This is what happens when ‘your employer owns your body and soul’ cross-breeds with ‘nothing is more dangerous than fat.’ A treadmill desk designed by the Mayo clinic. Don’t mock because they were seriously scientific about their research:
“If obese individuals were to replace time spent sitting at the computer with walking computer time by 2 to 3 hours a day, and if other components of energy balance were constant, a weight loss of 20 to 30kg a year could occur,”
It’s none of our employer’s business whether or not we lose 20 to 30 kg, or gain 20 or 30 kg. Our bodies and our lives should belong to us, that’s the basic meaning of freedom.
Although the idea of an employer requiring this sends shivers up my spine, the desk itself seems pretty cool – and I read an article about a guy who’d invented something like this for himself and found that he felt significantly better; our bodies were not designed to sit at a desk for hours and hours.
blech! I wouldnt mind having the choice either, but of course, choice wouldnt make it any better at work. As if its not already bad enough to be fat at work—imagine if you were fat and NOT one of hte go-getters who put in the hours on the treadmill. Choice at work is incredibly illusory.
I guess I wonder how productivity is affected–I don’t know that I’d be able to write a grant budget or balance an account while walking on a treadmill, since I find it hard enough to read at the gym, even if it’s just a popular magazine. And what will my employer do if I can’t do my work because I have to do it while walking? Fire me?
Then too, doesn’t this suggest that we would all need two desks? Or would we all walk all day? I’m a pretty active person and I’m not sure that I’d enjoy eight hours of walking at work. At least, it wouldn’t leave me much energy for anything else. People may not be meant to sit all day, but I’m not sure that a solid eight hours of walking is a great solution.
I wouldn’t mind one of those balance ball things instead of my exceptionally mediocre chair, though.
With the perverse incentives created by the US employer-based health care system, it was only a matter of time before we saw this.
Not to mention that I always seem to be rifling through stacks of files to find things, which would be hard to do while walking on a treadmill. I guess all the slim, productive workers in Mayo-clinic-land will also have achieved the paperless office.
yes, obviously we’d need two desks. I acutally know someone who has this set up, and he has two desks.
What a hustle. Look at the cost of these desks. And what about those that are not fat, are they going to die of ‘output related starvation syndrome?’ Nah, because their metabolism will attempt to adjust, as best it can, and their input will make good whatever it can, automatically. How much you lose and keep off depends on how good your body’s defenses work, and how much better they are able to get over time. Not that it matters ‘cos this really isn’t about reality, is it?
My first impression was that, while this sort of thing would obviously be crappy if compulsory, it could be fun to have the option of walking an hour or two a day if one had a desk job. But curiousgyrl’s objection is a strong one–sneaky peer/boss pressure problems are hard to avoid. On the other hand, I find walking on a treadmill compares unfavorably with watching water boil on the scale of “interesting things to do”. What if they put a couple of these in at the gym instead of the office? Then one could surf the web, blog, play computer games, and otherwise have fun with the computer instead of feeling like one should try to work while at the desk-treadmill.
That would be awesome. But I bet the repair costs would be sky-high, because people’s sweat would constantly be screwing up the keyboards.
assuming i had the choice to use this desk for part of my day, i’d jump at the chance. i get cramped up sitting stationary at a desk all day. i’m not looking to lose any weight, but rather to avoid sprouting roots.
In addition to being invasive, it’s also a way to cut away breaks. What we should be doing is getting up and walking around and getting away from work every now and then. Instead of saying “employees need to walk around, therefore let’s encourage breaks,” they’re saying, “employees need to walk around, but they can’t have breaks because we own their asses and Productivity is King, therefore let’s find a way to avoid giving them breaks while still meeting this need.”
Finally, someone has combined the comfort of work clothes, the fun of work, and one of our most tedious forms of exercise!
I sit on my ass all day at work and you’ll never hear me denying the importance of regular exercise, but that thing looks like it belongs in a circle of hell. How productive could you actually be on one, anyway, without tripping on the treadmill? It would be better if employers just stuck some regular treadmills in the corner and didn’t penalize workers for using them.
Why powered treadmills? Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to have self powered treadmills like in the old victorian work houses? Heck, you could connect them up to small generators and help defray the energy costs of running the office.
The possibilities are mind boggling.
