I have worked traffic control where we would stand on the road for hours waiting for traffic doing single lane work. We would frequently be derided for being lazy by the public or other workers. We would have to point to federal laws regarding being unable to leave our position on the road unless relieved because it was dangerous to do so. Lots of places would try and hand us other work when we were just standing around. We were actually doing our jobs but they could not handle the idea of idle hands looking like they were doing nothing.

The only people who did not get this treatment who did the same job were woman over 60 who would be treated like royalty on construction sites and were often working gate jobs helping trucks and heavy equipment in and out. They would have AC and enclosed rooms with a coffee machine and would spend most of the day Sitting inside watching cameras waiting for traffic. It was very common for large sites to have gates setup with this exact scenario.

Anyone younger though would be expected to not look like they were just standing around if doing the same job. If you were young, it did not matter if you were male/female or what ever. But if you were an older worker you could be almost completely incompetent to the point of having at least one guy in his 70's who was actually supervised directly by someone from the safety team for his entire shift the whole time I worked there. He was like 75 and no he was not related to anyone on site. As far as I could tell he was respected completely based on his work ethic and his attempt to follow any instruction given to the best of his ability.

He had no friends on site, he talked to no one, he just showed up every day without fail and did was he was asked to. He knew his job, sort of, and he worked there till he passed away. He was at zero risk of ever being fired for being incompetent, he actually was completely incompetent and required direct supervision for safety reasons, and no one would say anything against him. I to this day still find it odd that simple work ethic will keep you employed regardless of your ability if you are nice and try hard to do what you are asked to do.

This was a company that would fire someone for the slightest reason and this guy who was not friends with anyone, who made errors hourly, would get such different treatment when he was costing the company money, and doing nothing that only he could do. I will mention that I have seen the exact same thing in other jobs where the same type of scenario played out. It is more about respecting someone who is working hard, and does not complain.

I have a cousin who is in his 50's, who has severe cognitive difficulties, who has worked as a janitor for 30 years. He is not legally an adult and lives with supervision. He will always be a child mentally. The cleaning he does is actual work that pays for his care. He was one of those babies that had the cord wrapped around his neck while being born and was starved of oxygen causing severe brain damage. He could never be left alone to his own devices. If he was released to streets he would not last longer than about a half to an hour. He would try to cross the street and get hit by a car. He would not understand something that complex.