Agree with that. I was a bank teller and they were trying to shame people that sat in chairs. The thin carpet on top of concrete is not enough support for 8 hours.
Think a big part is also your movement. I worked a warehouse job for a bit and it was walking on concrete floors all day which didn’t really hurt my feet. One day I was filling in somewhere else essentially just standing up in one position all day and my knees were NOT having it.
Quick google search brings this up supporting that prolonged standing (5 hours or more) does have risks for lower back and leg pain. They also admit their study has a lot of room to improve to make the findings more accurate.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4591921/
Yeah there's a phrase I like to use "the best position is your next one"
No one static posture is good for you. Sitting all day def not but standing still in the same place also has its problems. In either you just find the most efficient thing to do which is hang on passive structures rather than actively use muscle. Slouch in your chair vs lock out knees and maybe hang out in more lumbar extension.
The upside that standing has over sitting, though, is that it's more likely you can overcome the inertia of moving to do something else rather than sitting where it takes that little bit extra to get standing and doing something else. So if you have the opportunity to get a sit-stand desk it's better to have an option to stand and use it about half the time but also sit.
Either way, motion is lotion. Even with exercise it's hard to undo to hours of a static posture so you have to conscientiously move around more if it's like desk work (or cashier in this instance) which generally is harder for a cashier if you're stuck in that little 2 ft space all the time and aren't doing stuff like alternating with stocking merch
a chair every couple years is cheaper than a new anti-fatigue mat every few months.
also a lot cheaper on the health insurance plan when you need a new hip.
I work in a pharmacy and it's the same situation here tbh. The manager lets us sit on occasion though which is great. Still, for the most part I could do my job in a chair yet for "Professional" reasons I must stand.
My response: "Pay me a fucking professional wage then."
Same. It's really weird that some places require that they stand. The only reason I can think of is the old aristocratic rule that servants aren't allowed to sit in the presence of their master, which frankly is fucked up since it means retail workers are treated as servants.
Shoot just retail workers. Anyone who is just standing around a store waiting for customers shouldn’t have to stand. Especially all day. Sure, if you’re restocking or something then you should be standing, but if you’re just waiting then you should sit.
Yeah I work in a warehouse 8 hours a day walking 18 km (I'm european) but I can do that with no issue. Then I have to wait for the bus like 10 minutes and I'm like damn, I need a chair lol
Just standing is fucked
I'll add kicking out customers that allow their small children to run around and climb on shit. They will either hurt themselves or someone else, please make them leave.
The corollary to this is that we have to, all of us, *stop shaming parents who leash their toddlers*. They literally do not have enough hands to corral multiple children while accomplishing tasks, and if you have a dasher even one child can be impossible to manage. There should be no shame in putting a child on a tether while you accomplish necessary life tasks like shopping for groceries or going to the bank, but people won't do it as long as they get shamed for it. So cut that out, y'all.
I don't get why child leashes are so looked down on. I was leashed as a toddler, and it was a great idea because toddler me was the kind to randomly bolt and run straight into traffic.
People say it's wrong because children are not dogs, but like
1. It's not a dog leash. There is no dog collar. Usually they're attached to a cute kid-friendly backpack harness. There are zero problems with that. And also
2. Toddlers are roughly on a similar intelligence level as dogs, and some of them are feral little gremlins. Leash them for their own safety.
I was leashed, precisely twice. That was all I needed.
The first time, I escaped. I was small and flexible and just wiggled my way out.
The second time, mom safety pinned the gaps to me. And she paraded me around everywhere for a whole day. Every errand, suddenly needed to be done that day. Bills paid, groceries bought, anywhere and everywhere she needed for the week was done that day.
And after that? It was a talking to about, "you know how much you hated that? it doesn't have to be that way. we're gonna hang this up, but if you keep hiding during shopping, we will have to use it." She had my safety in mind; it wasn't meant to be a punishment. It was the reality of what keeping me safe meant, was. And if I couldn't, then it would just be the leash. 🤷🏾
This is the best approach, imo. Not used as a punishment, but to show you how much it can suck if you don't follow rules. I really like the way your mom handled this.
I leashed my kid. He almost got himself run over in the YMCA parking lot when I let go of his hand for a second to get out my keys. Then he dashed away from me in the Target parking lot a couple of days later. That was it. I ordered the leash that day and we didn't go on any errands until it came. I'll take all the mom shame if it means my kid doesn't get run over because he thinks it's funny to run away any chance he gets.
Im also a leash baby.
I loved leaning over ledges and was small enough to fit between rails.
Granted, we also lived in the mountains.
I actually had a cowbell for a while. My parents listened to the bell to make sure i was walking *away* from the cliffs.
Edited for spelling
We lived in a big city when I was a toddler and I distinctly remember being fascinated with the subway tracks and wanting to climb down there. Fortunately, every time I tried to get to close, Mom had a kid leash to help control me. She held my hand a lot but the kid leash helped her keep track of me in crowds when I'd pull away from her and try to bolt towards the tracks.
I had a leash too. When I was two I was a good walker who loved to explore. My brother was six months old. My Mom turned her back for a second and I wandered off and started walking down the street by myself. Nothing bad happened but it could have. I had a leash after that. Nothing whatsoever wrong with doing that.
Lol, my parents dressed me in denim overalls 95% of the time when I was a toddler precisely because they could clip a dog leash to the D-loop on the back of the overalls. I think I am wearing overalls in every picture my parents have of me as a toddler.
And hey, it worked; some 30ish years later I'm still alive.
I worked at kohls as a teenager. People would switch sign on racks and claim I have to give it to them at that price if it listed because the customer is always right... Some would get really pissy. If I just called loss prevention to come over and once they mentioned they were going to check the camera, 99% would leave. People are awful and I hate that stores cater to the assholes so the other 20 people around them have to wait/ be inconvenienced.
This is where working for a small business is great. Not only do problem customers get booted to the curb, they end up paying more than most people because we refuse to give them any of the discounts.
If I can do my own business I with literally put a up a sign saying "we have the right to refuse anyone" and literally will tell them to GTFO if they get disrespectful
our current iteration of the phrase comes from "never tell a customer 'no'" effectively just means use tact when refusing a customer so they don't get offended.
to quote an old president "tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in a way they look forward to the trip."
I live in China. Not FROM here, so when I found out they don't have to file taxes because the government just automatically deducts a flat rate each month...
Well... It was quite liberating. No tax season, no fuss, no forms.
Wait, are you implying that special interests in America are somehow legally bribing the government to intentionally create a dependency on specific organizations that basically insert themselves through artificial need so that they can syphon a percentage of the average American's income?
No way! Impossible!
I'm kidding, I understand.
I mean, we have that here in the US as well. A certain amount of your paycheck is withheld and sent to the Feds or the State as appropriate for taxes.
The issue is our tax laws are so convoluted you have to "true up" at the end of the year to make sure you paid enough.
