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Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#141

Post by moneil971 »

JshWright wrote: post #93
jm__87 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I stopped reading the article here: > Research, however, suggests that warnings about sitting at work are overblown, and that standing desks are overrated as a way to improve health. Who cares what research says. If someone says it helps them and they prefer it to sitting, that is enough proof for me.

Turns out, you and the author agree... > Sit-stand desks are not exactly inexpensive, but like many things in life, they’re fine if you like them. And if it helps alleviate some back and neck pain, so much the better. It’s just that most people probably don’t need them.

Which should have been the lead of this article, but that would not have sold papers or gotten clicks...

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#142

Post by choot »

netcan wrote: post #68

You know what the problem with problems is? I'll tell you the problem with problems... :) Imagine Jules. Jules likes to put her laptop on the counter and work standing for an hour after lunch, while having her coffee. ...helps her digestion, or neck or something.. Personally, I like standing and/or walking while working too. I think better, it feels like. I like walking meetings, especially if we're going to be schem…

I like laying in bed with comfy blanket and air-conditioner with temperature set to simulate Swiss winter while working.

I've no desire to sit or stand.

Dell XPS running Debian works fine in this environment.

Unfortunately, office can't provide me this. So i am working remotely now.

My brain is lot less efficient in other environment probably because I've high amount of North European genetic material and my brain is most efficient in low temperature, maybe there is some evolutionary reason behind this.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#143

Post by PeterisP »

babahoyo wrote: post #110
closeparen wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Businesses can't seem to admit that they're spending money based on employee preference. There has to be a metrics-driven productivity or healthcare spending argument to justify the budget.

wow that is pretty dystopian

But it's true anyway

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#144

Post by lucas_membrane »

3pt14159 wrote: post #50
JshWright wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "overrated" claim is that standing desks address the health concerns of sitting too much (a claim that I have heard many, many times). There is no evidence to support that claim. Your third paragraph accuses the author of cherry-picking the studies. Is there an example of a study you feel they should have included that supports your accusation? The author is not claiming to be a subject matter expert. The fact th…

There is some evidence[0], but people expect magic bullets, when the reality is that small gains here and there are useful. The only magic bullets I've found are cutting out refined sugar and heart pumping exercise at least 15 minutes a day, and ideally an hour. If it matters, my back pain largely went away when I switched to working while standing for three or four hours a day. [0] E.g., http://www.sjweh.fi/show_abs…

Is there better evidence in favor of the 1 mph treadmill desks?

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#145

Post by klodolph »

closeparen wrote: post #105
netcan wrote: post #68

You know what the problem with problems is? I'll tell you the problem with problems... :) Imagine Jules. Jules likes to put her laptop on the counter and work standing for an hour after lunch, while having her coffee. ...helps her digestion, or neck or something.. Personally, I like standing and/or walking while working too. I think better, it feels like. I like walking meetings, especially if we're going to be schem…

Businesses can't seem to admit that they're spending money based on employee preference. There has to be a metrics-driven productivity or healthcare spending argument to justify the budget.

This is true, it’s why you go to your doctor and say, “my back hurts I want a standing desk,” then the doctor writes you a note which says “Jim seems to have back pain and a standing desk would help.”

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#146

Post by ravenstine »

jm__87 wrote: post #69
netcan wrote: post #68

You know what the problem with problems is? I'll tell you the problem with problems... :) Imagine Jules. Jules likes to put her laptop on the counter and work standing for an hour after lunch, while having her coffee. ...helps her digestion, or neck or something.. Personally, I like standing and/or walking while working too. I think better, it feels like. I like walking meetings, especially if we're going to be schem…

Thanks. I stopped reading the article here: > Research, however, suggests that warnings about sitting at work are overblown, and that standing desks are overrated as a way to improve health. Who cares what research says. If someone says it helps them and they prefer it to sitting, that is enough proof for me.

I can't think of many subjects that can't be written in the same manner.

"Research, however, suggests that warnings about smoking are overblown, and that not smoking is an overrated way of improving health."

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#147

Post by trhway »

bitwize wrote: post #116
trhway wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my post-office-move cardboard boxes, fine-tuned by printing paper packs, beat even that on price. Ia typical efficiency style of BigCo, some departments in our company have very nice expensive top-of-the-line sit/stand desks issued to everybody and most of the people there never use them for standing, while in other departments like ours one can't get it even after passing through the gauntlet of ergonomic forms and…

I'm going to put out a guess and say that most of the department with the nice desks have "Manager" or "Director" in the title, and your department is something like software, which is management for purposes of determining overtime exemption and plebs for every other purpose. It's like the bit about open-plan offices. Management knows they're shit and you can't get work done in them. That's why they have offices of…

>I'm going to put out a guess and say that most of the department with the nice desks have "Manager" or "Director" in the title

not exactly. It is just "nicer" departments like legal, etc and more important/cool/key projects as the top management see.

>It's like the bit about open-plan offices. Management knows they're shit and you can't get work done in them. That's why they have offices of their own.

oh yes! The most fresh hot-off-the-pan "open" office plans that we've recently got don't repeat a foolish mistake of the open office plans they implemented just a few years ago - the few years ago they put everybody including directors (and sometimes even low ranking VPs) in the "open", while now it is like the old typical cubicle farm where cubicle space for plebs was surrounded by private offices for managers, etc. - only minus actual cubicles (for better inter-plebs collaboration and communication :). Full panopticon for the plebs.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#148

Post by yellowapple »

m104 wrote: post #122
closeparen wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Businesses can't seem to admit that they're spending money based on employee preference. There has to be a metrics-driven productivity or healthcare spending argument to justify the budget.

Data helps corporate management avoid personal responsibility, so it's not just "As a leader, I think..." but rather "Look at what the data is telling us to do." Yeah, it sucks.

This is why I personally value and respect leaders/supervisors who don't try to hide behind data: because they're personally invested in their decisions and actually demonstrate that they're in control with their hands on the steering wheel of their organizational unit (be it team or department or facility or company).

My previous supervisor (current coworker) was/is excellent about this. Yeah, of course the actual data will be front and center in the decisionmaking process, but he always makes a point to actually validate that data (through hands-on / direct observation or through his direct reports), knowing full well that there's no such thing as perfect data (there's always a missing metric or an unreliable source somewhere).

More importantly, he's willing to put himself behind his decisions, and always encouraged the rest of us to do the same for our own direct reports (and while I don't and didn't have any, I still took his lessons to heart): if you need to rely on / appeal to external sources of authority (be they higher-ups, data, "corporate policy", etc.) to assert your own authority, then your own authority is illusory, at best. By all means explain your reasoning, of course ("transparency is a dependency of trust" applies to any kind of computational system, including the kind that sits between our ears), but it should be clear that it's your reasoning, not someone (or something) else's.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#149

Post by apl002 »

i just like them cause they are a good change of pace for comfort. If im working on code for 5+ hrs, my butt/back gets sore from sitting for so long. Switching to standing for an hour or so allows me to grind longer. In no way do i think that im somehow being healthier for standing

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#150

Post by asdff »

vemv wrote: post #120

At work, I hate sitting (despite owning a couple very specific chairs that I'm actually comfortably in) and I also hate standing. Both seem to keep my body/mind tense - which is at odds with the deep focusing/relaxation I need for working on creative solutions for long stretches of time. Very recently I discovered the wonders of beanbags, reclinable armchairs, and so on. I might even try a hammock one day. All these…

How do you deal with sleeping? Every time I sit somewhere with my head supported, I begin to drift off. Doesn't matter if I slept in, or if I've had two cups of coffee. If my head is stabilized, it's over for me.
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