Working at a desk is just as bad as smoking?

So, once again there are some sensationalist press articles. This time telling us that working at a desk is just as bad for you as smoking!

And then we all start thinking how it must be true because we read it in a respected newspaper and the research has been done by a health organisation.

Now I am not going to rubbish research that has been carefully quantified, qualified and presented, but to blame it on sedentary work seems a little severe.

Genetics, diet and living conditions all play a massive part in our health and I would be interested too in which countries most of the 5.3m people who die annually actually come from.

Working at a desk

What we can say is that poor posture at work does contribute to more health problems than just back related.

When we go from standing to sitting in the merely average chairs that have been offered to the market since the synchro chair was first introduced in the 1970's, we have seen a massive increase in all kinds of problems and these have increased significantly as PC usage became the norm.

There are real alternatives although normally (in the UK) management teams and accountants have not seen the whole life cost and the productivity improvements in their true light. Were they prepared to spend another 20-30% on the task chair that their single biggest asset and investment sit on every day then the result would be more than seen on the bottom line results of their company.

Interestingly, as we move from the traditional 3 part office (desk space, meeting space, canteen) to the new collaborative, multi-functional and connected office allowing us to work anywhere, anytime, we are not sedentary any more.

True, there are some office workers who will never change their ways they are working at a desk and can get to work in their sleep, moving from bus to underground to pavement to desk through muscle memory but they are a reducing minority!

For the rest of us, collaboration, communication and sharing of ideas is the way forward because to survive in a global economy then change is the only thing we can be sure of and this also means changing our posture too!

Maybe, subconsciously we have returned to the hunter-gatherer work/life pattern that our ancestors enjoyed but without the sabre-toothed tiger on our back!

So good-bye sedentary, and if you are interested in bio-mechanics and how this can be integrated into 'proper office task chairs' drop us a line!

Oh and for some inspiration, watch very funny video that puts a humorous twist to it: