How to sit
Once upon a time, filing meant filing: you got up, went to a cabinet across the office and physically slotted the documents into their allotted space. These days, such jobs are more likely to be done by the click of a mouse.
It is just one of many examples of how technology is making work more sedentary, possibly storing up a huge health toll. 鈥淔undamentally, it is a problem when human bodies are sitting still for long periods of time. That鈥檚 not what we鈥檝e evolved for,鈥� says physiotherapist of Curtin University in Perth, Australia.
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How to win at work
Make your work work better for you 鈥� from dealing with pesky colleagues to taking the perfect break and doing less for more money
Studies show a consistent link between long periods spent sitting and poor health later on, even early death. According to Straker鈥檚 data, about half our total sitting time is at work.
The solution may not be as simple as just standing up. In 2017, Straker and his colleagues found a at work, for example at a standing desk, and musculoskeletal problems such as lower-back pain.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a problem when we sit still for long periods 鈥� we didn鈥檛 evolve for it鈥�
鈥淵ou can do too much sitting, but you can do too little,鈥� says Straker. 鈥淵ou need a good variety, not just of sitting and standing, but also moving around.鈥� We should all vary our tasks as much as we can and remember to take frequent breaks. But managers can also help, by providing a variety of places to work, not just sitting or standing at a desk. 鈥淲e need to create work environments that allow for a variety of postures,鈥� says Straker.听Julia Brown
Take-home message: Move it or lose it
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How to arrange your desk
Einstein stares at me balefully as I upend my keyboard, hoping inspiration might somehow lurk within. No such luck: a few staples, half an eyebrow, some pre-festive mince-pie crumbs. I slump back dispirited, precipitating a mini-avalanche of paper.
Yes, I am that colleague with the perennially messy desk. Some people think I just lack self-discipline. Somewhere down the line, I have convinced myself I can鈥檛 work without all this clutter. Who is right?
Clutter has long been a bugbear of the managing classes. In 1911, the US mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor wrote an influential monograph, , which advocated increasing productivity by sweeping away everything not essential to the job at hand 鈥� a minimalist principle embraced by generations of management gurus since.
In research soon to be published, at the University of New Mexico and her colleagues give it some credence. They identify a vicious circle in which stress and high work demands increase indecisiveness and our propensity to accumulate work-related clutter.
This clutter reminds us of tasks left undone, increasing stress levels still further.
But workforce-wide solutions such as no-clutter rules ignore something important, says , a social psychologist at the University of Queensland in Australia. 鈥淢aking people feel they are in the wrong place, that it isn鈥檛 their place, is a very powerful way of undermining performance,鈥� he says.
A decade ago, he and his then student Craig Knight at the University of Exeter, UK, gave workers differing levels of control over their immediate environment. Allowing them to clutter it with pictures, plants and other knick-knacks of their choice by up to 30 per cent. 鈥淭he effect is not so much the plants and whatever themselves, but that they tell you ,鈥� says Haslam.
Whether all that clutter and the contents of my keyboard are exactly hygienic is another matter. However, as to whether messy or tidy works best, messy camp has it 鈥� as does tidy. 鈥淭he best spaces are ones we develop ourselves,鈥� says Knight. 鈥淚f people like a messy desk, getting them to clean it will make them less productive.鈥� Einstein 鈥� my sweet, cuddly, soft-toy Einstein in your natty, blue knitted jumper 鈥� you can stay.听Richard Webb
Take-home message: Messy or tidy, make your space yours