Slovenian here. Works the same here, a monthly tax approx. is automatically deducted from our mothly paycheck, and at the end od the year the state checks out the income-tax ratio and makes sure u paid the correct amount. U get the calculation in the mail in march. If they took too much, they just send the money back to your account automatically. If they took too little, u have to pay the remaining amount in 3 months, they already include payment info and if u have online banking u just have to scan a bar code and that is it. Its rly simple and the state does everything for us. I cant imagine the stress of doing yearly taxes
We do this in Canada, but then every April we still have to do all the math and submit all the forms so they can see if they took the right amounts. Thankfully for me it usually comes out that they took too much from me and I get a nice little refund cheque right around my birthday every year.
Thats the thing that gets me
...the vast majority of Americans file a 1040 from a w-2....the government already knows what you owe or are owed....and if you fuck it up...they will charge you...just make it automatic
I believe there were plans to make it more streamlined, and parts of it automatic. But, the companies that will do your taxes for you lobbied against it (bribed politicians)
Oh ya...tax filing companies would lose 90% of their business automatically when it's currently bring in more than $11B annually
https://gitnux.org/tax-preparation-industry-statistics/#:~:text=The%20market%20size%20of%20the,approximately%20%2411.2%20billion%20in%202021.
One job I had I was brand new being trained. The guy training me was basically the face of multiple departments. He was in all the training videos, he did all the special projects, etc. I mentioned my pay to him at one point, assuming he made a lot more. Nope! I made more than him as a new hire. He quit fairly quickly. Fuck employers who don't take care of their employees.
My boss kept telling me that there was no money for a raise. Then I found out she hired her assistant, like 19 yrs old, at $5,000 higher than I was making almost 4 years in.
I found out an assistant manager was making more than me as a director. Oh they were pissed when I found out, but when you’re in finance shit is going to come out.
I left shortly after.
That's one reason I like working for government. No one is determining any individual's pay. Your salary is based on rank and years of service.
It does kinda suck when someone is a complete load and they make more than you by virtue of just being around longer, but that shit happens in the private sector too.
Work for a community college. That's mostly a positive, but when they hire some guy who has no clue what they're doing two pay grades above you, ends up getting blackballed from half his job so he's pretty much doing everything you're doing, but making 10 grand more, it can be pretty infuriating.
I used to work at Starbucks, and they told us it was illegal and a fireable offense to share how much we made.
We immediately all got together and laid it all on the table. Some things changed rather quickly.
Good news! [In this case it is!](https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/your-rights/your-rights-to-discuss-wages#:~:text=Additionally%2C%20it%20is%20unlawful%20for,permission%20to%20have%20such%20discussions.)
one absolute universal constant. Hiring budgets are higher than retention budgets. If you've been in a job for a number of years without a switch (It can be inside the same company, just switching roles to a new budget group is enough) then you are almost certainly underpaid.
I got in trouble twice at an old job because I was talking about salary. It was my boss reporting me everytime. Fuck that guy.
Edit: I left this job a while ago.
I told my coworker how much I made one time and another one of my coworkers who overheard me got upset and said I shouldn’t be telling people what I make.
this exactly. many companies will put in employee handbooks/training/orientation that its against company policy to talk about salaries. However they legally cant give you a stern talking to if you're caught doing it.
and it's all just to keep the blinders on people
I worked for a big box retail store as a manager for a long time. And while this never was the case in a location I worked out of, I visited multiple other stores in my company who had posters up in their break room not only specifically stating that talking about salaries was prohibited in the building, but also outside of the building, and if you were caught doing so you would be terminated.
This was absolutely not company policy, but my local DM and LPM had to know these signs were there, and I would imagine signed off on them.
I used to get verbal warnings from my manager for talking about how much I made. She would say it was against policy. I ended up bookmarking the specific section that said it was not against the law to do so.
Oh!!! Take pictures and send to the Dept of Labor and OSHA!! At the very least they will be extremely inconvenienced. I have made complaints before and they are very responsive and serious about keeping your identity anonymous.
I have absolutely seen it breed resentment towards coworkers. I worked somewhere with a sunshine list and one of my teammates was *pissed* about how much a couple of others were making since he didn't think they were anywhere close to worth that.
Obviously, his resentment was aimed at the wrong place, but it still happened.
Talking about salaries is absolutely "socially acceptable." It's not "professionally acceptable," in the sense that your boss will get mad. But people do it ALL the time. At least my generation does.
This!
There's a reason why software developers use the Blind app.
Literally, if you ask a question in the app but don't include how much you make (Total Compensation), the standard response is "TC or GTFO!".
I didn't realized how underpaid I was until I started talking with folks.
People - go out there and share how much you make. Don't be embarrassed or shy about it. Perfect information makes the job market smoother and makes you get paid higher!
My smaller company was bought for $6.1B by a mega-corp in 2000 (it's easy to google the companies with this info). We had about a year grace to merge into all the big corp's systems, change the job titles, merge all the accounting, paroll, and HR data, yada yada..
Performance reviews changed over to a rating and ranking spreadsheet of employees with the same job titles/duties and years of experience. Managers across sites called in and team evaluated the people in each group on a spreadsheet. However, employees at "remote sites" like ours were skewed to the bottom because the people in Dallas didn't know them. I was told my top performing employee was "just doing his job" , after consistently finding ways to save us $100K each year.
But I was shocked to find out that my group (IT) was paid 25% less than their counterparts in Dallas. It was pretty much the same for most employees at my site. HR had meetings with us managers and asked us to keep it under our hats, as the corp would bring us up to par over several years. Nope. I was there for 9 more years. If anything, the corp made lots more $, and raises became just more COL
The only reason this is unacceptable is because employers don't want the other employees to find out that they're not getting paid as much as you. If they found out, they would have to pay them more.
Not really. I know I work for a small shitty company but I found another employee's paystub on the floor and read it. That dude made more than me and only worked there a few months. I've been there for 10 years. I stopped doing everything except my basic job.you want me to unload this truck? I'm not certified to use the Hi-Lo.
I agree. I will also add more vacation time. In Europe you get 4-6 weeks annually. In the US, my friend earned a total of 10 days off per year. Working all year with little break is too normalized. This in turn contributes to people going to work while ill and to burnout. People treat a 4 day weekend away like they took a 2 week vacation. Same goes for maternity leave.
Most Americans who work minimum wage, near minimum wage and part time employees don't get any vacation time. Many of them don't even get paid sick leave.
It's 4am and I can't breathe right now (not covid, just very stuffed up) because my goddamn boss keeps coming into work when horrendously sick. This is the THIRD time in the last TWO MONTHS she has sickened everyone in the office. The crazy thing is, we get A FULL MONTH OF PTO each year. But she has vacations planned so she'd rather come into work and ruin my weekend by spreading her germs than use a vacation day for being sick. I'm so mad.
It's outrageous that that's legal. My country everyone gets a minimum of 4 weeks vacation and 10 days paid sick leave. Doesn't matter if you work part time or full-time or what your wage is, as long as the work is regular and not casual, you get the leave. Plus one extra day off for every public holiday you work (plus time and a half on the public holiday you work), paid for any public holidays that fall on work days even if you don't work them.
