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 While other studies have explored whether workers consider the idea
of standing in meetings acceptable, the new research tried to
understand the experience of workers who actually did it, said
coauthor Benjamin Gardner of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology
and Neuroscience at King's College London.
A lack of organizational, environmental and social support for
standing - including adjustable sit-stand workstations,
standing-only meeting rooms and high stools and desks - can make it
feel awkward for workers to put the standing ideal into practice, he
noted.
"Although many organizations are supportive of the message to 'sit
less and move more,' this physical set-up encourages sitting and
implicitly portrays it as normative - and standing as a departure
from the norm," Gardner said in an email. "Our study is important
because it shows how people feel when they break the sitting norm."
For the study, the researchers recruited 25 desk-based employees
from three different UK universities between January and April of
2016. Each participant identified three upcoming workplace meetings
of different sizes in which they would stand whenever they wanted
and for as long as they wanted. A researcher observed these meetings
and interviewed participants afterward about their experiences. Each
participant received a voucher for 50 pounds (about $66).
In the interviews, participants reported feeling "awkward,"
"disconcerted" or "stupid" when they were standing while others were
sitting. They also worried that they would be viewed as "attention
seekers" or that they were trying to take control away from the
meeting hosts. For this reason, many participants ended up standing
at the edge of the room, even though that sometimes left them
feeling less involved in the meeting.
For those who were hosting or presenting at a meeting, however,
standing sometimes boosted their confidence, the study team reports
in PLOS One.
Some of these results, such as employees finding it "culturally
unacceptable" to stand during meetings, are not surprising, said
Gemma Ryde, a physical activity and health researcher at the
University of Stirling in Scotland who wasn't involved in the study.
But the research also highlighted unexpected findings, such as how
standing might impact power dynamics during meetings and how it can
affect employees' attention and engagement, she said in an email.
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Standing during the workday is viewed as a potential way to reduce
the amount of time that people spend sitting, Gardner said. Sitting
too long has been linked with various adverse health outcomes,
including obesity, heart disease, cancer and poor mental health, he
said.
Office workers are at particular risk, he said, because they spend
around two-thirds of the work day sitting.
"We need to be able to reduce sitting time in a way that does not
stop people from getting their work done," he said.
One limitation of the study, Ryde said, was the group of recruited
participants, since they largely consisted of well-educated,
well-paid, young, white British female employees from university
settings.
"Many of these demographic factors are likely to influence
employees' willingness, ability and confidence to stand during
meetings," she said.
Another limitation, Gardner acknowledged, was that the study team
didn't interview people who did not stand. As a result, it was hard
to know whether participants' concerns about how others perceived
them were well-founded.
"Regardless of whether they are accurate or not . . . perceptions
are important, because it is these perceptions that would presumably
influence whether they would try standing again in future," he said.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2JZjiAq PLOS One, online June 26, 2018.
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