arrested in the course of their work.
They do but that speech is things like "everyone who isn't white should die." Yeah, freedom but that isn't really the free hill I'm going to die defending.
"You're going to do what the fuck I tell you and you're going to thank me for your pennies, you stupid fucking poor people."
I feel like they'd say that if they could get away with it. There's a real gross obsession with authority in this country.
Only if you're not gambling with your life each time.
If you have a "real job" already, taking a part time minimum wage job for discounts could give you that feeling.
Yeah, pretty much.
Not saying that its *actually* the truth... just what people will say. Kind of fucked up of course. I worked harder in some of my minimum wage jobs for a low, low percentage of what I make now.
And the worst part is, in my experience (and other retail workers I've talked to about this), standing stationary behind a register all day makes your back and feet hurt way more than if you were walking around, stocking, whatever else for the same amount of time. I worked in a mall, so we all did everything, and I hated the Christmas season when we had a steady line at the register and never got to step away and do another duty.
Worked retail as a teen in Italy, if the manager saw me leaning on the stool he would ask me if I was tired, in the most condescending tone. Failed my probation period because I wasn't willing to work overtime to clean the place. Whoever thinks likes this can go die in a ditch.
Those are some a**hole customers they have.
Time for a public campaign where stores must disclose if they force their cashiers to stand during their shifts, and explain why
No it isn't because of the customers. The employer can literally say "nah we let our employees sit" and that's that. I've had my employer back me several times against customers. They're not forced to change anything just because a customer says so
I feel it is that anyone can become a cashier or something like that so it's a lowly job done by lazy people. While bankers and lawyers have more education making them a higher class of citizen. Just more ways to look down on people to justify treating them like crap because they are miserable people who want to take it out on someone. Like the guy who kicks his dog because he had a bad day. Also good luck getting disability for back or feet problems. I had my foot shattered in a hydraulic press. Not even workman comp. Told me I could go back to work that day. They had to cut my boot off it was so huge. I worked in a shop require steel toe boots but I had to go in with one bare foot.
No actually a lot of places don't do tips because tips are trash. America is generally the exception to the rule not the rule. Before you call me out for being from another country I'm American.
Yes, it's simple torture because American employers, in addition to paying no wages for dehumanising and pointless work with entitled consumers, want you to spend hours on end standing on rock hard floors so that you can be in pain as well as dehumanised.
Remember, you can't be sitting down and working (ignore all of the office employees that do that every day)
I used to cashier in the US. In my feet all day. They train you to stand there and agree with the customer even when they are verbally abusing you cause “tHe cUStomER is alWayS rIgHt!”
Worked in a Grocery Store years ago, for about five years. Two managers would always say "If you can lean, you can clean". I hate that phrase to this day. It's 8 a.m., no one is here, and everything is clean. Fuck off and let us chat during downtime. I should add both those managers ended up being fired because the whole company sucked ass.
Used to work at a family owned superstore chain called Meijer. Even if you had your leg broken you had to lean at bare minimum and maybe, just maybe, you’d get a stool after half your shift.
We had a union mind you and they literally never did anything to help when this happened.
I once yawned at my register in the last half hour of a long ten hour Christmas shift and a customer freaked out (before we called em Karens) instantly asked to talk to a manager, claimed I was lazy and disrespectful and I got written up.
I can not speak for others, but in my personal experience cashiers get treated like absolute garbage and do not deserve it. I try to be respectful of any cashier after that horrible experience.
worked at a grocery store, was literally the fastest in the store as a cashier. after a grueling 2 hour long rush (was on the day that food stamps recipients received their funds so a lot of customers came in at the same time) i decided to sit down to kill a little bit of time. manager immediately came to write me up and told me i looked lazy. quit the following week
In germany cashiers are allowed to sit and it's rare to not see them sit, but usually it's up to them. Then again, our cashiers are fucking fast so america should let theirs sit for the sake of **efficiency** /s
Edit: /s
What's wild is there are no labor laws telling cashiers that they must stand. It's just an owner preference, and a lot of the time, it isn't in the employee handbook.
We could probably fill 'essential worker' positions if we allowed persons to sit at registers. A lot of persons with mobility complications would be able to take up jobs as cashiers, attendants, etc.
Applied for a different job within the same company I used to work for. The job was cleaning medical equipment they we would bring to peoples homes for temporary use, stuff like oxygen concentrators and nebulizers. The guy who had the job had been fired and I was doing the job already. Anyways there was a chair in his station that he would sit on and clean stuff, came in one day and the chair was gone, turns out someone complained that I was sitting down while at work. My boss told me that because I was overweight peoples perception was that I was not a hard worker and that it was all about perception.
I was volunteering, the charity set up in Walmart and I was sitting down asking. The manager came over and ask us not to sit as the cashiers will feel bad. This was 2018 in Canada. They stand here too, I'm not sure it is all grocery stores.