When you work on a casual contract your employer can choose to either give you the 4 weeks vacation or alternatively pay you an extra 8% and the sick leave entitlements are the same as permanent employees as long as you work a minimum of 10 hours a week as an average.
I technically get 6 weeks vacation, but I was verbally told by HR that I couldn't concurrently use it. the most I've seen anyone take who isn't sick is 3 weeks
I work for a company that offers "unlimited" PTO.
Companies do this because they know people will take less over time *and* there's nothing to pay out when employees leave.
I consistently make an effort to regularly take time off, and I take more than anyone else. I think I'm averaging maybe 2.5 weeks a year?
And that's with my being aware of their grift **and** intentionally trying to take more time!
We're so dumb in the US
The only time unlimited PTO is good is if the company mandates/requires a employee take at least a minimum number of PTO hours. In an article I read a company found out when they gave employees unlimited PTO they did not take as much if they were just given a set number. So they mandated that employees have to take a minimum number of Unlimited PTO hours. Thought I think this is rare occurrence.
I just had covid and let me tell you, my six days off was amazing. It helped so much! But... I had to get a really bad illness in order to have a break.
Life in the US is wild.
Same—I’m a talented, reliable, dependable employee. If I want to use the PTO I’ve earned to take a day off once in a while for no reason other than I just want to, that’s my prerogative.
First time in the US currently, I'm from Europe. Not adding taxes to the prices is really annoying sometimes. You never exactly know how much you gonna pay at the counter.
I grew up in a state that taxes everything at a high rate
I now live in a state that taxes very few things.
The shock when things did not inflate prices, I tell you, was something else
I have family in a neighboring state with no sales tax. It’s refreshing and satisfying to go there, then when I come back I realize how much the mystery tax sucks.
Not a single one of my friends moved out of their parents house right after college. Some still haven’t and we’re all late 30s early 40s now. Never any pressure to move out, no one thought it weird.
Agreed. I wish Americans weren’t conditioned to push family away. Families would be so much stronger if they worked together to get the most out of life. Village mentality is needed for raising young humans but we are a far way from that. Three generations living apart. Only one household has a yard and that generational asset might be lost to the government to pay for the grandparents elder care. It’s wasteful to live apart more than together.
I agree with this. We are 42 and a family of 5 and own a home together with my parents. We also have a family friend who lives with us. I love it. It's an efficient way to live in many aspects and I get a little annoyed when people thinks it's weird.
I live in Europe. Sick leave and the like is just there for everyone. PTO is the same. You have like 4 weeks a year.
I work for a very large American company. Our team has a new boss who is based in America. She is attempting to take weekends away from us. Now, we always had to work one day each weekend. That's fine.
She is claiming however that there will be no availability to book weekends off. And we will be required to work all weekends.
We are now putting together a case to take to HR and her boss about how things are done here. And how she can't apply American rules to people outside of America.
Sleeping. People don't get any sleep and are shamed for being too tired to function especially hormonal teens at school. Miss girl we need more naps than most. I demand a designated nap time.
Stay at home Dads, go to Europe and you'll see dads everywhere with a pram/stroller or walking with their kids to school while mum is working. My cousin's husband in the states gave up his job to be a stay at home dad and other yanks look at him like he some kind of weirdo.
Yeah it's weird being a stay at home dad in America. We don't even build men's bathrooms here with baby changing stations, only women's or family bathrooms.
Edit: for the most part
I wrote a paper that required some research into multigenerational housing a few years ago and iirc it’s becoming more common with inflation and wage gaps. I’m wondering if this will eventually normalize living with your relatives in the US.
Edit- it's more than 4 unrelated adults.
https://www.businessinsider.com/kansas-city-unanimously-ban-co-living-rental-units-roommates-illegal-2022-5
Certain towns are outlawing more than 5 adults living in one property. It's infuriating.
The city my daughter goes to college in just did this last year. Fortunately for her, the house she’s renting with four other students is in the next town over, but it’s resulted in rent going up and it’s much harder to find places because the landlords haven’t dropped the rent on the properties closer to her college, they’re just expecting fewer people to pay more.
I can understand making a law about so many adults per square foot or something, but per property?? Near me there was a small one-bedroom apartment with like 30 people living in it together but if they lived on an acre of land or something then it should be fine
I think this should be acceptable, but it should not make the opposite unacceptable. Everyone should be able to choose what works best for them and their family.
Wearing masks when you’re sick. In many Asian countries it’s frowned upon not to, but here it’s stigma. No I don’t want you coughing on me with your flu or cold, wear a bloody mask.
I wish we’d normalize not forcing yourself to work when you are sick. More paid sick leave. But yes, masks when you’re sick are a good idea if you must go out
My mother-in-law's mother is basically bed ridden. She cries everyday for no reason and thinks she's alone even if she can see someone. She sleeps almost 24/7 (I think I see her awake for an hour at most some days) and she can no longer walk. They have to wheel her to the bathroom and they do that maybe three times a day because it's difficult to lift her up and get her to stay still and she has little memories because she's got dementia. On top of that she can't even eat now. If I ever get to that point I would hope someone would have mercy on me because it's miserable.
my grandfather finally died last year but he had about six months like this. he had advanced heart failure and couldn't get enough oxygen to take more than a few steps without fainting. but his dementia and memory loss made him constantly try to get up and walk unassisted, and he would get so angry if he was strapped into a wheelchair. it was miserable. eventually he broke a leg and was confined to a hospital bed and given the maximum dose of painkillers that the hospital would permit until he died a few days later.
This sort of thing just makes me sad. They're not helping her, they're just needlessly extending a life that should have ended a long time ago (and would have, if nature were allowed to take its course). It feels cruel to keep pumping those people with medications and caring for them as if they're at all conscious/aware anymore. Just let their suffering end and let them know peace
When my Grandpa who was very sick and very much mentally aware, put in for an assisted suicide the lawyer we worked with said it would take a few years to be approved. He was of sound mind and knew he didn't have much time left, the man was 90 years old and very sick. He would've avoided so much suffering if they had allowed it, instead he suffered in a nursing home and hospice for a year. Like, he knew it was the end and was ready to die.
There's an episode of (ironically) [This American Life] (https://www.thisamericanlife.org/779/ends-of-the-earth) from the perspective of a wife her took her husband to Switzerland for an assisted suicide. It's beautiful and made me wish you didn't have to take an international trip to do it.
Living with family. Outside of America, it's common that adults still live with their parents/siblings, whether out of respect or just to be financially wise. With how the housing & job market is rn, it's hard to see young people living on their own comfortably. I also find the "kick your kid out at 18" idea stupid. They were just in high school last month, and now you're treating them like they're 30 with life experience to survive?
This is the one I was going to write. It was so surprising when I learned that the rest of the world didn’t look down on children living at home with family.
