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Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#191

Post by closetohome »

olyjohn wrote: post #171
freyir wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't actually seem very wishy-washy? The article is focused on a single point: standing desks don't provide much health benefit to most people. The conclusion follows: use a standing desk if you like it, not if you've been wrongly convinced that you need it. What more committed stance would you like the author to take? Since there are limited health benefits, nobody should ever use a standing desk?

That's the problem. What point is the author trying to make? It even says in the article that sitting all day is bad, and that standing desks can help people with neck and lower back problems. That's exactly the point why I have a standing desk. My back hurts from sitting at my computer all day, so alternating back and forth helps. Not being in pain is a significant health benefit to me. People who don't have pain, a…

The point of the article was to provide something for the clickbait title to link to. Standing desks have been popular for long enough now that it's apparently time to start writing contrarian articles about them for clicks.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#192

Post by dqpb »

> “Alternating standing and sitting while using a computer may be useful for some people with low back or neck pain,” he said — but people shouldn’t be under the illusion that they’re getting exercise.

Nobody is under the illusion that standing is exercise. What a pointless article.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#194

Post by Retra »

brlewis wrote: post #137
JshWright wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, that's what I keep saying about my bear repellent rock I keep on my front porch. Haven't seen a single bear yet.

Your employer wins because you're spending less time worrying about bears. My employer wins because I spend less time thinking about whether I would benefit from a sit/stand desk...at the very least. I suspect I get a real productivity advantage from it at times.

And both of you lose because you're purposefully dismissing the value of research and making decisions based on ritual and conformity.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#195

Post by hboon »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #161
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.

I had this discussion with a book keeper about a fancy chair for an employee once. The bookkeeper was arguing that this was more money than they had spent on a chair before and so it needed to be justified. I justified it by saying, "We pay this individual over $100,000 a year, they are key to the following efforts, and the chair will last them for their entire career with the company. Not to mention it costs about 1…

Boggles the mind why companies skim on quality properly-speced laptops.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#196

Post by sebleon »

asdff wrote: post #156
sebleon wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if someone has a home remedy that gets great results, why switch to a substance from someone in a lab coat?

One person randomly having a favorable outcome doesn't tell you if a result is great, let alone even exists.

Fair - correlation does not mean causation. That being said, countless experiments show placebo can have empirical results; even the simple belief in a remedy can improve healthcare outcomes.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#197

Post by Tempest1981 »

asdff wrote: post #159
narag wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right about standing and so many other things. The problem :) with open offices thouhgh is that noise is not a like/dislike thing. You can't choose whether you can concentrate in a noisy envirnoment or not. And oh, you are not offered to choose between open office or not. Some guy decided it and imposed it to you.

You are the one signing to an open office job, after all.

Although during the interview, how do you assess just how noisy the open office is going to be? The interviewer will likely say, "it's not very noisy".

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#198

Post by 3pt14159 »

ejstronge wrote: post #169
3pt14159 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The linked article makes no claims about health outcomes - instead, the participants in that study reported feeling better, which contributes to the reported improvement in health-adjusted life years. In fact, there was no difference in BMI reported between the standard condition and the intervention designed to decrease sitting time. I don't know this literature much, but a separate analysis of the same study may sh…

Sorry? I didn't mention BMI. I was referring to life year gains.

> Life years (LY) gained is a measure in health economics. It expresses the additional number of years of life that a person lives as a result of receiving a treatment.

And a 1% increase in LY after a 12 month intervention isn't a silver bullet, but it's nothing to sneeze at.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#199

Post by sebleon »

JshWright wrote: post #94
sebleon wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if someone has a home remedy that gets great results, why switch to a substance from someone in a lab coat?

Exactly, that's what I keep saying about my bear repellent rock I keep on my front porch. Haven't seen a single bear yet.

A closer analogy for a remedy to an illness would be: Whenever your yard gets overrun with bears, putting a rock on the porch makes them go away for an unknown reason. Don’t let yourself be limited by science, which is bounded by human intelligence.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#200

Post by throwawaywhynot »

kaizendad wrote: post #172
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…

Standing desks can be amazing for those of us who tend to sit like we're misbehaving second-graders. When I sit down, I rarely have 2 feet on the floor, I slouch not just forward but left or right, I spin in my chair... if there were a nun standing behind me, she'd whack me with a yardstick. That makes sitting all day unhealthy for me. And I know a lot of people who fidget like this! When I stand, I actually have to…

I think fidgeting is a lot healthier than sitting in the same position for extended periods of time
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