EAGAN, Minn. - The Ergotron corporation is helping find out if workers can be guided into healthier, active lifestyles by standing at least part of the workday. Ergotron makes and markets the desks that make that possible.
"We are not the first to invent a standup desk or standup work station," said Jane Payfer, Ergotron Chief Marketing Officer. "What we are doing is providing an affordable option that corporations can provide their employees." The desks cost under $400 per unit.
Ergotron, which was purchased in 2011 by the Nortek Company of Rhode Island, has 1400 employees world-wide. The world headquarters remains in Eagan.
The company argues there are benefits beyond health improvements. "It is easier for three people to huddle around a computer screen when they are standing versus sitting," noted Pete Segar, President of Ergotron Branded Products Unit.
Segar added that Ergotron's own studies with the Park Nicollet Clinic indicate an increase in productivity from partly-standing workers. Eighty-seven percent of the workers reported feeling more energized at work, according to Segar.
The health benefit rises from getting desk-bound office workers out of their chairs for at least part of the work day. Counting time spent sitting while commuting to and from work, Payfer said Ergotron research showed that "most knowledge workers in America" are sitting an average of 7.7 hours a day.
"There are links to cancer. There are links to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certainly obesity and weight issues. They have even make links to depression in women," said Payfer.
University of Minnesota Epedemiology and Community Health Asociate Professor Mark Pereira, Ph.D., as one of the designers of the Mayo Study. "The goal for these employees is to try to get to the point where they are standing for at least half of the day, so, maybe four hours out of a work day," he said.
"We're looking at the study as an opportunity working with local small business to change the way people work," said Pereira. "Most people in office work, on computers, will sit for the majority of the day. So, we are looking to make a difference in people's lives at work by giving them work stations that allow them to stand for most of the day. If they want to take breaks and sit, [the work stations] are very easily adjustable to go up and down."
Ironically, Pereira does not have one of the Ergotron stations at his desk on the U of M's West Bank. His computer keyboard rests on an overturned cardboard box.
"This is my temporary work station and soon. I'll have one of the fancy ones that our research subjects have which will look better than cardboard boxes," explained Pereira.
Pereira agreed that standing at work increases face-to-face interaction among co-workers, as opposed to the trend of emailing someone who is just a few feet away.
"We are going to be studying with motion sensors, not only their (the test workers) posture, sitting or standing, and how much of that they do with the 'intervention', but we will be able to track how much they move around the office," said Pereira.
The joint U of M-Mayo Clinic study is being conducted using the workers at the Caldrea company offices in downtown Minneapolis. The initial study is to last three months.
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