October 31, 2007
The office and the gym are two of Guru’s most hated locations. So the thought of the two of them combined makes him feel slightly panicky.
In fact, when he first heard about the Walkstation, Yours Truly had to spend a few hours in his ‘special place’ – a room he designed to combine his two most loved locations, the bedroom and the pub. He claims this is his contribution to National Commute Smart Week, but either way, it leaves Mrs Guru to write today's blog entry on the Walkstation.
Here goes...
Unsurprisingly, the Walkstation was designed by some Americans, at some American organisations called Steelcase and the Mayo Clinic. It is, to all intents and purposes, a desk that comes with a treadmill instead of a chair.
“The Walkstation concept is height adjustable desk with a specially designed commercial grade treadmill enabling people to walk slowly while working on a computer,” in American-speak.
Apparently, the Walkstation allows users to increase energy expenditure by 100 calories per hour by walking at 1mph. Consequently, if fat employees use the system for two to three hours each working day, they could lose up to five stone in a year, according to the companies involved.
Guru was not impressed. When Mrs Guru went to take him his morning tea, he told her to say that if he wanted his staff to lose weight, he would cut their wages so they stopped buying cakes every afternoon; if he wanted them to walk around all day achieving nothing, he would call them into a series of meetings at opposing ends of the building. And, presumably, if he wanted a bunch of Americans selling him gimmicky hardware, he would buy a Happy Meal.
Mrs Guru quite enjoyed her taste of Guru's job. And she reckons it is not as difficult as he makes out.
Comments (2)
I'll use the walkstation if the let me smoke in my office.
Posted by HRWench | October 31, 2007 2:54 PM
Posted on October 31, 2007 14:54
Whatever next - desk?
Posted by Scott McArthur | October 31, 2007 3:14 PM
Posted on October 31, 2007 15:14