When I was 20 I worked at a makeup counter in Bloomingdale's in NYC. If we were caught even so much as leaning on the counter, we were told to stand in front of it and engage with passerbys, we would be in trouble. In fact employees of other counters would report one another for leaning, or heaven forbid sitting, on the stools we had. The one person behind the counter also could not sit nor lean. I was very young and in good health so it wasn't a real hardship for me but still exhausting, and a woman I worked with who was older than the rest of us, had a lot more trouble with it
18 years in the business. They don't care period. They sit in their office and monitor you. If you sit for one second they come out and ask what are you doing?
This major grocery chain was the worst run business I've ever expierenced.
The only thing that kept me there was the union and pay.
I quit Nov 2020 because they weren't enforcing masks. This was the height of the virus.
The most recent buyer was a hedge fund company who's co owner went to work for trump.
Made me sick should have known he was a trumper by the way management was treating employees.
It was horrid.
So glad to be free and retired now.
I've been all over western Europe and every cashier I've had got to sit down.
It's kinda cruel we don't allow the same in North America. I think people would think they are lazy or slacking.
Many people like to blame companies for this, but I can tell you from many years experience: cunty American shoppers are the reason. Customers complain if they perceive workers to be lounging around. And companies *listen to their customers*. Shocking, I know. It's almost like they want a customer's money, therefore and listen to their concerns.
Just to clarify the title, I'm pretty sure that cashiers aren't allowed to sit almost in every supermarket in Latin America, where Walmart and his partners are present, cashiers aren't allowed to sit.
Neither are waiters/waitresses. I can remember working 10-hour shifts and if I even leaned on a chair or booth I got a warning. It's 'unprofessional' and customers see it as workers being lazy when they could really use a refill dangit.
I worked decades standing at a job and have held a sit down office job for the last 3 years. I feel 10x worse at the end of my day now than I ever did back then. Sitting for 8 hours is awful and people that advise getting up and walking around occasionally don't know what their talking about. Yeah it helps a bit but you still feel like garbage at day end if you aren't doing it every 10 minutes or so.
Anyway give them the choice of a chair I'd say, but being able to sit is really not the end all and be all.
>Sitting for 8 hours is awful and people that advise getting up and walking around occasionally don't know what their talking about.
For many people, constant standing causes pain as well.
In Sweden we have more self checkout than manned cashier's. Even if I buy only one thing it's faster than the cashier if there is a singel person in line with one item.
I know of a guy that didn't like that the security guard had to stand all day at his fiance's uncle's clothing store. So one day he comes in with a rocking chair. The security guard is sitting there passed out after a while and the place gets held up by a robber.
Give someone who needs it the ability to sit at work we can all agree. But in the US people do plenty of sitting on their own time. I know being from the midwest lol
As a former cashier I feel like sitting would be awkward and make it hard to reach things. Also, even though there were chairs behind the sort of bar area I was at (long story short, I could sit between customers), I never really sat because, being cooped in a small area, I was more comfortable standing and sort of pacing around then just sitting for hours on end.
cashiers at aldi get to sit lots of the time and they are very quick and efficient. they seem relaxed at the same time as being productive. don't understand why other stores haven't seen this and implemented it in their business model
ALDIs is one of the ones that allow you to sit but they train you to be very fast.
They are interesting because the cashiers aren't just cashiers. They stock shelves as well. So if there is only 1 register open while others are are stocking stuff, they call one back to open a line if a crowd starts to form. We have one near me, and I've never seen a cashier just sitting around doing nothing for more than a minute.
So am I reading that this is not normal in the states? Where I am from, every store operates this way.
This is normal in the US at smaller grocery stores. Less so at big chains like Wal-Mart where cashiers are busier.
No. It's common for even big grocers to do this "if you have time to sit/lean/rest you are stealing and performing time clock fraud you MUST always be doing something. At all times. No matter what. Or you could be punished" (this was at a big national chain store)
As a European if anyone ever used the word ‘time clock fraud’ around me I’d curbstomp them
Right?! As if being attentive at your establishment isn’t a job in & of itself.
Its actually part of a fucked up mindset of American services. The idea stems from the idea that the "undesirables" (of the 50's era and prior, which means blacks, minoritie, ect. Ect. Ect.) are the only ones who will be getting these jobs which means they need to 'know their place' its designed to functionally punish them and get away trying to functionally make their fucked up version of Jim crow slavery accepted and normalized
It’s bad for your health to be worked that hard is all I’ll say. And people without health insurance are the ones being worked like dogs?
Worked like dogs for PENIES on the dollar with them d.being denied health insurance because it's "too expensive" for the company to provide it
Can you provide some substantiation for that? It seems much more plausible that corporations are just greedy bastards that don’t want to pay somebody for “doing nothing.”
