background: I (28M) work in an energy utility company. I'm an engineer working a desk job on our critical infrastructure. I work right next to all of our monitoring equipment, and I've been here 5 days per week all through the pandemic. Too essential to work from home (WFH), so they tell me. I do not work out of our corporate office, which is relevant to my problem below. I work in a dedicated technical remote site about 10mi from the main office.
Problem: all of our main office staff (think HR, accounting, rates, marketing, etc.) have all been WFH for most of the pandemic. They're all coming back to work, and as a special treat the majority of them are getting fancy electric standing desks when they return to the office. I want mine.
I emailed HR asking if I can one of those relatively cheap standing desk additions to my existing desk. I'm not asking for the all-in-one thousand dollar solution like the rest of the company is getting, but the plastic manually adjustable topper that are commonplace nowadays. They had the gall to tell me to take a form to my doctor and have them sign that this is a required “disability accomodations.”
The hill that I'm dying on: sit/standing desks are proven to reduce fatigue and increase task engagement. If some joe-shmoe at the main office gets a brand new electric desk just as an incentive to come back to the office, why the hell do I have to take time off of work to jump through hoops to bother my physician, just to get half as good of a desk, while I've been on the job this entire time?! I find this outrageous and I'm making a huge stink of it.
Am I letting jealousy get the best of me? Or am I justified here?
Tl;Dr: main office gets sit/stand desks. I'm not in the main office. I have to file disability paperwork if I want one.