How Standing Desks Make Employees Feel More Engaged

Imagine, if you can, feeling comfortable at work. Does that picture you've created involve sitting at all? Helping our body to rest, it's only natural that sitting down is seen as 'comfortable'. However, studies undertaken in the last couple of years have indicated that sitting at work doesn't actually offer as much comfort as what standing does .

This is probably why there has been an upsurge in the usage of 'standing desks' in recent years, as an increasing number of businesses are becoming more aware of the need for their office design to lend itself better to the working needs of their employees, in order to cultivate success. But why is sitting seen as less comfortable?

What are the health risks of sitting?

There is actually increasing evidence that excessive sitting can cause a number of health issues. Sitting means that we are moving our bodies less; slowing down our metabolism and affecting the ability of the body to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and to break down body fat. All of this leads to weight gain, possible type-2 diabetes, even certain types of cancer and early death.

This is why the NHS advises , that in order to reduce the risk of ill health, the average adult should be doing around 150 minutes of exercise a week, whilst also reducing their sitting time. With many adults spending more than seven hours a day sitting at work – then travelling home by car or public transport just to sit on the couch to watch TV, you can probably see why an increasing number of businesses are placing health and fitness at the heart of their operations.

Whilst sitting, the muscles will not be used to their full capacity and therefore, the fuel is also just sitting there, with nothing to work with. This is how excess fat is created in the body – with nothing to do it stays in the body, creating a larger mass, which in turn creates health problems.

Creating opportunities in the office design for people to stand more will also allow a person to correct their posture and ease the pressure placed on their back. Whilst the modern office chair has been brilliantly designed to support posture, they still place restrictions on the body which means it won't be moving as much as it should. By allowing an employee to find their natural balance, it will be more likely that they will feel more engaged with the work they're undertaking; their concentration not affected by constantly having to adjust their positioning to find comfort or worse, because they feel pain.

A standing desk simply gives the body the opportunity to exercise more, whilst not having any sort of negative impact on the work produced. In fact, by getting more exercise, a person will be feeling stronger, more comfortable and happier at work, leading to a probable upturn in productivity.