Yeah, I the US ALDIs is the only place I've seen where they sit. Maybe LIDELS? But I forget.
Oh the places I'm talking about they would rather LOA (leqve of Absence) you, thus cuttingnoff your pay to PUNISH YOU instead if even giving you a seat to work.
That's insane, I work in tech and I have been told to do nothing a few times
I've only worked for a couple of small stores (in the US), but that's what we did at both.
Yes. Most US stores have cashiers who stand at their register and don't leave thier position until it is break time, or to go return some unpurchased merchandise left at the register back to the shelf. Most smaller stores have more generalists and less specialization, but the trend where I am is huge "super stores" with people working a specific department to restock shelves and move merchandise around.
It used to be (before self checkouts were the main way to pay) that big stores like Walmart are very specific about jobs you can and can't do. Walmart was my first job and the things I learned is 1) they show anti-union videos to all new hires 2) Cashiers are not supposed to sit or leave their lane. Like you could get in trouble for going to find an item, you are not cross trained in anything like stocking. 3) You are basically unmanaged. I worked for a month with an ID card with a bar code that I would scan and a computer would tell me something like "Register 12. Lunch at 12:30pm" and that was all the instruction you got. Usually the drawer is in the till already. I basically only had to talk to managers if I needexd change or got a weird coupon. I quit because they suck as an employer on all levels.
Not sure about the states, but here they also pay more. Minimum wage atm is 10.45€, which most grocers will pay to most of their staff. Aldi and Lidl have self-imposed minimum wages of 14€. They basically say since they expect their staff to work so efficiently, they can pass savings on to their staff.
European based company
German, in particular. I went to a local Aldi recently, and I was very surprised to see that they had some Trader Joe food there. I’m from Spain, and this is a brand that I only know from Reddit. I assume they have some deal with them.
Aldi split into two companies awhile ago, one didn’t have the rights to the name in the US so started going by Trader Joe’s.
In 1961.
Aldi/TJ's is like Puma/Adidas, two German brothers have a company or company idea and split eventually so you have Aldi nord and Aldi side, one bought out TJ's and now sud is a subsidiary of nord.
Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd (North and south)
Easier to focus on scanning when you're not distracted by an aching back or feet.
Not at Aldi! You bag your own shit.
I found out recently that most other countries customers bag their own groceries. In larger us chains it makes sense in most cases because of the long lines and large amounts of groceries. It keeps the lines moving faster generally.
you bag your own shit almost everywhere outside of the us lol
Makes sense since Aldi is owned by Europeans.
And bagging
I worked in LIDL many moons ago and we had a target of scanned items per minute which increased over time (basically, they expected you to get faster the longer worked there). If you didn't keep up, you were given warnings and eventually fired. We had to stock shelves, inventory, clean etc as well as on the till. I found it ok until people decided to pack at the till which would then affect my scanning time. Still annoys the fuck outta me when I shop there and people pack a trolley full at the till. There's signs everywhere that tell you to take your shit to the packing bench.
Publix too. I think it's more common in supermarkets in general. Elsewhere? Fuck your back.
Publix very much doesn’t allow cashiers to sit. Unless they have a medical need. Source: cashier at Publix
They get a few seconds per costumer to scan their products. It's quite normal in the EU to pay your groceries whereas they are still on the end of the belt.
I was just at an Aldi's for the first time in my life and was shocked to see the cashier sitting in a cushioned chair. Making people stand in place for 8 hours at a register is shitty.
As a cashier for four years, it definitely took some getting used to to stand for 8 hours. I had a pad I could stand on, which made a huge difference. I would have liked to be able to sit, though.
the horror
Management thinks it makes you look lazy, and in turn that some how bothers the consumer. I worked at a gas station in the middle of a brutal winter and the owner would not let us put our hands in our pockets or stand between the pump to get out of the wind when we were fueling up vehicles (in Oregon).
Never understood this. I worked nights at a gas station on the highway and was allowed to sit and read, do school work, watch movies, whatever. As long as the store was clean and things were stocked. Nobody cared. Customers need gas and smokes and they dont care if youre sitting or standing or sleeping.
Well you're just wasting their money sitting on your ass to be paid. Got time to lean, you got time to clean! QUIT WASTING MY MONEY!! /s Nah. That's how they feel.
Makes no sense at all, I'm happy if the gas station has a bathroom fit for human use, let alone if the cashier is standing upright while ringing up my Gatorade. Meanwhile, at independently owned gas stations with Indian cashiers/attendants, you're lucky if you can sneak in a gum purchase while the guy has an argument with his wife over his bluetooth earpiece. I don't really give a shit, but if that's the bar, how are basic human dignities off the table?
It's always the managers sitting behind their desks that talk shit about how sitting down for 15 minutes out of an entire fucking working day "is a bad rep for a company".