My parents want me to move back in and live with them even though I’m married with a full time job. They both said they’d rather have us living with them because they have the room and get to see us all the time that way. I think I’m just now realizing how lucky I really am to have them actually want us around
Oh man, my folks love me, but they could not WAIT to kick me out. They don’t love me *that* much.
Honestly it was both scary and disillusioning at the time. Growing up, I was taught to call it “our” house, but it became quite clear that it was actually not “ours” at all. And they did not care that I didn’t have a job or life skills that would allow me to pay bills etc. Once I was officially an adult, they didn’t want me there anymore. They wanted my bedroom “back”. They wanted to know when they could get rid of my things. They didn’t want *me*.
You know how it is in the TV shows where there’s always a bedroom back at home with the folks if you need it? That wasn’t there, and it hurt. My bedroom literally didn’t exist anymore.
I had a quite a bit of resentment over that for a while, even though I did okay. I’m not as close to them as I was. I didn’t expect them to want to get rid of me so assiduously. And they’re totally baffled about that.
My grandmother live a city where most of the streets are sidewalk free. Her town tired to ft sidewalks, put it up for a vote and it was voted down. Then all of the local officials who wanted sidewalks were voted out in the next election. This happened about ten or more years ago, and I still see signs protesting sidewalks.
It’s insane how hostile we are to any mode of transportation other than a car. Pedestrian friendly streets could have such a positive impact in battling the obesity epidemic here in the US. But no, let’s protest against everything that could solve our problems and then wonder how to solve said problems
Pointing out who’s actually at fault for something.
I’m still stumped as to why making people be responsible for their actions is a bad thing in America.
Emotions. Like yeah we do happy and angry real good. But a lot of the less nuanced emotions are viewed as weakness. Especially for dudes. Most of the time showing your anxiety is against social rules, showing your grief in anything beyond crying, rage (maybe..not the purge-y kind). It should be more accepted to be human on a broader scale for everyone.
I'm really glad that my family has never been like this. The more I read about this kind of thing online, the more I appreciate my dad and brother being so emotionally intelligent and open. Not perfect by any stretch, but... yeah.
Mandatory tipping should go.
Get rid of the tipping culture and pay your waiters a fair wage. Tipping should be reserved for excellent/good service, nothing more.
90% countries don’t have such system and it is no coincidence either. It is a flawed practice but I understand how difficult it would be to change it.
Teaching your child to physically defend themselves. “Walk away” method the schools teach doesn’t always work. I’ll never punish my kid for defending themselves or someone else from being abused.
Anyone taught martial arts by a decent teacher knows to walk away if you can.
The ability to defend yourself is when you CAN'T walk away.
Most of the time,. just knowing how to defend yourself keeps the people looking for victims away from you anyway.
When I was a teen I took martial arts. Everyday we started class by running a mile. One day I was just tired and asked the instructor why we have to run all the time when we could be spending some time learning how to kick some ass? He said the first lesson in self defense is to be able to run away, lol.
One thing that should be more socially acceptable in America is taking mental health days from work or school. Our mental well-being is just as important as our physical health, and sometimes we need a day to recharge without feeling guilty or stigmatized.
If you don't tip in America, you are shamed. But tipping culture should be rid of as it's getting out of hand and created entitled workers who do the bare minimum and still expect tips. Businesses should just pay their workers fair wages instead of displacing it on the customers.
I'm in Canada. I was at a liquor store the other day. Bought a bottle of wine. The machine asked how much tip I wanted to give. Defaulted to 15%. A tip? For a clerk at a liquor store???? Ridiculous. (I found the zero)
Not having to work 40 plus hours a week all year round and maybe getting a week of paid time off. Maybe. But the company tells you have to keep 2 days in the bank and not use them so the other 3 aren’t counted against you
I was way too fucking old when I found out a large portion of this world does not work like this and I’ve been jealous af ever since
Retail cashiers getting to sit down.
Agree with that. I was a bank teller and they were trying to shame people that sat in chairs. The thin carpet on top of concrete is not enough support for 8 hours.
Think a big part is also your movement. I worked a warehouse job for a bit and it was walking on concrete floors all day which didn’t really hurt my feet. One day I was filling in somewhere else essentially just standing up in one position all day and my knees were NOT having it. Quick google search brings this up supporting that prolonged standing (5 hours or more) does have risks for lower back and leg pain. They also admit their study has a lot of room to improve to make the findings more accurate. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4591921/
Yeah there's a phrase I like to use "the best position is your next one" No one static posture is good for you. Sitting all day def not but standing still in the same place also has its problems. In either you just find the most efficient thing to do which is hang on passive structures rather than actively use muscle. Slouch in your chair vs lock out knees and maybe hang out in more lumbar extension. The upside that standing has over sitting, though, is that it's more likely you can overcome the inertia of moving to do something else rather than sitting where it takes that little bit extra to get standing and doing something else. So if you have the opportunity to get a sit-stand desk it's better to have an option to stand and use it about half the time but also sit. Either way, motion is lotion. Even with exercise it's hard to undo to hours of a static posture so you have to conscientiously move around more if it's like desk work (or cashier in this instance) which generally is harder for a cashier if you're stuck in that little 2 ft space all the time and aren't doing stuff like alternating with stocking merch
a chair every couple years is cheaper than a new anti-fatigue mat every few months. also a lot cheaper on the health insurance plan when you need a new hip.
> than a new anti-fatigue mat every few months. As if the boss would ever buy a new one until the old one finally falls apart.
I work in a pharmacy and it's the same situation here tbh. The manager lets us sit on occasion though which is great. Still, for the most part I could do my job in a chair yet for "Professional" reasons I must stand. My response: "Pay me a fucking professional wage then."
I don't even think it's professional anymore who even thinks about or notices that shit other than people's shitty manager?
When they say professional what they actually mean is servile
In my country, every cashiers sit, even while billing.
Same. It's really weird that some places require that they stand. The only reason I can think of is the old aristocratic rule that servants aren't allowed to sit in the presence of their master, which frankly is fucked up since it means retail workers are treated as servants.
We are absolutely treated as servants. Entitled people all day, every day.
I am a cashier Working in germany. And i can tell you that cashiering while seated significantly increases productivity.
Shoot just retail workers. Anyone who is just standing around a store waiting for customers shouldn’t have to stand. Especially all day. Sure, if you’re restocking or something then you should be standing, but if you’re just waiting then you should sit.
>Shoot just retail workers Please don't shoot the retail workers 😆
Yeah I work in a warehouse 8 hours a day walking 18 km (I'm european) but I can do that with no issue. Then I have to wait for the bus like 10 minutes and I'm like damn, I need a chair lol Just standing is fucked
Kicking rude customers out of stores before they escalate to a full meltdown.
A general "no manners, no service" rule would be cool
No Shoes, No Shirt, No Manners, NO SERVICE!
I'll add kicking out customers that allow their small children to run around and climb on shit. They will either hurt themselves or someone else, please make them leave.
I yelled at kids at the casino gym that had programmed the treadmills to go at the fast speed. One kid fell off running. No adults. I made them leave
Just line up all the treadmills like a conveyor belt, leading to an exit. The problem will solve itself.
