Think on your feet: Standing desks

While technology has evolved more than ever before, our posture, it seems, has grown increasingly Neanderthal.

In an era where everything can be done with the touch of a finger, hunched over a laptop or smartphone, releasing energy has become the issue. To deal with this, a number of modern offices have brought in the standing desk, allowing employees to literally think on their feet.

Jeong Jae-kyung, a communications director at IBM Korea, is all for her company’s latest office procurement. 

“I have a bad spine and my legs swell if I stay seated too long, so these desks have been great,” she said, pointing at one of the standing desks at her office in Seoul.

An avid user of the desks, Jeong said they have real benefits, but not just in terms of health ― they help her better concentrate on work and communicate more effectively with coworkers, she said.

“When you are standing, your field of vision becomes much wider, so ideas come to you more easily. It’s also easy for colleagues to come and share ideas when I’m standing,” she said. “There’s no need to go to a conference room or pull over a chair. They just lean on the desk and start talking.”

At IBM Korea, there are currently 96 standing desks spread throughout the office, according to Hong Young-pyo, manager of general affairs and real estate site operations. “They take up about 10 percent of our desks,” he said. 

The company decided to make the purchase following employees’ increased interest in healthy lifestyles and extensive research into the office environments of fellow tech giants such as Google, he explained. The desks have become so popular there is now a reservation system for them. “Some people come to work early in the morning just to reserve them,” Jeong said.

IBM Korea is among a small but growing number of companies in Korea that are investing in creating a healthier office environment.

The standing desk trend first started in high-tech offices in Silicon Valley and Northern European countries. It has now become the latest office fad, with some claiming that "sitting is the new smoking."

Health researchers have for decades warned of the perils of sitting for too long. A recent study by the American Cancer Society found that women and men who sat for six or more hours daily faced a 37 percent and 17 percent greater risk of death, respectively, compared to those who sat for three hours or less.

Some offices are now going one step further with treadmill desks, which encourage people to walk while working. In Denmark, reports Bloomberg, it has been made mandatory by law for employers to provide adjustable desks for their offices. 

The trend is now spreading to Korea, as the desks are favored by IT companies such as Daum Kakao and domestic branches of foreign companies, including Facebook Korea and Partners Group.

But the Korean standing desk industry is very much in its nascent stages, said Son Eu-tteum, deputy manager at Fursys, currently the largest Korean manufacturer of standing desks. A Fursys standing desk has up and down control buttons that lift and lower the desktop electronically. A small screen tells the user how many calories they have burned while standing.

A handful of Korean companies have placed orders for standing desks, Son said, including POSCO, Yuhan Kimberly, LG Ericsson, Samsung Bioepis, and more recently, the education company Jinhaksa. A small number have also been purchased by hospitals, libraries and schools.

By Rumy Doo (bigbird@heraldcorp.com)