Why Standing Desks Are Overrated • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#201

Post by olyjohn » Tue, Nov 20, 2018, 7:10 PM UTC

tensor wrote: post #189

olyjohn wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There is definitely a narrative being thrown around that standing desks are "good for you" and "healthy" and that you should use them. This article is significant in that it refutes that. In some select cases it can help with some select problems, but it is not objectively "good for you" nor "healthy." In fact, the study in question found that too much standing is in fact "bad for you"! It really is a commonly held b…

I don't understand the logic here. Who is advocating for standing all day? The purpose of a standing desk is to give you the ability to alternate between sitting and standing.

You can sit at a standing desk. Even if it's not a mechanical one, you can sit in a taller chair. You don't have to stand all day.

You can't stand up at a sitting desk unless you get a Varidesk or something. But then you have a standing desk.

You even say yourself that a standing desk can help with some select problems. What select problems does a sitting desk solve that can't be solved by sitting at a standing desk? If one helps with some problems, and one doesn't, which is the better option?

And let's not downplay the "select" problems that it helps with. Mainly back pain, nerve problems and posture issues. These are not small, trivial problems for a lot of people.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#202

Post by brlewis » Tue, Nov 20, 2018, 7:46 PM UTC

Retra wrote: post #194

brlewis wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you meant your reply to go to the homeopathy comment. Unless you have specific research into the effectiveness of bear-repellent rocks.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#203

Post by ironic_ali » Tue, Nov 20, 2018, 8:27 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #164

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.

Yes. Admitting input from the employees violates the hierarchy. The Platonic ideal of "business" is one in which ideas are formed from the "vision" from the CEO and everyone else is there to implement their will, in a hierarchical fashion. This is used to justify paying the CEO the salary of a thousand or ten thousand workers. Admitting that the workers might know anything better than the management, even about their…

I'd add the many others in the hierarchy having their personal"vision" questioned by 'subordinates' creates the same problems you describe. Otherwise, you nailed it imho.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#204

Post by closeparen » Tue, Nov 20, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

yellowapple wrote: post #148

m104 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 d…

It’s pretty transparent at my company that no one in the engineering hierarchy has any authority over the physical plant, not even the CTO.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#205

Post by narag » Wed, Nov 21, 2018, 5:42 PM UTC

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.

Actually no, I'm not. In most of the times I've been in such places, it was after the company moving.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#206

Post by kaizendad » Wed, Nov 21, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

bcruddy wrote: post #174

kaizendad wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 love my standing desk for these reasons. The tailor that did my wedding tux last year also commented on my posture being near perfect. I attribute it wholly (maybe inaccurately) to using a standing desk (and standing most of the day) for the last three years. Also, maybe it's all in my head, I don't get that "afternoon drowsiness" at all since I started standing up after lunch instead of eating and then sitting in…

So true on the "afternoon drowsiness" thing! I hadn't thought of that.

A friend who is a USMC veteran used to tell me that standard procedure in a briefing was: if you're tired, go stand up in the back. Super hard to fall asleep standing up. I bet there's a big chunk of that here.

Re: Why Standing Desks Are Overrated

#207

Post by jm__87 » Thu, Nov 22, 2018, 6:17 PM UTC

savanaly wrote: post #82

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.

By that logic, I guess homeopathy is also perfectly proven as effective?

Honestly, I see these sort of comments on here all the time and it drives me nuts. Comparing homeopathy and a standing desk is comparing apples and oranges. Everyone has experience with standing - we evolved to do this. Taking homeopathy remedies to cure illness is not something we evolved to do, so we do not know what the potential downsides may be.

Another reason this is comparing apples to oranges is the potential downside risk given the difference in unknowns. Again, what is the downside risk of standing instead of sitting? Maybe sore feet, maybe a sore back, you'll know when you try it. What is the downside risk of treating your cancer with homeopathy? Maybe it doesn't work and you die. Not even in the same ball park.

When these things are in the same ball park: we know the risks involved and the risks are small. Under these circumstances, my argument stands: if someone likes taking homeopathy remedies when they get a cold and it is not a financial burden on them, who cares what they do. The only risk is having this same attitude toward homeopathy regardless of the ailment you are treating and then people start dying.