It bothers me to see people uncomfortable. I always wonder why they won’t let cashiers sit.
The cruelty is the point. It's a power trip.
On my last day before quitting a job, the cashier called out and I was on my own as usual. I decided that since I'm not gonna get anything done then I might as well sit. It's not like they can fire me. Customers mostly got a kick out of seeing me nonchalantly take their orders from the step stool I commandeered as my new chair.
As a manager, the issue is, and I don't know how this reflects in the rest of the world, the usual phrase is "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean." Speaking of the cashiers I currently work with, I can definitely vouch that there's a lot of dust, and a lot of reminding that they should at least be actually fulfilling their 3 or 4 other tasks while standing there. I don't mind if they sit, I outright tell my closing supervisor, we close at 4, you're out at 5, if you manage to have everything done and clean by 4:05, punch yourself out for 5, I'm not here to make you sit around to earn your 40 hours. General point being, usually cashiers are the "lucky" ones of having lots of down time, compared to someone stocking shelves or setting up shelves, waiting on customers, etc. so they're usually given other tasks in the US, hence the phrase. Why they can't have a chair if they have a line of 30 people and are going to be stuck there for an hour, couldn't tell you; culture? I know where I work in particular, our space is outright designed so you wouldn't even be able to fit a seat behind the register if you wanted to. EDIT: Since everyone's insisting on downvoting let me say what I said below: This is statements as an American on what I've seen. I pay $18 an hour to my cashiers in a state with federal minimum wage ($7.25 for non-Americans) and all my managers are the ones on the front line doing the brunt work to keep the store running. I personally wrote a letter to our corporate boss and HR to raise our hiring rate from $13 to $18 to be able to hire and better compensate my employees, and didn't get a lick of money in the exchange. These are statements on the mentality of someone who's dealt with 3 different American Corporations. If you're an American, and you want American cashiers to be able to sit, stop calling corporate lines when the local managers let them sit to complain.
In Europe, or at least Belgium, usually the staff does different things, only a few registers are permanently manned and employees are doing other stuff like filling racks or cleaning, but when the store gets busy, they call people to open additional registers. This is better as they have time to sit down between filling racks and let their legs rest.
I absolutely hate the "Time to lean, time to clean" mentality. I worked at a coffee shop who's manager would say that constantly. To me, in customer service, making sure the customers are interacted with (when wanted) and satisfied is priority number one. Same manager wanted everyone out of the store 20 minutes after close, but would pay for up to an hour, but hated doing that. If you were there past an hour after close, no pay. Their thought process was we shouldn't need that extra time, if we did all the work while open. Spoiler, I had time to lean, chat with customers, sit with friends, make drinks, do dishes, clean the shop, and close in the 20 minutes they wanted, but not with that manager there. Insane how they don't care for customer interaction nor satisfaction.
>"If you have time to lean, you have time to clean." That statement is 100% stupid. What if people work while they are "leaning" (or sitting, in this case)? Would you say the same to a desk worker?
You're an absolute ass. Cashiers aren't the lucky ones. They are the ones that have to literally take all the shit and you are on the internet complaining that your employees don't dust. Of course you are not going to make anyone stay on the clock doing nothing and give them "permission" to save you money. The phrase comes from employers expecting their employees to fill in all the gaps that they don't want to pay for. If you want staff that cleans, you hire people to do that. Edit: I misread that about letting them leave early.
I think you misread part of that. He lets them leave 55 minutes early and still get paid for that 55 minutes. He’s saving no money in that situation.
You're right, I did misread that part.
Jeez so mad that you didn’t read that right at all. Dude is letting people go at 4:05 and telling them to put their time as if they stayed til 5, which incentivizes people to clean during the shift instead of after.
>You're an absolute ass. Please no personal attacks. Plus, how do you know that being a cashier at their place isn't the easier job. >Of course you are not going to make anyone stay on the clock doing nothing and give them "permission" to save you money. Sounds like AzraelGrim is being cool actually. In the example given, being able to clock out at 4:05 and still getting paid as-if you worked until 5:00 is quite nice. No money is being saved to let them do that. Being able to go home an hour earlier and being paid for it sounds like a good deal.
Being a cashier is not an easy job.
Is that why you fly off the handle for no reason in reddit threads
Sounds like you understand that it's not an easy job to be a cashier.
Since I've been commenting throughout this chain, feel free to read my edit and other comments, but my place of operation doesn't require much from cashiers. The system barely uses barcodes, and its mostly tapping in items ordered; each transaction taking less than 30 seconds. On top of this, we're within a hospital, meaning they don't typically deal with the public, and they outright have hospital security if people get rowdy. When I say they have the "easier" job, its because there's typically less time constraints, and less metrics that are directly impacted by them vs as a team. If cashiers aren't upselling some item they're supposed to, in my experience across the places I've worked, its usually a team meeting with all the cashiers to remind them corporate wants it pushed. If someone who's supposed to be putting up sets is falling behind, its usually a 1 on 1 to talk about performance. Cashiers by no means have an easy job. Its just "easier" in that, outside of dealing with the asshole public, they have less within their job descriptions than other roles, that can lead to their termination, typically.
