This study confronts the traditional approach to postures adopted by workers during the performance of their tasks, which attempts to identify and prescribe the correct posture without considering human action during the fulfillment of production aims. Describing the results of an ergonomic study of supermarket cashiers, the author illustrates the limitations of an analysis that ignores the dynamics of the arrangement of the parts of the body in real work situations. In the end, the advantages and disadvantages of seated and standing postures are given.
worker health; ergonomics; posture; standing; seated