The life-sized doll named Emma has:
- a permanently hunched back from leaning over desk
- varicose veins from poor blood circulation due to sitting down too long
- red eyes from looking at screens
- a protruding stomach from lack of exercise and hunched back.
William Higham, author of the ‘Work Colleague of the Future’ report, suggests that “unless we make radical changes to our working lives, such as moving more, addressing our posture at our desks or consider improving our work station set up, offices are going to make us very sick”. The report suggested that more than 90% of office workers in the UK are performing poorly at work due to health issues.
Of those people surveyed, about 50% had back problems and about 50% had eye problems. Obviously this survey cannot conclude that working in an office causes back and eye problems however we know that sedentary lifestyles and lack of physical exercise can cause all sorts of health problems no matter where you work.
The take home message is not to give up your office job but to make sure you exercise regularly out of work and whilst you are work make sure you take regular breaks to walk around and stretch. Desks that raise up and down to allow a person to alternate seamlessly between sitting and standing throughout the day are also becoming more and more popular.
With a few changes, we can hopefully avoid looking like Emma!
Emma being unveiled by William Higham