I found this in a post using the omnibus (searched for "sitting wrong direction")
"Sitting works by having the PC play the sitting animation at
the model's center (0,0,0) and faces the closer of the two use nodes of the
placeable. If the use01 node is missing however, the engine has you
defaulting to facing east, as was the case for say, the stool (before it
was fixed) or some of the invisible placeables people use for sitting."
This looks like what you are hitting. There was more in there and other threads as well.