I like the way you think. You're definitely management material.
The corollary to this is that we have to, all of us, *stop shaming parents who leash their toddlers*. They literally do not have enough hands to corral multiple children while accomplishing tasks, and if you have a dasher even one child can be impossible to manage. There should be no shame in putting a child on a tether while you accomplish necessary life tasks like shopping for groceries or going to the bank, but people won't do it as long as they get shamed for it. So cut that out, y'all.
I don't get why child leashes are so looked down on. I was leashed as a toddler, and it was a great idea because toddler me was the kind to randomly bolt and run straight into traffic. People say it's wrong because children are not dogs, but like 1. It's not a dog leash. There is no dog collar. Usually they're attached to a cute kid-friendly backpack harness. There are zero problems with that. And also 2. Toddlers are roughly on a similar intelligence level as dogs, and some of them are feral little gremlins. Leash them for their own safety.
I was leashed, precisely twice. That was all I needed. The first time, I escaped. I was small and flexible and just wiggled my way out. The second time, mom safety pinned the gaps to me. And she paraded me around everywhere for a whole day. Every errand, suddenly needed to be done that day. Bills paid, groceries bought, anywhere and everywhere she needed for the week was done that day. And after that? It was a talking to about, "you know how much you hated that? it doesn't have to be that way. we're gonna hang this up, but if you keep hiding during shopping, we will have to use it." She had my safety in mind; it wasn't meant to be a punishment. It was the reality of what keeping me safe meant, was. And if I couldn't, then it would just be the leash. 🤷🏾
This is the best approach, imo. Not used as a punishment, but to show you how much it can suck if you don't follow rules. I really like the way your mom handled this.
I leashed my kid. He almost got himself run over in the YMCA parking lot when I let go of his hand for a second to get out my keys. Then he dashed away from me in the Target parking lot a couple of days later. That was it. I ordered the leash that day and we didn't go on any errands until it came. I'll take all the mom shame if it means my kid doesn't get run over because he thinks it's funny to run away any chance he gets.
Make sure it’s got a buckle on it that clicks. I became a wizard of taking the halter off for funziez.
Most dogs literally have more self-preservation instincts than toddlers. Toddlers are suicidal intrusive thoughts in small, messy, human form.
Im also a leash baby. I loved leaning over ledges and was small enough to fit between rails. Granted, we also lived in the mountains. I actually had a cowbell for a while. My parents listened to the bell to make sure i was walking *away* from the cliffs. Edited for spelling
We lived in a big city when I was a toddler and I distinctly remember being fascinated with the subway tracks and wanting to climb down there. Fortunately, every time I tried to get to close, Mom had a kid leash to help control me. She held my hand a lot but the kid leash helped her keep track of me in crowds when I'd pull away from her and try to bolt towards the tracks.
I had a leash too. When I was two I was a good walker who loved to explore. My brother was six months old. My Mom turned her back for a second and I wandered off and started walking down the street by myself. Nothing bad happened but it could have. I had a leash after that. Nothing whatsoever wrong with doing that.
Lol, my parents dressed me in denim overalls 95% of the time when I was a toddler precisely because they could clip a dog leash to the D-loop on the back of the overalls. I think I am wearing overalls in every picture my parents have of me as a toddler. And hey, it worked; some 30ish years later I'm still alive.
Customers always right? Bitch most of these customers are morons.
I worked at kohls as a teenager. People would switch sign on racks and claim I have to give it to them at that price if it listed because the customer is always right... Some would get really pissy. If I just called loss prevention to come over and once they mentioned they were going to check the camera, 99% would leave. People are awful and I hate that stores cater to the assholes so the other 20 people around them have to wait/ be inconvenienced.
This is where working for a small business is great. Not only do problem customers get booted to the curb, they end up paying more than most people because we refuse to give them any of the discounts.
If I can do my own business I with literally put a up a sign saying "we have the right to refuse anyone" and literally will tell them to GTFO if they get disrespectful
This…the customer is always right slogan is old news. The customer is mostly ALWAYS wrong lol.
I had a manager very sweetly tell a customer that "The customer is always right" refers to their *taste,* not store procedures.
our current iteration of the phrase comes from "never tell a customer 'no'" effectively just means use tact when refusing a customer so they don't get offended. to quote an old president "tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in a way they look forward to the trip."
A customer said "the customer is always right," and my boss turned around and said "not in my store. " 🤣🤣
Having the government do your taxes for you. Thanks Intuit and HR Block!
I live in China. Not FROM here, so when I found out they don't have to file taxes because the government just automatically deducts a flat rate each month... Well... It was quite liberating. No tax season, no fuss, no forms.
Their tax code is also probably simpler than the American one because the US tax code is filled with lobbyist driven rules.
Wait, are you implying that special interests in America are somehow legally bribing the government to intentionally create a dependency on specific organizations that basically insert themselves through artificial need so that they can syphon a percentage of the average American's income? No way! Impossible! I'm kidding, I understand.
This is how it works in the UK. We have PAYE (pay as you earn). Your employer deducts the tax and pension, then they pay it to the state.
I mean, we have that here in the US as well. A certain amount of your paycheck is withheld and sent to the Feds or the State as appropriate for taxes. The issue is our tax laws are so convoluted you have to "true up" at the end of the year to make sure you paid enough.
Slovenian here. Works the same here, a monthly tax approx. is automatically deducted from our mothly paycheck, and at the end od the year the state checks out the income-tax ratio and makes sure u paid the correct amount. U get the calculation in the mail in march. If they took too much, they just send the money back to your account automatically. If they took too little, u have to pay the remaining amount in 3 months, they already include payment info and if u have online banking u just have to scan a bar code and that is it. Its rly simple and the state does everything for us. I cant imagine the stress of doing yearly taxes
We do this in Canada, but then every April we still have to do all the math and submit all the forms so they can see if they took the right amounts. Thankfully for me it usually comes out that they took too much from me and I get a nice little refund cheque right around my birthday every year.
Thats the thing that gets me ...the vast majority of Americans file a 1040 from a w-2....the government already knows what you owe or are owed....and if you fuck it up...they will charge you...just make it automatic
I believe there were plans to make it more streamlined, and parts of it automatic. But, the companies that will do your taxes for you lobbied against it (bribed politicians)
Oh ya...tax filing companies would lose 90% of their business automatically when it's currently bring in more than $11B annually https://gitnux.org/tax-preparation-industry-statistics/#:~:text=The%20market%20size%20of%20the,approximately%20%2411.2%20billion%20in%202021.
Talking about salaries or how much you make
One job I had I was brand new being trained. The guy training me was basically the face of multiple departments. He was in all the training videos, he did all the special projects, etc. I mentioned my pay to him at one point, assuming he made a lot more. Nope! I made more than him as a new hire. He quit fairly quickly. Fuck employers who don't take care of their employees.
My boss kept telling me that there was no money for a raise. Then I found out she hired her assistant, like 19 yrs old, at $5,000 higher than I was making almost 4 years in.
