The Controversy of the Standing Desk

We all want what we don't have. During a busy 8-12 hour shift, some just want a few moments of sit down time. Meanwhile on the cubicle farm, I scheme and I plan to find a way to conduct desk work in a position besides hunched over the keyboard in my chair.

Every few hours when my butt went numb and I could practically feel the blood pooling in my legs, I would stand up, throwing in the occasional center and side-squat.



Finally, I fashioned a ghetto stand-up desk from copy paper boxes and a recycle bin. It was dangerously unstable but it got the job done.

this is what a no-budget standing desk looks like

Finally, I took measurements and asked my dad to full-out carpenter me a legitimate stand up desk. And boy, did he deliver!

Goodbye boxes, hello hardwood. 

Passersby were instantly, and understandably, intrigued by my new standing desk.
Feeback came in many forms:

• Clever jokes: "Did we run out of money to buy chairs around here? We make all our interns stand now?" and "Well you're doing a "stand-up" job there!"..... hardy har har...

• Compliments on my father's handy work: "I was thinking about getting a standing desk, maybe we should just contract your dad to build them all" and "Where did you get that desk? Does L.L. Bean make office equipment now?"

• Interest in what prompted me to defy the laws of nature and stand at work: "So why do you stand? What's the deal? Are you falling asleep back here? To stay fit?"

• Scolding if ever they caught me sitting down: "Hey, what are you sitting down for?" followed by a very loud rendition of James Brown's "Get Up Offa that Thing".... oh, Carol. 

• And most recently, interest in my daily sitting to standing ratio: "So do you stand all day? 50/50? 70/30?"

People grew accustomed to my desk. They became curious-er and curious-er about getting this sweet set up for themselves. Mark my words: only a matter of time before every office in America is full of these bad boys

 Next on the to-do list. Saving up for my treadmill desk.