I recently returned from a month-long stint at my boyfriends house in England. This time, when visiting, I noticed that the cashiers at their supermarkets all sit-down on the job. I questioned my boyfriend, wondering if they had won some sort of labour law battle. Turns out, its always been that way. Then I thought back to my time behind the cash at a certain mega-grocer, and realized they were slave drivers! 8 hours on your feet, in spot, only allowed to take a drink on your break? It’s absolutely ridiculous. We could learn a thing or two from the european way of doing things.
—hater of the system
This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2009.
Once you get used to it, it’s not that bad standing to do cash work, although sitting down would probably encourage people to BE cashiers. Almost every grocery store out there is short staffed.
Also: I’d take a drink with me anyway. I always carried water with me. It’s ludicrous how they wouldn’t let you bring WATER with you. But after my workplace accident and the fact that they knew I was diabetic, no one said shit to me about that. *shrug*
Yea I’m in the Netherlands now and they sit down, plus you have to bag your own.
well you do get your 2 beaks and lunch if your working 8 hours
sitting down while scanning would seem lazy to me
Thank gawd for self scan checkouts!
I am reminded of that Seinfeld episode where George gets a security guard who stands all day to have a seat, which leads to the store being robbed.
Memories aside, you get used to standing, and they provide mats that make it easier. The no water at the checkouts thing I could never get behind.
I’m in a job where I work a 12 hour shift, approx 8 hrs standing. Regardless of mats or rubber floors, over time there will be effects on ankles, knees, hips and back.
I’ve got chronic back problems, and notice my knees hurting sometimes also.. but hey… show biz is my life!!
🙂
Try being a nurse with 12 hour shifts, very little sitting down and the job lasts 30-35 years.
My dad used to work at a very labour intensive job where he stood on his feet 8 hours a day on concrete floors. He has arthritis in his ankle from a broken ankle that wasn’t fixed properly and when he came home his ankle would look like there was a grapefruit on the side of it. He worked at that job for about 30 years (that was AFTER his ankle injury, so he spent 30 years dealing with that shit).
I really didn’t have much to complain about when I thought about that when I was doing cash work. And actually, you’d think sitting down would impede your mobility when it came to reaching for things on the belt…maybe that’s just me. I will say though, that 8 hours on my feet would KILL my injured knee — the pain would radiate throughout my entire leg when I came home…so in the end I had to request 5 hour shifts max.
OP, not only in England, but the majority of the world operates in that manner.