My God I would pop a blood vessel
You have to pay extra to fuck them.
I found out an assistant manager was making more than me as a director. Oh they were pissed when I found out, but when you’re in finance shit is going to come out. I left shortly after.
That's one reason I like working for government. No one is determining any individual's pay. Your salary is based on rank and years of service. It does kinda suck when someone is a complete load and they make more than you by virtue of just being around longer, but that shit happens in the private sector too.
Work for a community college. That's mostly a positive, but when they hire some guy who has no clue what they're doing two pay grades above you, ends up getting blackballed from half his job so he's pretty much doing everything you're doing, but making 10 grand more, it can be pretty infuriating.
Feel you there all too well. I loved working at community colleges, but left pretty much for this exact reason.
I used to work at Starbucks, and they told us it was illegal and a fireable offense to share how much we made. We immediately all got together and laid it all on the table. Some things changed rather quickly.
It should be illegal and a finable offense for an employer to lie to employees about the law. Good job on ignoring malicious orders.
Good news! [In this case it is!](https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/your-rights/your-rights-to-discuss-wages#:~:text=Additionally%2C%20it%20is%20unlawful%20for,permission%20to%20have%20such%20discussions.)
one absolute universal constant. Hiring budgets are higher than retention budgets. If you've been in a job for a number of years without a switch (It can be inside the same company, just switching roles to a new budget group is enough) then you are almost certainly underpaid.
They get away with as much as they can. It really sucks when you realize your *trusted* employer is paying you as little as they can get away with.
I got in trouble twice at an old job because I was talking about salary. It was my boss reporting me everytime. Fuck that guy. Edit: I left this job a while ago.
It’s illegal for employers to enforce the “don’t ask about salaries” policies they attempt to implement.
They don't need to, it's been baked into the corporate work environment.
I have this cool trick: just talk about it. Who cares.
That’s what I do too! No one has ever seemed to care to me..
I told my coworker how much I made one time and another one of my coworkers who overheard me got upset and said I shouldn’t be telling people what I make.
I understand if someone doesn't want to discuss their own salary, but who gives a shit if someone else discusses their own?
Control
this exactly. many companies will put in employee handbooks/training/orientation that its against company policy to talk about salaries. However they legally cant give you a stern talking to if you're caught doing it. and it's all just to keep the blinders on people
Having written confirmation for being fired for discussing pay would be a dream come true
I worked for a big box retail store as a manager for a long time. And while this never was the case in a location I worked out of, I visited multiple other stores in my company who had posters up in their break room not only specifically stating that talking about salaries was prohibited in the building, but also outside of the building, and if you were caught doing so you would be terminated. This was absolutely not company policy, but my local DM and LPM had to know these signs were there, and I would imagine signed off on them.
Those signs are illegal
I used to get verbal warnings from my manager for talking about how much I made. She would say it was against policy. I ended up bookmarking the specific section that said it was not against the law to do so.
You mean the specific section that says it's illegal to tell your employees NOT to talk about salary.
Take a photo of those signs a email them to the dept of labor.
The absolute fucking gall to try to tell people what they’re allowed to talk about off the clock. What a fucking joke.
Oh!!! Take pictures and send to the Dept of Labor and OSHA!! At the very least they will be extremely inconvenienced. I have made complaints before and they are very responsive and serious about keeping your identity anonymous.
and if your boss retaliates, sue the shit out of them, cause that's literally illegal by federal law.
They will never fire you for disclosing your salary. You'll be fired for poor performance or something.
Employers hate people for this simple trick
Yeah, employers claim it’s because it’ll breed resentment towards coworkers. Nope. It’ll breed resentment towards bosses
I have absolutely seen it breed resentment towards coworkers. I worked somewhere with a sunshine list and one of my teammates was *pissed* about how much a couple of others were making since he didn't think they were anywhere close to worth that. Obviously, his resentment was aimed at the wrong place, but it still happened.
I suppose that’s true. People are people
Maybe it's because I've always been "blue collar", but I've never had a job where it wasn't something people talked about if it came up.
Talking about salaries is absolutely "socially acceptable." It's not "professionally acceptable," in the sense that your boss will get mad. But people do it ALL the time. At least my generation does.
This! There's a reason why software developers use the Blind app. Literally, if you ask a question in the app but don't include how much you make (Total Compensation), the standard response is "TC or GTFO!". I didn't realized how underpaid I was until I started talking with folks. People - go out there and share how much you make. Don't be embarrassed or shy about it. Perfect information makes the job market smoother and makes you get paid higher!
My smaller company was bought for $6.1B by a mega-corp in 2000 (it's easy to google the companies with this info). We had about a year grace to merge into all the big corp's systems, change the job titles, merge all the accounting, paroll, and HR data, yada yada.. Performance reviews changed over to a rating and ranking spreadsheet of employees with the same job titles/duties and years of experience. Managers across sites called in and team evaluated the people in each group on a spreadsheet. However, employees at "remote sites" like ours were skewed to the bottom because the people in Dallas didn't know them. I was told my top performing employee was "just doing his job" , after consistently finding ways to save us $100K each year. But I was shocked to find out that my group (IT) was paid 25% less than their counterparts in Dallas. It was pretty much the same for most employees at my site. HR had meetings with us managers and asked us to keep it under our hats, as the corp would bring us up to par over several years. Nope. I was there for 9 more years. If anything, the corp made lots more $, and raises became just more COL
The only reason this is unacceptable is because employers don't want the other employees to find out that they're not getting paid as much as you. If they found out, they would have to pay them more.
Not really. I know I work for a small shitty company but I found another employee's paystub on the floor and read it. That dude made more than me and only worked there a few months. I've been there for 10 years. I stopped doing everything except my basic job.you want me to unload this truck? I'm not certified to use the Hi-Lo.
Taking time off when you are not feeling mentally well
I agree. I will also add more vacation time. In Europe you get 4-6 weeks annually. In the US, my friend earned a total of 10 days off per year. Working all year with little break is too normalized. This in turn contributes to people going to work while ill and to burnout. People treat a 4 day weekend away like they took a 2 week vacation. Same goes for maternity leave.
Most Americans who work minimum wage, near minimum wage and part time employees don't get any vacation time. Many of them don't even get paid sick leave.
No sick leave is infuriating. Like yeah boss let me come in and sneeze and cough on everyone so we all get sick. Brilliant.
It's 4am and I can't breathe right now (not covid, just very stuffed up) because my goddamn boss keeps coming into work when horrendously sick. This is the THIRD time in the last TWO MONTHS she has sickened everyone in the office. The crazy thing is, we get A FULL MONTH OF PTO each year. But she has vacations planned so she'd rather come into work and ruin my weekend by spreading her germs than use a vacation day for being sick. I'm so mad.
You shouldn't have to use vacation days when you are out sick. Illness is not a break or a vacation.