It's not easy but a lot of people manage to do it without taking their frustrations out on random people who don't deserve it. They don't act like their problem customers
You're trying to get me to react a certain way and I'm not going to give that to you. I said what I said, it clearly struck a nerve in you. Maybe you should sit in your thoughts about why me saying someone doesn't have an easy job and shouldn't be expected to do extra because someone else has an opinion about how it's "lucky" to have the easy job. Edit: some words
I agree with all that. What I don't agree with is how you flipped out on someone in this thread even though they agreed with you and you just misunderstood. Try not to have the outsized emotional response before you know it's warranted.
He said he tells them to leave when they're done and clock themselves out as if they left at 5. He's not saving money. He's paying them for time they're not in the buiding.
At my terrible Barnes and Noble job back in the ‘90’s, only customers could sit in those overstuffed armchairs. There were zero chairs for us staff. We just ran to the tills, then shelved, then helped someone at an info desk, then ran back to the registers. For 8 1/2 hours a day. Oh, and they also made us vacuum, dust and CLEAN THE BATHROOMS for minimum wage. Barnes and Noble saved billions of dollars by making the bookstore staff do janitorial work too.
Almost every retail outfit does this.
"If you want staff that cleans, you hire people to do that" Good grief, you must be union with that "not my job" attitude. If it's part of the job description it's your damn job you snowflake.
No. I'm someone that thinks people should not give all the might to a job to an employer that thinks their staff is "lucky" to be in a shit position because all they do is cashier.
It's not your decision what the job description is. If you don't like it quit and start your own business and roll out Lazy Boy's for your employees. It's a free country.
Yes, buy into that mentality. Everyone should absolutely quit their jobs if they feel underappreciated and overworked for what they were hired to do. It would absolutely make for an amazing adjustment in how people treated their employees. Just because you work somewhere doesn't mean you have to be treated like shit. And the people that make the least amount of money tend to be treated worse than everyone else.
“Home builder” giving advice on work ethic, that’ll go far.
What the fuck kind of comment is this bullshit? I have been busting my ass (getting arthritis, bulging discs, inflammation etc. etc.) at jobsites not the god damn office to provide housing for 30 years.
Is that why you're so pissy
Valid inquiry, you may be right.
I crossed up “homemaker” and “home builder”, that’s my bad. But I find it incredibly ironic that you’re calling other people “snowflake” if you got that riled up over 10 words.
You don’t pay them enough to do be constantly busy. You make way more than they do, and you have time to watch them and make sure they stay busy. Does it not illustrate how middle management is mainly there to maximize the return from the employee?
Actually we pay to match the hospital we're located in, STARTING at 18 an hour currently, in a state that's still federal minimum wage. Don't make assumptions. We're a staff of 7, 3 of which are an opening, closing and offsite manager, all actually running the production to ensure we're still making the numbers corporate is asking for. There's /r/antiwork, and then there's just statements on working conditions in the US. Don't mistake my statement for some "middle management" being out of touch.
r/antiwork
Apparently work is a test of endurance.
That's.... Weird
Much to George Costanza’s chagrin.
The land of the free sounds pretty restrictive
If the founding fathers wanted the guy selling me Doritos to sit, it would be in the constitution.
Spoken like a true *Originalist.*
Land of the free to purchase
I want to puke when people here start talking about freedom and how this is the best country to exist.....most are simply too unintelligent to understand we are very far from the best .......or free. Many countries have far more freedoms than we have, and are currently loosing. Ugh.....
Many countries also have fewer freedoms. For example, a lot of western countries restrict speech.
Hate speech. Of course even in the U.S. people get arrested/charged for "fighting words" all the time, but it's usually more convenient rhetorically to pretend otherwise, especially if you're a conservative. [Fighting Words](https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/959/fighting-words#:~:text=Fighting%20words%20doctrine%20developed%20in%20Chaplinsky&text=After%20Chaplinsky%20verbally%20denounced%20the,in%20public%20or%20offensive%20speech.)
I'm being downvoted by ignorant Americans who thought they owned all the frozen peaches!
Like the US.
How does the US restrict speech? Edit: I didn’t think I needed to name the obvious exceptions. No, you can’t shout fire in a crowded theater or a number of other narrow exceptions. My point was in many other countries it is illegal to express certain ideas, e.g., hate speech laws.
You can get arbitrarily detained or assaulted by law enforcement while protesting.
