A recent article in The Guardian noted that employees in retail situations in the US are not only banned from using chairs whilst working, some have removed access to seating during breaks:
“I think it’s a very classist thing,” Zay said. “No one would dare criticize a lawyer for sitting on the job. But in retail or the service industry, when the job is deemed to be unskilled labor, people get irrationally offended when they see you sitting.”
With the aging workforce this is an issue which needs addressing, but workers of all ages see it as disrespectful and unnecessary:
'Zay, the Georgia worker, quit after her boss took away seating. She says she wasn’t the only employee to put in their notice after what her team has started to call chair-gate. Ultimately, she said, the move was emblematic of a toxic workplace in general.
“I want to point out that it’s employers like these who go on and on about how no one wants to work because they can’t accept the simple truth that no one wants to do back-breaking labor with insulting pay all for a boss who couldn’t care less about their wellbeing,” she said.'