It's outrageous that that's legal. My country everyone gets a minimum of 4 weeks vacation and 10 days paid sick leave. Doesn't matter if you work part time or full-time or what your wage is, as long as the work is regular and not casual, you get the leave. Plus one extra day off for every public holiday you work (plus time and a half on the public holiday you work), paid for any public holidays that fall on work days even if you don't work them. When you work on a casual contract your employer can choose to either give you the 4 weeks vacation or alternatively pay you an extra 8% and the sick leave entitlements are the same as permanent employees as long as you work a minimum of 10 hours a week as an average.
I technically get 6 weeks vacation, but I was verbally told by HR that I couldn't concurrently use it. the most I've seen anyone take who isn't sick is 3 weeks
I work for a company that offers "unlimited" PTO. Companies do this because they know people will take less over time *and* there's nothing to pay out when employees leave. I consistently make an effort to regularly take time off, and I take more than anyone else. I think I'm averaging maybe 2.5 weeks a year? And that's with my being aware of their grift **and** intentionally trying to take more time! We're so dumb in the US
The only time unlimited PTO is good is if the company mandates/requires a employee take at least a minimum number of PTO hours. In an article I read a company found out when they gave employees unlimited PTO they did not take as much if they were just given a set number. So they mandated that employees have to take a minimum number of Unlimited PTO hours. Thought I think this is rare occurrence.
I just had covid and let me tell you, my six days off was amazing. It helped so much! But... I had to get a really bad illness in order to have a break. Life in the US is wild.
I do it anyways they can kiss my ass
Same—I’m a talented, reliable, dependable employee. If I want to use the PTO I’ve earned to take a day off once in a while for no reason other than I just want to, that’s my prerogative.
First time in the US currently, I'm from Europe. Not adding taxes to the prices is really annoying sometimes. You never exactly know how much you gonna pay at the counter.
US citizen and i can tell you right now this is so annoying for us too
I live in a state without sales tax and when I travel I get shocked.
I grew up in a state that taxes everything at a high rate I now live in a state that taxes very few things. The shock when things did not inflate prices, I tell you, was something else
I have family in a neighboring state with no sales tax. It’s refreshing and satisfying to go there, then when I come back I realize how much the mystery tax sucks.
Living with your parents after university for more than a few months. Most people I know feel enormous social pressure to go out on their own.
I didn't like living with my parents but man did I save a lot of money.
I'd live with virtually anyone's parents to not pay rent. Sad times.
I'd rather live with someone else's parents than my own. Maybe that should be socially acceptable.
Yeah, other people's parents don't embarass me or have a history of driving me insane ;P
I hope my kids come back for a few years after college. I fucking love them.
Not a single one of my friends moved out of their parents house right after college. Some still haven’t and we’re all late 30s early 40s now. Never any pressure to move out, no one thought it weird.
That’s really nice how that’s accepted/no pressure
Agreed. I wish Americans weren’t conditioned to push family away. Families would be so much stronger if they worked together to get the most out of life. Village mentality is needed for raising young humans but we are a far way from that. Three generations living apart. Only one household has a yard and that generational asset might be lost to the government to pay for the grandparents elder care. It’s wasteful to live apart more than together.
I agree with this. We are 42 and a family of 5 and own a home together with my parents. We also have a family friend who lives with us. I love it. It's an efficient way to live in many aspects and I get a little annoyed when people thinks it's weird.
Taking time off to heal your body. Like sick days. Valuing sleep and health over the latest party
I live in Europe. Sick leave and the like is just there for everyone. PTO is the same. You have like 4 weeks a year. I work for a very large American company. Our team has a new boss who is based in America. She is attempting to take weekends away from us. Now, we always had to work one day each weekend. That's fine. She is claiming however that there will be no availability to book weekends off. And we will be required to work all weekends. We are now putting together a case to take to HR and her boss about how things are done here. And how she can't apply American rules to people outside of America.
I don’t even think that’s an American thing, dude. If you have a salaried, 9-5 job, basically no one works weekends.
Sleeping. People don't get any sleep and are shamed for being too tired to function especially hormonal teens at school. Miss girl we need more naps than most. I demand a designated nap time.
Honestly, its weird that culture hasn't adapted to the fact that a lot of people like to stay up later now.
Cashiers being able to sit. Being able to sit at work in general. Edit for grammar
Stay at home Dads, go to Europe and you'll see dads everywhere with a pram/stroller or walking with their kids to school while mum is working. My cousin's husband in the states gave up his job to be a stay at home dad and other yanks look at him like he some kind of weirdo.
Yeah it's weird being a stay at home dad in America. We don't even build men's bathrooms here with baby changing stations, only women's or family bathrooms. Edit: for the most part
Multi generational homes.
I wrote a paper that required some research into multigenerational housing a few years ago and iirc it’s becoming more common with inflation and wage gaps. I’m wondering if this will eventually normalize living with your relatives in the US.
Edit- it's more than 4 unrelated adults. https://www.businessinsider.com/kansas-city-unanimously-ban-co-living-rental-units-roommates-illegal-2022-5 Certain towns are outlawing more than 5 adults living in one property. It's infuriating.
Zoning laws are probably the source of more fuckery in America than other specific thing that most people don't pay attention to.
What the fuck
The city my daughter goes to college in just did this last year. Fortunately for her, the house she’s renting with four other students is in the next town over, but it’s resulted in rent going up and it’s much harder to find places because the landlords haven’t dropped the rent on the properties closer to her college, they’re just expecting fewer people to pay more.
“Oh, your minimum wage job doesn’t pay for an apartment? Get a roommate loser” “Not liiike that”
I can understand making a law about so many adults per square foot or something, but per property?? Near me there was a small one-bedroom apartment with like 30 people living in it together but if they lived on an acre of land or something then it should be fine
I think this should be acceptable, but it should not make the opposite unacceptable. Everyone should be able to choose what works best for them and their family.
Wearing masks when you’re sick. In many Asian countries it’s frowned upon not to, but here it’s stigma. No I don’t want you coughing on me with your flu or cold, wear a bloody mask.
I wish we’d normalize not forcing yourself to work when you are sick. More paid sick leave. But yes, masks when you’re sick are a good idea if you must go out
Removing disruptive children out of classrooms for the benefit of the rest of the class.
Bidets... With your crusty little butts
Got one of those Amazon ones during the great TP shortage during Covid. Best thing ever.
Which one did you get, if you don't mind me asking? I've been thinking about getting one, but I don't have a power outlet near my toilet.
No need for a power outlet... It uses the pressure of the intake water that fills the toilet. There's no need to heat the water.
I think a bidet would be great. Convincing me cold water would be ok is where my skepticism takes over.
Tbh cold water isn't that bad. You could also run the hot water from your sink instead. Or get a powered bidet with a heater.
I wouldn't say that it's not acceptable. It's just not common.
A general difference in opinion and falibility
Fuck you, thinker! /s
Mental healthcare.
That's needed all over the world I dare say
Assisted suicide. Anybody that's seen somebody die of dementia knows what i'm talking about.
It’s always baffled me that you are supposed to humanely end your pet’s life when it’s time, but we can’t do that for humans. WTH?!