I saw this as a perk, like having an in-office gym or having masseuses on hand. I took my computer and put it on the kitchen counter so I can stand while I work on it. Sitting down all day is not good for you for various reasons, hemmoroids being one.
I’d agree that as an option, this is brilliant.
But “optional” is still visible.
I wouldn’t enjoy it very much if I was one of the only (or the only) woman or fat person or fat woman, especially, in an office to choose against a treadmill desk. In my world, exercise is a personal endeavor, not a public display done in order to prove what a good (read: weight-loss endeavoring) woman/fat person I am. Exercise is done while properly attired and shod, not in something I’m then going to wear to a meeting with 15 colleagues in a stuffy conference room. (Oh, how pleasant.) It’s also something that I don’t do on a treadmill if I can avoid it. But in the body-hatred espousing world in which we live, those completely legitimate reasons would be taken as excuses and no one needs that. This, in short, could create serious workplace tension.
It’s difficult enough being the only overweight person in my office; I can just see how well this would go over even if it were “optional.” My company’s pretty laid back, and even so the pressure would be unbearable. Imagine having one of these in a corner as an “extra” desk – would I be looked at as both fat AND lazy if I didn’t spend eight hours a day on the thing?
As a side note, the other office where I work has a pretty nice gym setup in an empty office, and it’s rarely used. Probably a combination of self-consciousness (the “gym” office is surrounded by regular ones in use) and a desire to not get oneself sweaty during the workday.
The empty gym is probably a combination of exercise is boring and therefore repels. Everyone of us knows this, but it has become unfashionable to state this due to it becoming a ‘moral’ issue.
The human body is designed to move to get from A to B, or for pleasure, exercise – pointless physical jerking around- does not fit into either category.
So we continue to pretend that the reason’s why we do not exercise is because we don’t have time and so on. Let just admit it, exercise is unpleasant.
@B.Adu: Agreed. I had to have The Talk with my mom the other day: Yes, Mom, I’ve been going to the gym lately. At my own pace, when I have time and energy. No, I haven’t lost any weight. Yes, I’m building strength and stamina. No, Mom, that’s okay with me – I’ve learned to like myself the way I am, and if that way happens to be larger than average, that’s okay. No, it really is okay.
It’s fascinating that in American culture today, physical size is considered a moral issue.
What I find creepy about this is that there is a problem with people working extremely long hours and sitting down all day. But the solution, as Deborah suggests, is more breaks and a shorter work day.
This is like – a ha if people can move their body and still work then they can work even more of their day.
I’d think about it if they’d add a mini-fridge and microwave.
….. ‘nothing is more dangerous than fat.’
This statement is not true.
To be underweight is much more dangerous than to be overweight.
I also doubt, if every work could be done while walking.
Except they weren’t seriously scientific in their research. That 20 kg promised loss is back of the envelope hypothetical and completely unsupported by any data or testing. Anybody hawking a fad weight loss program will make up the same numbers. If you do fitness made easy for a year you could lose up to 50 lbs! Sure could, except when you put people on workout programs in actual randomized studies they don’t lose very much weight – it’s just the way the body’s designed.
Hey, if anyone with a job thinks they’re not walking enough, I have an offer to make — they can give their car to me!
It’s none of our employer’s business whether or not we lose 20 to 30 kg, or gain 20 or 30 kg. Our bodies and our lives should belong to us, that’s the basic meaning of freedom.
two thoughts:
1) the idea that “all other factors” would remain equal is laughable. probably people would eat a tiny bit more and stay the same weight. (they might, however, feel totally better)
2) it’s a bit difficult arguing that our bosses have no interest in our health (weight being a different matter), given that we force them to provide us health care/insurance. another argument for separating the two and instituting universal health care in the US…
as a programmer, i wouldn’t touch that thing. it would be totally impossible for me to write any useful amount of useful code while doing anything but writing code; the concentration required for programming will not admit of distractions like walking in place all the time.
sometimes, the concentration required for programming won’t even allow for looking at a computer, and i have to stand up and walk around the office for a while. better yet, walk around the office building, so i won’t risk being interrupted by my coworkers.
also, second the need for desks to put papers on. and reference books. and cubicle walls to pin more papers onto. and maybe a whiteboard for doodling overviews on. and another computer monitor would be nice, for googling problems with…
(most programmers tend to have offices reminiscent of the prototypical scatterbrained mathemathics professor, i’ve found. the jobs are not too dissimilar, come to that.)
