For context, my lowest three lumbar vertebrae were surgically fused five years ago, so it's now one solid bone with a bunch of titanium hardware that is no longer needed but not worth removing. The fact that the joints and surrounding muscles don't move and haven't moved in a long time means they can get pretty stiff and start throbbing and swelling after any prolonged usage.<p>I had no idea exactly how bad that can get until I was assigned to a booth at SC22 last week and we had no chairs, so I was standing the whole time. I lasted about three hours each day, and after that, my low back was knotted up to the point I couldn't stand up straight, and it impinged enough to make my hips and knees swell up, too.<p>So I'm grateful I don't have to do that. I've got a job I can do from my bed. For the record, I am quite active. I walk anywhere from an hour to two each day, though not in one shot. I lift every morning. But there's apparently quite a difference between brief bouts of intense activity and being on your feet for a prolonged period of time. There was a thread the other day here, possibly yesterday, about unemployed people in their 50s and 60s being excoriated for not getting jobs in an economy with low unemployment, and responses mentioning those jobs might be things like Walmart greeter or whatever. Cue the invited discussion about what exactly might be "beneath" a person of a certain history, but as far as I can tell, there seem to be enormous categories of jobs I couldn't do even if I wanted to, including many jobs I've done in the past like Disneyland performer, retail store manager, Army officer, park custodian. I could not be a Walmart greeter. I couldn't be a pilot or a long-haul trucker or a rideshare driver, since I can't sit for long periods of time, either. I can't be a park ranger or a tour guide.<p>I'm lucky as hell that the job I happen to have is a job I can actually do, and I'll be grateful for as long as that continues to be the case. And I will continually advocate for companies that have jobs that <i>can</i> be done from home to allow those jobs to be done from home, without reprisal and without stigma, to expand the pool of people who can work.