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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Topic: Sitting While On the Job
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Christopher Duvall
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 500
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 07-17-2004 06:22 AM
California and Nevada have fairly strict laws about breaks for ALL employees. This is mainly due to the ULTRA LIBERAL mentality of these states. Before I get stern lecture about bringing up politics on this thread I will get off my soapbox now.
As for the chair thing, the statute sounds like it was written a bit vague for interpretation. To me, it sounds like a way to make sure the employer is providing a comfortable environment for breaktimes besides just providing a breakroom.
Here is my argument...
Maybe I am a bit old fasioned here, but if you are not on break, then you should be working. The last time I checked, theatres regardless of chains, ALWAYS have something to be cleaned, fixed, organized, checked on and what have you. Therefore, no chairs need to be provided for anybody at any floor level position including box office. On a side note, managers may use them if they are doing any paperwork or computer work during down times. Other than that, they should be out on the floor making their presence known to customers and staff and helping where needed.
Besides all that crap, chairs and stools being used by staff members on the floor looks ghetto when it is busy. Hell, you might as well give the employee gum to smack on while helping customers from a chair. To me, that's how bad it looks. However, at the expense of sound hypocritical, I do provide stools for my box office cashiers but it is understood that when there are customers coming to the box, they need to hop to attention and stand for all transactions.
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Dave Williams
Wet nipple scene
Posts: 1836
From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 07-17-2004 12:41 PM
Back in the day when I ran my theater, my policy was this...
We all work our tails off until the set is complete, then we clean and prepare for the next set...
THEN WE HAVE TIME FOR A BREAK...
Since no one would be in the lobby area for the most part, we would all pull up a chair or whatever, ciao down on a delivered pizza, have a coke, share our stories of the set and reminisce on past ones and crazy customers, and then fifteen or twenty minutes later, we get to posts and start clearing out the theaters and selling tickets and concessions.. and then start over again...
It worked so well, I had nearly no turnover in three years, just six people in all, and only because they went on to college or whatever. The respect that we had was like a very close family, and we all had expectations of each other, instead of iron fist management. We made lots of money, I shared bonuses with the crew, and it was a fun time...
But that theater came to an end when a megaplex opened up one mile away. Damn traterous customers!! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!
Ciao ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Dave
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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 07-18-2004 12:17 PM
Stupid fucking teh ghey forum reloaded and erased what I was typing, so here we go again:
---
When I've been working for more than 3-4 hours, in booth and helping the floor staff, I HAVE to sit. Even if for 5 minutes or so. I don't have any medical conditions and consider myself an able-bodied young man, but when you've been on your feet for more than three hours, they hurt! And I'm walking around all the time, box and door people are standing in one spot which can become even more painful.
My mother worked in an assembley line for over 10 years and had to stand in one spot on a hard floor for 4+ hours at a time. Now, when she is on her feet for more than an hour straight, she gets leg and back pains. She was paid well, but to do that kind of damage to yourself for minimum wage is downright blasphemous.
Here's what OSHA says on the topic. This is geared towards grocery store checkouts, but most of it applies to box office as well:
quote:
Consider using checkstands designed with an adjustable sit/stand or lumbar support against which cashiers can lean.
Provide foot rests for cashiers. Alternately resting the feet helps to reduce fatigue.
Provide adequate toe space (at least 4 inches) at the bottom of the workstation. Toe space allows cashiers to move closer to the checkstand, decreasing reaching requirements.
Use footrests and anti-fatigue mats in areas where workers stand for prolonged periods. Standing on anti-fatigue mats, as compared to bare floors, provides a noticeable improvement in comfort.
Place keyboards on supports that adjust in height, horizontal distance and tilt to keep work within the preferred work zone.
Adjust the checkstand height to match the cashier's waist height, or use a platform.
If Carmike Cinemas allowed me to sit for 5 minutes for every 3 hours of my double-shift instead of constantly "finding stuff for me to do" perhaps I wouldn't have been so exhausted to the point of DROPPING DEAD FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES in the middle of the auditorium and being awoken by EMS. ![[Mad]](mad.gif)
Which leads me to another point. There ARE times when there's nothing to do. Those that claim there's "always something to be done" are simply looking for inane tasks to assign to the staff so as not to waste precious payroll. One of the dumbest things I was asked to do in my early years was to wipe off the non-existent fingerprints from the payphones that haven't been used since the previous day. And I had to stand while doing it!
quote: Christopher Duvall
California and Nevada have fairly strict laws about breaks for ALL employees. This is mainly due to the ULTRA LIBERAL mentality of these states.
Better than the ULTRA FASCIST states that allow employers to work the employees for slave-wages and bust up Unions. "Man, this theater would be SO MUCH more profitable if it weren't for these damn employees!"
quote: Carl Martin
i suppose most theaters have break rooms where it's possible to relax/eat out of sight of the punters. we don't have that.
You should look into this. I couldn't find it in time for this posting, but there's another OSHA document that clearly states that an Employer must provide an adequate BREAK ROOM for employees. Apparently, some employers believe this simply means to set up a folding card table with a chair next to the soda bibs. But that's the soda room then, not the break room, right?
I am flabberghasted (did I just use that word?) that most people simply don't care about their employees' well-being. But I suppose you must look at it from the view of the Corporation: It's not a person, it's a production unit. If the production unit isn't producing according to our productivity goal, or if the production unit's maintenance cost (read: wage) is too high, that production unit should be discarded in favor of a more productive, and hopefully cheaper one.
=TMP=
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Jason Black
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1723
From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 07-18-2004 02:27 PM
Thomas,
I must say.. the more you post, the more bitter you have become.
If you worked to the point of passing out, then I suggest ou have blood tests done. I see no vaild reasoning behind your passing out other than reasons outside of the workplace. There is nothing, I repeat NOTHING, in a theatre that is so demanding that you'd have to work to the point of passing out. Any manager with 1/2 a brain, and I know, I'm giving it a lot by stating that, allows their employees brief periods to walk away from their post for a bathroom break, smoke break, quick snack break, or actual mandated break (rest period).
I've said enough about this subject. Either you get it, or you don't, and I'm not necesasrily referring to you Thomas.
CIAO, as Dave would say.
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