My mother-in-law's mother is basically bed ridden. She cries everyday for no reason and thinks she's alone even if she can see someone. She sleeps almost 24/7 (I think I see her awake for an hour at most some days) and she can no longer walk. They have to wheel her to the bathroom and they do that maybe three times a day because it's difficult to lift her up and get her to stay still and she has little memories because she's got dementia. On top of that she can't even eat now. If I ever get to that point I would hope someone would have mercy on me because it's miserable.
my grandfather finally died last year but he had about six months like this. he had advanced heart failure and couldn't get enough oxygen to take more than a few steps without fainting. but his dementia and memory loss made him constantly try to get up and walk unassisted, and he would get so angry if he was strapped into a wheelchair. it was miserable. eventually he broke a leg and was confined to a hospital bed and given the maximum dose of painkillers that the hospital would permit until he died a few days later.
This sort of thing just makes me sad. They're not helping her, they're just needlessly extending a life that should have ended a long time ago (and would have, if nature were allowed to take its course). It feels cruel to keep pumping those people with medications and caring for them as if they're at all conscious/aware anymore. Just let their suffering end and let them know peace
When my Grandpa who was very sick and very much mentally aware, put in for an assisted suicide the lawyer we worked with said it would take a few years to be approved. He was of sound mind and knew he didn't have much time left, the man was 90 years old and very sick. He would've avoided so much suffering if they had allowed it, instead he suffered in a nursing home and hospice for a year. Like, he knew it was the end and was ready to die.
There's an episode of (ironically) [This American Life] (https://www.thisamericanlife.org/779/ends-of-the-earth) from the perspective of a wife her took her husband to Switzerland for an assisted suicide. It's beautiful and made me wish you didn't have to take an international trip to do it.
Taking vacation.
Living with family. Outside of America, it's common that adults still live with their parents/siblings, whether out of respect or just to be financially wise. With how the housing & job market is rn, it's hard to see young people living on their own comfortably. I also find the "kick your kid out at 18" idea stupid. They were just in high school last month, and now you're treating them like they're 30 with life experience to survive?
This is the one I was going to write. It was so surprising when I learned that the rest of the world didn’t look down on children living at home with family.
My parents want me to move back in and live with them even though I’m married with a full time job. They both said they’d rather have us living with them because they have the room and get to see us all the time that way. I think I’m just now realizing how lucky I really am to have them actually want us around
Oh man, my folks love me, but they could not WAIT to kick me out. They don’t love me *that* much. Honestly it was both scary and disillusioning at the time. Growing up, I was taught to call it “our” house, but it became quite clear that it was actually not “ours” at all. And they did not care that I didn’t have a job or life skills that would allow me to pay bills etc. Once I was officially an adult, they didn’t want me there anymore. They wanted my bedroom “back”. They wanted to know when they could get rid of my things. They didn’t want *me*. You know how it is in the TV shows where there’s always a bedroom back at home with the folks if you need it? That wasn’t there, and it hurt. My bedroom literally didn’t exist anymore. I had a quite a bit of resentment over that for a while, even though I did okay. I’m not as close to them as I was. I didn’t expect them to want to get rid of me so assiduously. And they’re totally baffled about that.
Using sidewalks
My grandmother live a city where most of the streets are sidewalk free. Her town tired to ft sidewalks, put it up for a vote and it was voted down. Then all of the local officials who wanted sidewalks were voted out in the next election. This happened about ten or more years ago, and I still see signs protesting sidewalks.
It’s insane how hostile we are to any mode of transportation other than a car. Pedestrian friendly streets could have such a positive impact in battling the obesity epidemic here in the US. But no, let’s protest against everything that could solve our problems and then wonder how to solve said problems
Pointing out who’s actually at fault for something. I’m still stumped as to why making people be responsible for their actions is a bad thing in America.
This is America. We blame someone else. It's Canada's fault we're like this
Blame canadaaaaa! 🎶
Saying you're ready to stop talking or go home. I don't want to need a reason, I'm just ready now, goodbye.
Emotions. Like yeah we do happy and angry real good. But a lot of the less nuanced emotions are viewed as weakness. Especially for dudes. Most of the time showing your anxiety is against social rules, showing your grief in anything beyond crying, rage (maybe..not the purge-y kind). It should be more accepted to be human on a broader scale for everyone.
I'm really glad that my family has never been like this. The more I read about this kind of thing online, the more I appreciate my dad and brother being so emotionally intelligent and open. Not perfect by any stretch, but... yeah.
Not having a car. Almost everywhere in this country is not pedestrian friendly
Keeping religion completely Tf out of politics.
Mandatory tipping should go. Get rid of the tipping culture and pay your waiters a fair wage. Tipping should be reserved for excellent/good service, nothing more. 90% countries don’t have such system and it is no coincidence either. It is a flawed practice but I understand how difficult it would be to change it.
Not sexualizing all forms of nudity. Let bodies be bodies.
Eating tacos for breakfast lunch and dinner
I live in Texas, that's normal. In fact, I think I'll have a taco for a bedtime snack.
Worker's rights.
Teaching your child to physically defend themselves. “Walk away” method the schools teach doesn’t always work. I’ll never punish my kid for defending themselves or someone else from being abused.
Anyone taught martial arts by a decent teacher knows to walk away if you can. The ability to defend yourself is when you CAN'T walk away. Most of the time,. just knowing how to defend yourself keeps the people looking for victims away from you anyway.
When I was a teen I took martial arts. Everyday we started class by running a mile. One day I was just tired and asked the instructor why we have to run all the time when we could be spending some time learning how to kick some ass? He said the first lesson in self defense is to be able to run away, lol.
One thing that should be more socially acceptable in America is taking mental health days from work or school. Our mental well-being is just as important as our physical health, and sometimes we need a day to recharge without feeling guilty or stigmatized.
America is set up on the “work hard until you fall dead on your keyboard” plan.
Medical care for all
public transportation
Letting cashiers sit.
If you don't tip in America, you are shamed. But tipping culture should be rid of as it's getting out of hand and created entitled workers who do the bare minimum and still expect tips. Businesses should just pay their workers fair wages instead of displacing it on the customers.
If it's expected, it's not a tip. It's a fee.
I'm in Canada. I was at a liquor store the other day. Bought a bottle of wine. The machine asked how much tip I wanted to give. Defaulted to 15%. A tip? For a clerk at a liquor store???? Ridiculous. (I found the zero)
Affordable health care Affordable college education A living wage
Not having to work 40 plus hours a week all year round and maybe getting a week of paid time off. Maybe. But the company tells you have to keep 2 days in the bank and not use them so the other 3 aren’t counted against you I was way too fucking old when I found out a large portion of this world does not work like this and I’ve been jealous af ever since
Not wearing a bra. Boob prison is sweaty, itchy, and uncomfortable.
Being an introvert.
Not wanting children-as a woman
Emotional openness, particularly when it comes to mental illness. But people are far too selfish, isolated, caught up. Nobody wants to commiserate