There are a few subjects guaranteed to start a fight in a machine shop:
Phones on the shop floor
Whether you’re a “real machinist” if you use CNC
The correct way to deburr a part
And apparently…chairs
Alberto Rodriguez recently shared this from his shop:
“Couple of months back, our shop took away our nice computer chairs (God forbid we sit down), but I had to upgrade to this cushion on the folding chairs that they left us. Are y’all guys allowed to sit down?”
The picture showed a folding chair with an aftermarket ass cushion.
Not exactly the kind of luxury usually reserved for upper management.
Naturally, the MACHINIST group had thoughts.
If the Machine Is Running, Leave Me Alone
The most common response was pretty simple:
If the machine is running, the parts are good and the work area isn’t a disaster…who gives a shit whether the machinist is standing or sitting?
Bryon Fitts:
“I don’t care if my guys are on the phone all day. If the machine is running good parts, do you all day.”
Grey Welch described working at a shop where people are treated like adults:
“No one tells me what to do. I am made aware of what needs to be programmed and ran, and then I take care of it.”
What a radical management strategy.
Tell skilled people what needs to get done. Let them get it done. Don’t spend the entire shift monitoring whether both ass cheeks have made contact with a chair.
Adolfo Bruce Martinez had a similar policy:
“As long as my machine is clean and my program is proven and my area is clean, I’m sitting down, on my phone, drinking something and bullshitting with my neighbors.”
Honestly, that might be the most accurate CNC machinist job description ever written.
But If You Have Time to Sit…
Of course, the old-school crowd arrived shortly thereafter.
April Senase summed up the philosophy many machinists grew up with:
“If you got time to lean, you got time to clean.”
Others argued that if you have enough cycle time to sit down, you should be running another machine, deburring parts, sweeping the floor or finding something—anything—to stay busy.
One shop owner wrote:
“Drives me nuts seeing someone sitting. If you have time to sit, you have time to run another machine, or do some cleaning.”
Another commenter announced:
“62 years in this trade, never sat down once! This younger generation is so lazy!”
Todd Maliszewski responded with the annoyingly logical:
“Cycle times are the same whether you are standing or sitting.”
Fair point.
Standing beside a machine does not make the spindle turn faster. It just makes it easier for a manager walking through the shop to confirm that everyone looks busy.
Grant Beneteau managed to represent both sides in one comment. He explained that his shop provided a stool for programming, but added:
“It was the only time I sat in 40 years. Sitting is for pussies.”
There it is.
The official compromise.
You can have a chair—but you must hate yourself every second you use it.
Manual vs. CNC Matters
A few machinists pointed out that the answer depends heavily on the work.
Running a manual mill, lathe or turret lathe?
You probably aren’t getting much chair time.
Running a proven CNC program with a long cycle?
Standing there staring through the window for 45 minutes doesn’t accomplish much.
James Langille put it well:
“First 25 years in the trade, no chairs. The next 25, chairs. Machines have changed, parts have changed, shops have changed. Try running a turret lathe sitting.”
That’s probably the most reasonable explanation in the entire thread.
The trade changed.
A machinist hand-feeding a manual machine all day is doing a very different job than someone monitoring an eight-hour roughing cycle, programming toolpaths or completing inspection reports.
Then Facebook Did Facebook Things
Once the serious debate was covered, the comments moved on to the important subject:
Retaliation.
Johannes Laxell asked:
“Allowed? You work in North Korea?”
Edward Pimlott shared the shortest employment story of the week:
“Started work at a company years ago at 7 a.m. The manager said no chairs allowed. I left that company at 7:15 a.m. the same day.”
Fifteen minutes.
Barely enough time to find the bathroom, let alone unload the toolbox.
Bill Elliott recalled:
“I seen a supervisor’s chair cut up on the bandsaw once…things changed quickly.”
Joe Berkley suggested a more precise approach:
“Someone tells me I can’t sit, I’m removing 5/8" from one of their chair legs and watching them rock. Might take a while, but .030 adds up.”
Now that is a machinist’s revenge.
Slow.
Accurate.
And held within tolerance.
Alberto may have provided the best summary of management’s mistake:
“They haven’t realized that the prisoners run the prison.”
One commenter told a story about a manager who threw all the shop chairs in a dumpster. The next morning, the manager’s office door had been removed from its hinges and his leather chair had disappeared.
He quit two weeks later.
Chair problem solved.
One Shop Saw a Recruiting Opportunity
While everyone else argued, Heath Cochran casually dropped this into the comments:
“We have a machinist position open at Ball Fort Worth. We have gaming chairs and a climate-controlled shop. 70° year-round. UAW union and six-figure income.”
Gaming chairs.
Air conditioning.
Six figures.
That’s not a machine shop. That’s a machinist retirement community.
People immediately started asking where to send their resumes.
Smart move, Heath.
So…Should Machinists Be Allowed to Sit?
The real issue isn’t the chair.
It’s whether employees are trusted to act like adults.
If someone is asleep, the machine isn’t running and the work area looks like a bomb went off, take care of that employee.
Don’t punish the entire shop because two guys couldn’t handle having chairs.
But if the machine is making good parts, the next job is ready, inspections are complete and the area is clean?
Let the machinist sit the fuck down.
Especially when the person making the rule is watching from a $900 ergonomic chair inside an air-conditioned office.
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