Once again, the concept of Health At Every Size is being completely trashed inthe implementation of these desks — not the desks themselves, but the reasons for employers potentially wanting them.
How do you think they’ll evaluate the “success” of these desks? By improved energy level? Treadmill stress tests? Lab results? No, they care about one thing and one thing only — will it get everyone thin?
And of course, it won’t. Nobody can stay on a treadmill for eight hours straight, not even a world-class athlete, and even if you could the damage to your body, including your joints, would be incalculable. At most, people might do 30 to 60 minutes on them daily. An improvement over no exercise at all? Certainly. The magic bullet for slimness? Mais non. With rare exceptions, the difference in what people weigh as a result of this will be negligible.
But someone will be happy — the manufacturer. Ka-ching!
Our company has an in-house gym. For $14/month I can go down there anytime from 0600 to 1800 and work out. It is not unusual to see someone on a treadmill or an elliptical machine (the latter being my favorite) reading a book. Sometimes it’s recreational reading, sometimes its technical.
It’s none of our employer’s business whether or not we lose 20 to 30 kg, or gain 20 or 30 kg.
I rather suspect that if an employer bought and set up a number of these machines, they might get some kind of discount from their health insurance provider.
as a programmer, i wouldn’t touch that thing. it would be totally impossible for me to write any useful amount of useful code while doing anything but writing code; the concentration required for programming will not admit of distractions like walking in place all the time.
Yes, but you probably don’t spend 8 hours a day writing code. There’s e-mail, scheduling meetings, etc., etc. If you could set one of these up with a laptop, trust me; there’d be a line of people who wanted to use them, probably to run through their e-mail. The concept of “my employer would be taking advantage of me” would be the last thing on their mind.
What I find creepy about this is that there is a problem with people working extremely long hours and sitting down all day. But the solution, as Deborah suggests, is more breaks and a shorter work day.
But then you’d have a drop in productivity, which would cost money.
pointless physical jerking around
This describes what many people pay good money to do in dimly lit places with a good DJ or live band.
But the solution, as Deborah suggests, is more breaks and a shorter work day.
But then you’d have a drop in productivity, which would cost money.
I highly doubt that. A shorter worday would most likely just give people back a good chunk of their time, while keeping productivity equal. Or even increasing it. I always find I get a lot more done in a shorter workday.
OK…I finally realized what bothered me about this post. It is that, while I agree with this
Our bodies and our lives should belong to us, that’s the basic meaning of freedom.
I was already there before the treadmill/desk (which may be why it doesn’t bother me all that much).
I mean, just sitting at a normal desk for a 9-hour day, with breaks for lunch, etc., is already a too-great imposition on my body and health. I need more sleep than the average person, but because I have to be at work at a certain time, I don’t get it. This leads to me being more sick than I would be otherwise. The 9 hour day plus 2 hours of commuting leave me with little time to do anything else. And sitting at a desk in front of a computer for most of the day leads to a) wrist/neck/shoulder and other physical problems and b) a very sedentary lifestyle. I may not want either of these, but that’s what comes with the job.
So the silly treadmill is (to me) hardly worth notice, because there are more impositions on people’s physical beings than to prevent them from being fat.
Outlier, people are paying for the possibility or expectation that they will have pleasure, this is as far away from enforced running on a treadmill, as sexual harassment is from ‘flirting’. To do it for ‘weight loss’ can actually be degrading, yes degrading, so much so, that it can eventually put you off physical activity you used to enjoy, an overspill of the body resisting attempts to ‘starve’ it by manipulating output. The unpleasantness can actually spread. It can alienate you from yourself, make you lose trust in yourself, ‘why can’t I do what is ‘good’ for me?’
If you are not doing something ‘cos you want to then it is skating the edge of consent, like a violation of oneself that you are colluding in.
I agree with Outlier. I dont think his point was that the treadmill isnt bad, its that enforced desk sitting–wage work in general–is already that bad, degrading, alientating etc.
