You spend your day at a computer workstation or executive desk. The furniture item fills up
corner of room, holds your computer, fax/phone/copier, scanner, filing basket and a year's worth of office supplies. There's enough space left over to spread out a picnic lunch if you are so inclined. You settle comfortably into a big executive type chair on casters and get ready to call a few colleagues in for a meeting. As you wait, you talk into a telephone receiver that you're squeezing in place by crunching your shoulder up towards your ear. That scene is SO nineties, workplace experts tell us. The trend of new century is towards office furnishings and office equipment that encourage mobility. Get rid of all that big, expensive office furniture before it kills you, they say. Replace it with a smaller "just big enough" desk and equipment that encourages you to move around as you do your job.
In other words, get rid of all that "convenience." Force yourself into healthy action by making your environment inconvenient.
In first years of this new century, health hazards associated with a desk job have moved beyond conditions like repetitive strain disorder and carpal tunnel syndrome. Not that we can forget about those conditions, but there's more to worry about now.
e-thrombosis is a newly-recognized condition that afflicts people who sit still for extended lengths of time. And, sitting still for extended periods of time in workplace is usually associated with computer use.
E-thrombosis (medical terminology is Deep Vein Thrombosis or DVT) is similar to condition suffered by long distance air travelers. It's no laughing matter. E-thrombosis can be life threatening. A blood clot forms in legs due to long hours of inactivity. The clot can break off and move into lungs with sometimes fatal results.
