One of the worst things about starting a new job is being asked if I would like a standing desk. I hate myself every time I have to do the little “oooh” fake face of contemplation. As if I’m seriously mulling it over. You can’t just come out and say “God no, I love being comfortable”. You have to look like you potentially could give standing desks a go, because at least once a month in every office across the world the phrase “sitting is the new smoking” is uttered.
It’s not really though is it? Being sedentary for long periods of time unfortunately can lead to health problems. But sitting is being unfairly maligned as an evil. Sitting itself is neutral. I would say it’s one of life’s true pleasures. Having a little sit down.
I would even go as far to say that my entire life’s purpose was to get a job I could do sitting down. For roughly 10 years from the age of 14 I worked jobs where I was on my feet for eight hours a day. Nothing pushed me more into getting a university education than standing at a till or behind a bar feeling a little puddle of pus fill up my shoes from another blister that had just popped. I can never wear open-toed shoes. My feet look like I’ve done 10 years of Russian ballet school. I had more varicose veins at 23 than both my elderly grandmothers combined.
My life’s ambition was to sit down, in an ergonomic chair in a temperature controlled office and get paid for it. And now, after I’ve finally achieved it, you want to rip it away by making me stand? Have me give up on my hopes and dreams just like that? Have a good, hard word with yourself.
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I’m one of the first people in my entire ancestral lineage that doesn’t have to do manual labour to earn a living. Maybe that’s why I see sitting down as a privilege, not a health threat. In my experience it’s middle-class people who seem the most scared of a sit down. They’re the ones using standing desks, shifting their weight back and forth between their feet in a sad little jig. Rocking on their heels of their shoes while they “circle back” and “close the loop”.
Growing up in my working-class community, sitting down was appreciated. Because it didn’t happen for eight or more hours at your job. It was a reward at the end of a long day. Our mothers and grandmothers treated it like it was sacred. God help you if you asked them for anything after they had eased themselves into that arm chair with a cup of tea in the evening. You would be hit with “This is the first time I’ve sat down all day”. It would be so powerful that we knew not to disturb them for a good reason like the house being on fire or the Avon lady dropping off some new samples.
When they tried to remove the attendant’s chair in the fitting room at a department store I worked in, it caused one of the biggest industrial disputes I’d ever seen. The whole apparel section nearly went out on strike until they brought it back. We may have even formed a guard of honour and clapped when it returned. I’ll never take sitting down at work for granted.
Last year, a study from the University of Sydney found standing for a long period of the day might not reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, but it can contribute to circulatory disease. I’d be raging if I spent years hopping between my feet, half concentrating on reports thinking I was going to outlive everyone else. But when it comes down to it, I would never be one of those people. I do not live my life with the goal of preservation. There are people who don’t want to enjoy themselves now in the hope that they can enjoy more later. Staying out of the sun, not eating sugar, working at standing desks etc. I am not one of them. I do use SPF and I don’t use tanning beds because I’m not (contrary to popular opinion) a thick, but I will not make life harder than it has to be. Work, especially if you love what you do, will be stressful and difficult. It will challenge your abilities and your resilience daily. At least let me do it in a chair with a good back.
Yes, we need physical activity but I will not stand for the slander of sitting. It’s nice. Nothing really terrible can happen to you while having a little sit-down. With a biscuit. And maybe a cat in your lap.