Speaking of which, I ran across this while at work: http://www.inc.com/news/articles/200705/obesity.html?partner=rss
The gist: despite a quote paying lipservice to the idea that you can’t descriminate against fat people, employers should descriminate against fat people. They’re bad for companies, you know…
I highly doubt that. A shorter worday would most likely just give people back a good chunk of their time, while keeping productivity equal. Or even increasing it. I always find I get a lot more done in a shorter workday.
I can see where taking breaks, etc., can refresh one’s mind and spirit and keep productivity up. But there’s a quick limit to that; overall, you’re not going to get as much done in a 30-hour week than you will in a 40-hour week. If you work fewer hours, you’re going to get less done.
Now, sitting at a desk for 8 or 9 hours a day is very definitely bad for you and unrelieved tedium will reduce productivity. I find that getting down to the exercise center here at work really helps me out both healthwise and in getting work done.
If I ever worked at an office that implemented these, I would walk out immediately.
(But I would love one of these for home – lol)
I worked for a college for 11 years and even though they were concerned about health costs they would have never bought me this desk for simple $ reasons. Now I telecommute for a different company and I set up my own treadmill desk to help fight a family predisposition to being overweight. I actually have two desks, one that I walk at and one that I sit at for times when I need to rest, need more mouse control (such as editing a photo or illustration) or I’m just feeling lazy – ha. I walk anywhere from 1-6 miles most days depending upon the type of work I’m doing and what other exercise I am getting that week with the kids. I walk as little as 30 minutes a day and have walked 5 hours in a day as well.
Is the treadmill desk for everyone? No – a few of the comments above make that clear. Is it a dumb idea? To a lot of people it certainly is. Why do I use it? Cause I need the extra calorie burn and I want to spend non-work time with my family or having fun – not stuck in a health club.
BTW – even walking below 1 mph (which is pretty slow) gets you extra calories burned and most people won’t break a sweat at that speed so you don’t have to worry about “stinking up the meeting room”.
Weasel, I appreciate that you find this kind of desk useful, but I am intrigued by your rationale.
You say that you are burning calories, but doesn’t this encourage your body to keep up your calorie intake, after all you keep using them up all the time!
When you do less, don’t you eat less automatically, and when you do more don’t you simply eat more?
“B.Adu Writes:
May 27th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Weasel, I appreciate that you find this kind of desk useful, but I am intrigued by your rationale…”
What rationale? I think it’s safe to assume anyone who thinks 1) exercise has any effect on body weight beyond about five pounds and 2) that still using the word “overweight” to describe fat people doen’t make her look naive and ignorant is going to have all sorts of food obsessions that keep her from being able to eat in response to body cues. (Yes, I’m calling her “overdumb.”)
OK Kell,
You’ve outed me. I was trying to fathom how the ‘other half’ relates their ‘theories’ to their actual reality, call me overpolite!
Personally, I agree with Naomi Wolf (in The Beauty Myth), i.e. that the whole process parallels religious rituals. Using a treadmill desk (which I would personally love to have access to, if there weren’t fat bashing mythologies attached) is a way of begging for forgiveness for sins, i.e. eating a normal lunch. Kind of like saying Hail Marys…
The cult like attitudes have not escaped me either, they project their own perceived or actual ‘sins’ of overconsumption – not just in the case of food- onto fat people, then punish fatties to presumably keep themselves ‘in check’, in some way.
It is being roped in- by default- to their mindset that I can’t stand. If they would just do their running about or whatever and be courteous to fatties, everyone would be happy.
I am also glad that you indicate that making ‘exercise’ an issue of moral superiority puts many like yourself and moi, off.
I respect your stand against the baggage put on this treadmill idea, but I don’t think you should take any more notice of their opinions, as they would probably take of yours, your running on a treadmill for your own reasons, will make little if any difference to what they say/think about fat people, it is not about what we actually do or don’t do, it’s about what they project onto us.
Seems I should, belatedly, take a look at the BM.
Hello from atop my Treadmill,
I have a blog devoted entirely to the “Treadmill Desk”. It’s designed to guide users in the design, construction and operation of their Treadmill Desks.
I don’t sit at my “normal” desk anymore unless I have to, like when I’m doing my tax return and there’s lots of papers.
Here’s the URL: http://www.Treadmill-Desk.com/
Don’t miss the movies and slide shows!
Thanks,
Jay Buster
Treadmill Desk