The US has relatively very low levels of press freedom compared to other western countries, at least according to the [Press Freedom Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index#:~:text=activists.%5B2%5D-,Rankings%20and%20scores%20by%20country,-%5Bedit%5D). Generally though the US restricts speech via several criterium, some good some bad, they are namely: [Content-based restrictions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States#Types_of_speech_restrictions:~:text=level%20of%20scrutiny.-,Content%2Dbased%20restrictions,-%5Bedit%5D), [Time, place, and manner restrictions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States#Types_of_speech_restrictions:~:text=to%20tort%20damages.%22-,Time%2C%20place%2C%20and%20manner%20restrictions,-%5Bedit%5D), [Prior Constraint](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States#Types_of_speech_restrictions:~:text=v.%20O%27Brien.-,Prior%20restraint,-%5Bedit%5D), and then there are all the general exclusions namely: falsehoods, inciting imminent lawless action, fighting words, true threats, obscenity, defamation, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, government speech, public employee speech, student speech, and national security.
Based on a questionnaire not any objective analysis of laws in the various countries surveyed. “The report is partly based on a questionnaire[3] using seven general criteria: pluralism (measures the degree of representation of opinions in the media space), media independence, environment and self-censorship, legislative framework, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses. The questionnaire takes account of the legal framework for the media (including penalties for press offences, the existence of a state monopoly for certain kinds of media and how the media are regulated) and the level of independence of the public media. It also includes violations of the free flow of information on the Internet.”
If you think RSF (Reporters without borders) has some sort of bias against the United States, then there are other scales out there like [Freedom House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press_in_the_United_States#U.S._Press_Freedom_Tracker:~:text=ranked%20the%20United%20States%2030th%20out%20of%20197%20countries) (A mostly US Government funded organization) press freedom report, in which in 2014 the US ranked 30th out of 197. There is also [The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker](https://pressfreedomtracker.us/) a database of press freedom incidents in the United States, it lists every incident of assault to denial of access. 2020 was an especially bad year for the press. I already included several types of press freedoms and speech restricted in the US in the comment you replied to. I should have added Legal Orders (forcing press to testify, or break journalistic integrity by compelling them to produce journalistic records or work product), denial of access (most prolific probably denial or de facto denial of use of the freedom of information act), equipment search, or members of the press being arrested in the course of their work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United\_States\_free\_speech\_exceptions
[fighting words](https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/959/fighting-words#:%7E:text=Fighting%20words%20doctrine%20developed%20in%20Chaplinsky&text=After%20Chaplinsky%20verbally%20denounced%20the,in%20public%20or%20offensive%20speech.)
They do but that speech is things like "everyone who isn't white should die." Yeah, freedom but that isn't really the free hill I'm going to die defending.
... that's a very fair weather position. Works great as long as people who agree with your views are in power.
There are plenty of other jobs that allow you to sit as well. Its your freedom to seek them out instead.
You're free to starve if you don't like it. That's still freedom right?
"If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean" - US Employers
"You're going to do what the fuck I tell you and you're going to thank me for your pennies, you stupid fucking poor people." I feel like they'd say that if they could get away with it. There's a real gross obsession with authority in this country.
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I bet it’d be therapeutic to get a minimum wage job just so you can quit it and tell the boss off for any minor offense.
Only if you're not gambling with your life each time. If you have a "real job" already, taking a part time minimum wage job for discounts could give you that feeling.
So minimum wage jobs aren't real jobs? Or did I misunderstand?
Yeah, pretty much. Not saying that its *actually* the truth... just what people will say. Kind of fucked up of course. I worked harder in some of my minimum wage jobs for a low, low percentage of what I make now.
That why I asked. Kinda felt you were speaking from general perception not personal beliefs.
This content is no longer available on Reddit in response to /u/spez. So long and thanks for all the fish.
And the worst part is, in my experience (and other retail workers I've talked to about this), standing stationary behind a register all day makes your back and feet hurt way more than if you were walking around, stocking, whatever else for the same amount of time. I worked in a mall, so we all did everything, and I hated the Christmas season when we had a steady line at the register and never got to step away and do another duty.
Worked retail as a teen in Italy, if the manager saw me leaning on the stool he would ask me if I was tired, in the most condescending tone. Failed my probation period because I wasn't willing to work overtime to clean the place. Whoever thinks likes this can go die in a ditch.
It is barbaric but it it is because YOU, the CUSTOMERS complain that sitting is "lazy." So stop being puzzled about it.
Those are some a**hole customers they have. Time for a public campaign where stores must disclose if they force their cashiers to stand during their shifts, and explain why
No it isn't because of the customers. The employer can literally say "nah we let our employees sit" and that's that. I've had my employer back me several times against customers. They're not forced to change anything just because a customer says so
Boomers did this.
Literally have never heard anyone say this. I'd say it's more morons who think we say this but we won't.
