* How researchers at the Mayo Clinic enivision the office of the future
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. have come up with their own healthy spin on what the office of the future will look like. Here’s a hint: It involves treadmills, walking tracks and losing weight on company time.
Instead of sitting on conventional desk chairs, workers in the Mayo Clinic’s prototype environment stand at their desks with a moving treadmill surface underfoot. A two-lane walking track surrounds the workstations and serves as an aerobic substitute for a conference room. (There are pictures of it here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/spotlight/levine-gallery.html)
Dr. James Levine and his colleagues in the Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) lab at Mayo Clinic came up with the idea and built the prototype environment in their own office space. Ten acrylic standing computer desks, complete with variable-speed treadmills, have replaced traditional desks. Employees wear mobile phones on their belts, along with a device that measures how much time they spend standing and sitting.
“This is a fully functioning office. My entire staff works here,” said Levine, an endocrinologist, in a statement. “The idea is to introduce an environment that will encourage activity in the workplace. Just as it’s hard to be a couch potato without a couch, it’s hard to sit all day at work without a chair or a conventional desk or cubicle.”
The prototype desk – which costs about $1,000 – stands vertical and can be used with a treadmill, exercise bike or regular chair. It’s modular and mobile, so it can just as easily be used in a home office as a corporate setting.
And the payoff? Using the desk at 1 mile per hour will burn about 100 calories per hour. Levine recommends users start slowly by walking 15 minutes every hour and during all phone calls, then sitting at the desk for the remainder of the time until stamina increases.
While a treadmill-workstation combo clearly isn’t for everyone, the idea of the future office is something that affects all of us, whether we work at a corporate site or in our homes.
There are all kinds of technologies available to help enterprises support teleworkers, from remote access and administration tools to wireless networks and VPNs. Savvy companies are accustomed to deploying such gear to stay connected with offsite employees. However one area that can be neglected is the remote employee’s physical work environment.
Companies in general aren’t legally bound to provide suitable, healthy workstations for white collar employees who work from their homes. The U.S. Department of Labor – through its Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) group – has issued guidelines to encourage employers to identify and correct problems in the workplace that could lead to ergonomic-related injuries. While OSHA [http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/ergonomics/index.html] has the authority to issue citations against employers under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, that authority does not extend to home-based offices.
In a 2000 directive issued by OSHA, the agency rescinded earlier enforcement plans and said it will not conduct inspections of employees’ home offices, it will not hold employers liable for employees’ home offices, and it does not expect employers to inspect the home offices of their employees. [http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=DIRECTIVES&p_id=2254]
But that hasn’t stopped some companies from going the extra mile to ensure the safety of home-office environments. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island launched a multiyear OSHA effort in 2000 and has been able to reduce the number of workers’ compensation cases related to musculoskeletal disorders by implementing a new ergonomics program and increasing workstation evaluations. As part of its ongoing work the insurer plans to add training for telecommuters on ergonomic issues.
Another company that takes remote working conditions seriously is JetBlue Airways. The five-year-old airline runs its reservations department using 900 home-based agents in the Salt Lake City area. As part of the setup, JetBlue visits its agents about once every quarter in their homes to be sure they’re settled in a safe working environment, according to G.R. Badger, a supervisor at JetBlue. Badger spoke on a panel earlier this year about virtual call centers: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/013105virtualcall.html
In my opinion, responsibility for the condition of a home office is something that employees and employers should share. I chose to work out of my home, and I don’t expect my employer to provide me with an ergonomic desk and chair. But maybe some companies do? Where would you draw the line?
