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The Office of the Future: Can you exercise and work at the same time?

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app103:
Imagine if the company you worked for decided to do this:

Removing chairs and traditional desk seating;
Introducing walking tracks;
Educating and encouraging staff to conduct walking meetings;
Replacing traditional phones with mobile sets;
Adding desks attached to treadmills;
Introducing games in the workplace;
Providing high-tech activity monitors; and
Advising staff about nutrition.

--- End quote ---

Desks attached to treadmills? Could you actually be productive? I know plenty of people that can't chew gum and walk at the same time. I can't imagine typing and walking would be any easier.


http://sensorymetrics.com/2008/09/08/hamster-cages-the-office-of-the-future/

Deozaan:
Maybe if your job was to spin the hamster wheel you could walk and be productive...

40hz:
Notice two  things?

1. Who came up with it:
This one was created by a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist.
--- End quote ---

2. Notice what it addressed:
Removing chairs and traditional desk seating;
Introducing walking tracks;
Educating and encouraging staff to conduct walking meetings;
Replacing traditional phones with mobile sets;
Adding desks attached to treadmills;
Introducing games in the workplace;
Providing high-tech activity monitors; and
Advising staff about nutrition.
--- End quote ---

Notice what this brainstorm missed:

1. Any input from the lab rats...err...employees about what they might think about the arrangement. (There are such things as labor unions; professional associations; and people that don't like to live their lives at the gym.)

2. Any thought as to what tasks the employees are performing to earn their company some money? I'd love to be troubleshooting a network outage that required my complete concentration while standing on a treadmill. Or nailing down some tech issue that has political overtones while walking around with six department heads who are each trying to protect their turf.

3. What about all those smart people with physical disabilities. Would they be able to work in a company whose culture places such an emphasis on being physical? Would they even be hired to begin with?

An interesting article. But once again, a medical doctor looks at a complex human issue, reduces it to a medical problem within his specialty, and ignores everything else. That's what doctors are trained to do. And it shouldn't be construed as a fault. Focus is what makes a doctor a good doctor.

And also why we seldom put MDs in charge of anything! ;D

Deozaan:
But I have seen exercise machines connected to video games, where you have to keep pedaling the bike (or whatever) to power your video game/controller. Kind of a niche market, and more of a novelty than anything else.

app103:
I wonder if they brought in a podiatrist, afterwards, if he wouldn't change things and bring back chairs, to get everyone to take the load off their aching feet.

It also makes me wonder what different types of doctors would do to change the typical office environment.

What would an office redesigned by a dentist be like?

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