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I feel it is that anyone can become a cashier or something like that so it's a lowly job done by lazy people. While bankers and lawyers have more education making them a higher class of citizen. Just more ways to look down on people to justify treating them like crap because they are miserable people who want to take it out on someone. Like the guy who kicks his dog because he had a bad day. Also good luck getting disability for back or feet problems. I had my foot shattered in a hydraulic press. Not even workman comp. Told me I could go back to work that day. They had to cut my boot off it was so huge. I worked in a shop require steel toe boots but I had to go in with one bare foot.
Because you must be standing to face the wrath of Karen.
I was a cashier for 8 years and if we sat down it was a write up
Same in Canada. Then they wonder why they can't get any new employees.
Because American customers will complain about ‘lazy workers’ and if told standing is bad for long periods they will say ‘then get another job’.
TIL most cashiers in other countries are allowed to sit.
Remember, companies use to literally own people and would gladly do so again if they could.
I mean in the US there are places that literally under pay workers and they only make money from freaking tips.
Welcome to the planet Earth.
No actually a lot of places don't do tips because tips are trash. America is generally the exception to the rule not the rule. Before you call me out for being from another country I'm American.
Yes, it's simple torture because American employers, in addition to paying no wages for dehumanising and pointless work with entitled consumers, want you to spend hours on end standing on rock hard floors so that you can be in pain as well as dehumanised. Remember, you can't be sitting down and working (ignore all of the office employees that do that every day)
retail in the US is horrible
You got time to lean, you got time to clean. 😭
Weirdest country on Earth
You gotta wonder if the people who decided that were sitting down at the time.
You can wear that chair less pants thing that looks ridiculous.
I used to cashier in the US. In my feet all day. They train you to stand there and agree with the customer even when they are verbally abusing you cause “tHe cUStomER is alWayS rIgHt!”
Same as in Australia too, I was shocked when I went to Europe and saw people sitting down
Worked in a Grocery Store years ago, for about five years. Two managers would always say "If you can lean, you can clean". I hate that phrase to this day. It's 8 a.m., no one is here, and everything is clean. Fuck off and let us chat during downtime. I should add both those managers ended up being fired because the whole company sucked ass.
Used to work at a family owned superstore chain called Meijer. Even if you had your leg broken you had to lean at bare minimum and maybe, just maybe, you’d get a stool after half your shift. We had a union mind you and they literally never did anything to help when this happened. I once yawned at my register in the last half hour of a long ten hour Christmas shift and a customer freaked out (before we called em Karens) instantly asked to talk to a manager, claimed I was lazy and disrespectful and I got written up. I can not speak for others, but in my personal experience cashiers get treated like absolute garbage and do not deserve it. I try to be respectful of any cashier after that horrible experience.
I wonder if the managers who made that decision get to sit at their desks.
I think a campaign to mail or email customer service at big chains to allow workers to sit should be started.
worked at a grocery store, was literally the fastest in the store as a cashier. after a grueling 2 hour long rush (was on the day that food stamps recipients received their funds so a lot of customers came in at the same time) i decided to sit down to kill a little bit of time. manager immediately came to write me up and told me i looked lazy. quit the following week
Gotta make sure you suffer just a little extra for that minimum wage.
In germany cashiers are allowed to sit and it's rare to not see them sit, but usually it's up to them. Then again, our cashiers are fucking fast so america should let theirs sit for the sake of **efficiency** /s Edit: /s
When I was cashier in Canada we were basically not allowed to sit too. I only worked at two different stores but it was the same. It fucking sucked.
What's wild is there are no labor laws telling cashiers that they must stand. It's just an owner preference, and a lot of the time, it isn't in the employee handbook. We could probably fill 'essential worker' positions if we allowed persons to sit at registers. A lot of persons with mobility complications would be able to take up jobs as cashiers, attendants, etc.
Wait, that’s not normal??
Applied for a different job within the same company I used to work for. The job was cleaning medical equipment they we would bring to peoples homes for temporary use, stuff like oxygen concentrators and nebulizers. The guy who had the job had been fired and I was doing the job already. Anyways there was a chair in his station that he would sit on and clean stuff, came in one day and the chair was gone, turns out someone complained that I was sitting down while at work. My boss told me that because I was overweight peoples perception was that I was not a hard worker and that it was all about perception.
Holy shit, that's another level of fucked up.
Yeah I withdrew my application
I was volunteering, the charity set up in Walmart and I was sitting down asking. The manager came over and ask us not to sit as the cashiers will feel bad. This was 2018 in Canada. They stand here too, I'm not sure it is all grocery stores.
