> The shield prevents a face- or palm-plant action, not an oopsie-slide-it-up-bump action
Usually, to protect vaguely important switches from accidents and furniture, there are also metal security rails on both sides of the cover, so the only way to open the cover is by a narrow object like a finger moving upwards.
The fact such an important switch could be reached by a chair is astonishing. I would had expected it to be on some control panel, well out of reach of chairs and other heavy, erratically moving objects.