Co-worker sits "criss-cross applesauce" in meetings

[Anonymous]

I wonder how many people are just jealous of the flexibility. So many adults have lost the ability to sit this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What other option exists besides minding your own business? I mean, I’m being completely serious. She knows she’s doing it. You are likely the only one who cares. Are you going to report her?

It's highly unlikely that OP is the only one who cares. Lots of people she meets with would find this extremely unprofessional and distracting. If I were mentoring this person, I would tell her she ought to stop.

OP, what does the boss think?

OP here. I haven't brought it up to the boss, because I know it's really petty of me. Yes, yes. I know it's petty, but I still think she looks unprofessional. I think my boss has bigger fish to fry with this person's behavior, so how she sits in meetings is probably pretty low on her list of priorities.

So I get it. I'll MMOB about it. Can I still silently judge?

Of course! I'm silently judging her along with you.

For those of you who say you do this because your feet don't touch the ground, keep in mind that this seems to be happening mostly at regular staff meetings. Hopefully in your own offices you can ask for, and receive, appropriately-sized chairs for your height. That doesn't seem to be the issue with OP's free-spirited colleague.

In higher education? Unless this person works in an executive/administrative office, most of their meetings are probably in seminar rooms. I'm the PP who said I also work in higher ed, and I'd say about 60% of my meetings are in three different seminar rooms--one on the same floor as my office, one on the floor up, and one in the next building over. Another 20% of my meetings are in my department chair's office. It would be 10x as inappropriate for me to demand special chairs for all those spaces or drag my own chair around to those rooms.

Also, we're not exactly flush with cash in higher ed. When we buy "new" furniture, it's whatever has been cast off by the wealthier units on campus or whatever has been made by state prisoners in the furniture workshop.

Me again. I should also mention that I teach in those same seminar rooms. There I am, a tenured professor, sitting in one of those uncomfortable chairs with my legs criss-cross applesauce. Sometimes I even have one "crossed," and the other bent with the knee pulled up to my chest. Sometimes I even find myself with both legs tucked under, kneeling on the seat. We get into invigorating conversations in the classroom, and sometimes I'm just trying to follow/lead the flow of ideas, and I really don't care what my legs are doing. Somehow, my students keep writing dissertations, earning PhDs, and getting jobs. And I'm about to get promoted. All with unprofessional ergonomic habits.

This is how I sit most of the time. It's much more comfortable for my lower back.

[Anonymous]

I’m 40, I sit like this in staff meeting and whenever I can get away with it (restaurants, movie theaters). My don’t touch the floor and my kills my back to sit in chairs with feet dangling.
Realize it’s unprofessional. So I wouldn’t do it in certain situations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Millennials.

Heh - I am the pp short fidgety person. Just turned 45. We Gen Xers are plenty weird, too, ya know.

[Anonymous]

You sound like my coworker who likes to see what socks people are wearing while in meetings. She will literally get under the table and use the excuse she dropped something...weirdo

[Anonymous]

My big take-away here is that this person is sitting in a way that is distracting others from her valuable input at the meeting. To be sure, there may be no etiquette rules against sitting the way she is; however, the way she is sitting is causing others to focus more on her behavior than her contribution. That is never good.

Now someone will take offense at my statement because they want to dress / sit / curse / whatever any which way they want. That is their right. I'm just pointing out that if you want to be taken seriously in a business environment then you usually should choose to dress, sit, speak and whatever in that environment in a way that shows you want to be taken seriously. I wouldn't wear a clown suit to a funeral and neither would I sit looking dour at a circus. There is a time and place for everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sound like my coworker who likes to see what socks people are wearing while in meetings. She will literally get under the table and use the excuse she dropped something...weirdo

Huh! I bet she has seen some surprising stuff down there!

[Anonymous]

She’s the one who looks like an idiot so whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how many people are just jealous of the flexibility. So many adults have lost the ability to sit this way.

My knees hurt just reading this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She’s the one who looks like an idiot so whatever.

+1
Not to mention peasant skirt. Jhc.

[Anonymous]

I do this but with one leg crossed under my bottom and the other out straight/normal. I’m a lawyer. I can’t bear it to sit with both legs straight. I fidget, it hurts my bit, and hurts my legs. I’m 5’ 5” but have shortish legs.

[Anonymous]

Fine if she sits at her desk this way, but it is odd to sit like this at a meeting.

[Anonymous]

I'm very short with hypermobile joints. Sitting with my feet dangling for long in uncomfortable.

Her comfort is distracting for you. She has found a way that helps her focus. You should find a way that helps you focus on what she contributes, and not her posture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m 40, I sit like this in staff meeting and whenever I can get away with it (restaurants, movie theaters). My don’t touch the floor and my kills my back to sit in chairs with feet dangling.
Realize it’s unprofessional. So I wouldn’t do it in certain situations.

+1 I sit like this all the time and never really thought of it as being unprofessional. OP sounds weird for being so bothered about this, perhaps her coworker should be concerned about OP's OCD.

[Anonymous]

Count me as one of the shortish women who finds sitting this way really comfortable, despite my PP weight gain and aging joints. While I’d never sit like that in a professional setting, or meeting, I might do it in my office, and I certainly do it at home, sometimes in restaurants, and often at the movies. Like a lot of people, my feet just don’t touch the floor well in “standard” chairs and I just end up sore and stressed.

I actually admire this woman for sitting how she darned well feels comfortable, and not giving AF how people view her. If you can’t hear her valid input just because of the way she’s sitting, it’s you that has the issue.

-Gen x-Er, who is happy that workplaces are finally changing to accommodate actual human beings