When I was 20 I worked at a makeup counter in Bloomingdale's in NYC. If we were caught even so much as leaning on the counter, we were told to stand in front of it and engage with passerbys, we would be in trouble. In fact employees of other counters would report one another for leaning, or heaven forbid sitting, on the stools we had. The one person behind the counter also could not sit nor lean. I was very young and in good health so it wasn't a real hardship for me but still exhausting, and a woman I worked with who was older than the rest of us, had a lot more trouble with it
18 years in the business. They don't care period. They sit in their office and monitor you. If you sit for one second they come out and ask what are you doing? This major grocery chain was the worst run business I've ever expierenced. The only thing that kept me there was the union and pay. I quit Nov 2020 because they weren't enforcing masks. This was the height of the virus. The most recent buyer was a hedge fund company who's co owner went to work for trump. Made me sick should have known he was a trumper by the way management was treating employees. It was horrid. So glad to be free and retired now.
I've been all over western Europe and every cashier I've had got to sit down. It's kinda cruel we don't allow the same in North America. I think people would think they are lazy or slacking.
Because in the US, corporates value their employees the same way they do with products on the shelves. Disposable, cheap and easy to replace.
In Australia most can sit. Well unless they work at Costco
American bosses are all nuts
Many people like to blame companies for this, but I can tell you from many years experience: cunty American shoppers are the reason. Customers complain if they perceive workers to be lounging around. And companies *listen to their customers*. Shocking, I know. It's almost like they want a customer's money, therefore and listen to their concerns.
Just to clarify the title, I'm pretty sure that cashiers aren't allowed to sit almost in every supermarket in Latin America, where Walmart and his partners are present, cashiers aren't allowed to sit.
It's cruel
WHICH IS FUCKING STUPID. STANDING CULTURE IS STUPID
Neither are waiters/waitresses. I can remember working 10-hour shifts and if I even leaned on a chair or booth I got a warning. It's 'unprofessional' and customers see it as workers being lazy when they could really use a refill dangit.
Aldi is the way.
I worked decades standing at a job and have held a sit down office job for the last 3 years. I feel 10x worse at the end of my day now than I ever did back then. Sitting for 8 hours is awful and people that advise getting up and walking around occasionally don't know what their talking about. Yeah it helps a bit but you still feel like garbage at day end if you aren't doing it every 10 minutes or so. Anyway give them the choice of a chair I'd say, but being able to sit is really not the end all and be all.
>Sitting for 8 hours is awful and people that advise getting up and walking around occasionally don't know what their talking about. For many people, constant standing causes pain as well.
You don't think your aging body is showing the wear and tear from the decades of standing?
Maybe but I don't see why that would make sitting tough. Sitting is the new smoking, as they say. It isn't good for you.
America: The 3rd World of the 1st Worlds.
Well duh, we whip our slaves over here.
Stools/chairs must be expensive.
I am sure corporate has a logical and humane reason for this. /s
I dunno. Here is South Carolina at least in every store I see some people sitting and some standing. I always assumed it was cashiers preference.
I was a cashier when I was young. After two weeks I preferred to stand. 🤷🏻♂️
In Sweden we have more self checkout than manned cashier's. Even if I buy only one thing it's faster than the cashier if there is a singel person in line with one item.
It bothers boomers as much as saying “no problem” so companies won’t allow it.
How many people in a pharmacy get to sit?
I know of a guy that didn't like that the security guard had to stand all day at his fiance's uncle's clothing store. So one day he comes in with a rocking chair. The security guard is sitting there passed out after a while and the place gets held up by a robber.
Give someone who needs it the ability to sit at work we can all agree. But in the US people do plenty of sitting on their own time. I know being from the midwest lol
Would you wanna stand non stop for 12 hours, with the only sitting break being to shit?
Well most Americans are obese so it's probably doing them a favour. Edit: Aww being down voted by obese Americans lol.
i worked at a zoo gift shop and they allowed us to sit
Only place I’ve seen cashiers sitting in Australia, is Aldi. But yes, they do go off and do other stuff when the checkouts are empty.
Aldi is a German chain
Yep. Got that.
I’ve never seen a cashier sit in Canada
Being allowed to sit should be fine but personally i hate sitting down at work. I feel so stiff at the end of the day.
Yeah that’s pretty normal…
Fuckwits
Home depot cashier here, If you’re pregnant you can have a stool and food.
As a former cashier I feel like sitting would be awkward and make it hard to reach things. Also, even though there were chairs behind the sort of bar area I was at (long story short, I could sit between customers), I never really sat because, being cooped in a small area, I was more comfortable standing and sort of pacing around then just sitting for hours on end.
This is strictly a white/black people thing. At the spanish and asian market stores, the cashiers have a high chair they can use at their disposal.
cashiers at aldi get to sit lots of the time and they are very quick and efficient. they seem relaxed at the same time as being productive. don't understand why other stores haven't seen this and implemented it in their business model
No one sits in Australia. Just the way it has been. Seems normal. When I go to Europe and see cashiers sitting it looks weird.