Every workday is a negotiation between our bodies and our jobs. Sit too long, our backs and necks protest; stand too long, our feet might have something to say about it.
Sit-stand desks, also known as height-adjustable desks or standing desks, promise a healthier way to work , giving employees the flexibility to alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day.
Now, new research suggests these desks may be giving employees, and employers, another benefit beyond ergonomics and well-being: productivity.
Drawing on data from more than 10,000 employees, researchers at Texas A&M University found that workers who used sit-stand desks averaged 43 additional minutes of active computer use each day compared with those using regular desks, a difference that could translate to nearly $9,000 in annual productivity per employee.
The study, published in Theoretical and Applied Ergonomics , was co-led by Texas A&M School of Public Health professor Dr. Mark Benden and U.S. Army Public Health Command Region, West, Regional Ergonomist Dr. Tricia Salzar.
The findings suggest that the physical workspace may be a powerful, often overlooked, influence on employee well-being, productivity, and even a company's overall performance.
"The design of the workplace itself can be a powerful driver of human health and performance, including better engagement, productivity and organizational success," Benden said.
'The workplace effect'
When organizations look to boost performance and productivity, they turn to new technologies, training programs and management strategies. But another powerful influence may be hiding in plain sight: the physical workplace itself.
"It's what we call the 'workplace effect,'" Benden said. "The direct impact that the physical work environment has on the behavior, health, psychological well-being, and even engagement and performance of employees."
Sit-stand desks are a striking example of the workplace effect. Rather than locking employees into a single position for hours at a time, they give workers the flexibility to sit, stand and move throughout the day, as tasks and energy levels shift.
"It can have a profound effect," Benden said. "Alternating between different working positions promotes better health outcomes by reducing physical strain and encouraging movement for those who might otherwise spend most of their workday sedentary."
But the benefits may extend beyond physical health. Benden and Salzar's new research shows that sit-stand desks can also have a substantial impact on productivity.
"It has a cumulative, positive effect for both employers and employees," Benden said.
For employees, height-adjustable desks could lead to sustained energy and longer stretches of focused work. For employers, the higher work productivity could translate into a nearly $9,000 return on investment per employee annually.
"The implications are hard to ignore," Benden said. "When we design workplaces around employees and their needs, better health, better performance and better organizational outcomes follow."
The takeaway? Investing in the physical workplace, like height-adjustable desks, isn't just good for employee comfort and health; it could be good for business, too.
10,000 workers, one story
To test whether sit-stand desks could influence work output and productivity, Benden and his colleagues stepped out of their labs and turned to the real world, using a resource few ergonomics studies can match.
"We analyzed a huge dataset of more than 10,000 workers over a yearlong period, comparing the total computer use of traditional desk users and height-adjustable desk users," Benden said.
The records paired employee comfort surveys with a digital trail of workplace activity, tracking everything from keystrokes and words typed to mouse clicks and typing errors, all to paint a detailed picture of how employees interacted with their computers throughout the workday.
"It was important that we collected subjective measurements, like employee survey responses of their comfort and objective measurements of computer activity through software, to analyze how people engaged with their work," Benden said.
The team found that workers with sit-stand desks averaged 3.66 hours of active computer time, compared with 2.95 hours among regular-desk employees — a gap of about 43 minutes a day.
That might not sound like much, but over a year it adds up to roughly 171 additional hours, or more than four 40-hour workweeks.
And those additional hours come with a practical price tag, too.
Multiplying the 171 additional hours by a standardized hourly wage of about $52, the researchers estimate that sit-stand desks could generate nearly $9,000 in potential annual productivity value per employee.
"Our findings were exciting because they suggest that height-adjustable desks can directly influence overall work output and economic organizational productivity," Benden said.
The researchers also found that employees using sit-stand desks generally typed more words and logged more keystrokes than their counterparts at non-adjustable desks.
"The data showed that people aren't just engaging with their work, they are producing output in a meaningful way," Benden said.
For Benden, the findings open the door to broader questions about the future of organizations, focusing on another force rapidly reshaping the modern workplace.
"Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly integrated into daily work," Benden said. "Just as we've studied how the physical environment affects human health and performance, we're interested in understanding how emerging AI technologies could influence the physical workspace and outcomes of organizations."
From adjustable desks to emerging technologies, the underlying question remains the same: how can organizations design environments and systems to better support the people who use them?
"The next breakthrough may not come from working harder, but from designing workspaces and systems that help people work smarter and more efficiently," Benden said.
The story told by the more than 10,000 employees is that the desk may be doing far more than just holding up your computer.
Built around people
For Benden, sit-stand desks represent more than an ergonomic innovation. They're part of a lifelong passion to understand how workplaces can be designed to better support employee well-being and organizational success.
"We spend a lot of time at work," Benden said. "It's my passion to make sure that workers feel supported in their workplace, built on informed and guided scientific evidence."
A former Army Reserve officer, engineer, healthcare professional, inventor and world-renowned researcher, Benden has spent decades studying the complex relationship between people and the environments in which they work.
Today, he serves as director of the Center for Worker Health , where engineering, management and technology converge and harmonize in an interdisciplinary symphony of research, innovation and education, each playing its own tune in service of a shared mission to improve the lives of workers.
"The Center partners with industry nationwide, to develop innovative, impactful systems and practices that have a direct effect on worker health and efficiency," Benden said. "We also train students and give them the platform to be as creative as possible to turn new ideas into impactful applications."
So, the next time you find yourself slumping in your chair at 3 p.m. with an aching back, don't just reach for another cup of coffee, because the verdict is in: show this study to your boss. Your back — and your company's bottom line — will thank you.
By Zaid Elayyan, Texas A&M University Division of Marketing and Communications
