We hear a lot about about Emma, the life-sized representation that shows on a 1: 1 scale how we will be in 20 years if we continue to work inside inadequate workplaces.
This virtual colleague is the result of a survey carried out for Fellowes by William Higham, a behavioral futurist, together with a group of ergonomists and health and wellbeing experts.
But we still have time before these damages become permanent!
Movement is the miraculous medicine that can prevent this terrifying transformation. Here’s what you can do.
Download the complete research report for free.
The survey was commissioned by Fellowes to investigate the current and long-term health of office workers in the UK, but the evidences are unfortunately valid in other European Countries.
The report was written by was dr. William Higham, Behavioural Futurist, and an expert panel in ergonomics, occupational health and wellbeing at work; the goal was to know how the human body will change physically and visually if steps are not taken to address the way we interact with our workstation, improve our posture and simply move more.
Emma illustrates how inadequate workstation set ups can lead to office workers physically and visually changing, as a result of the poor office environment.
Emma has:
a permanently bent back caused by sitting for hours in a poor posture;
varicose veins from poor blood flow caused by sitting for log periods;
dry and red eyes from long hours staring at a computer screen;
swollen wrists and ankles from ripetitive movement;
dry and red eyes from over exposition to artificial light;
red forearms and upper legs due to regular contact with laptop;
hairs on her ears and nose and swollen sinuses because of poor air quality;
eczema caused by stress.
We spend hours at work sat at our desks, but by introducing movement with a sit-stand desk, we can combat the health issues caused by sitting for prolonged periods.
Ensuring our workstations are properly set up with the right ergonomic accessories will also ensure that our posture is correct at work; thus, helping to reduce the risk of work-related musculoskeletal injuries and other illnesses.
Employers and employees both need to take some responsibility for healthy working.
By taking an online healthy workstation assessment, moving around more, and taking regular breaks, we can avoid health problems as bad as those we thought we’d left behind in the Industrial Revolution.
