I like the idea of a treadmill desk, but I can’t read when my eyes are jiggling. I don’t know if I’m unusual in feeling like my eyes jiggle when I walk.
A bunch of people at my work are getting standing desks. But the Powers That Be keep threatening to give us short cubes. So now what, the standing desk people lord over everyone else like life guards or something? If we ever go to short cubes, i am going to get a standing desk, then sit on the floor where I’m not being stared at by everyone in the whole building. (I can’t sit under a regular-size desk – I tried it.)
I use a cardboard box to elevate my keyboard. My monitor has one of those extendable necks. Voila. Standing desk. (I call it my standing platform).
I feel bad because I haven’t been using it a whole lot lately. It’s hard to get in the “zone” when I’m standing for some reason, and lately work has been so intense that I kind of need to be in the zone.
But it’s great for conference calls or when I’m just checking my emails. I’ll turn up my radio and dance and do yoga stretches too. Having my own office is awesome.
I have a fancy sitting standing programmable desk with different height settings. I have left it in the stand position from day one and have never lowered it. I work standing up every day all day. It’s great.
Somehow I’ve not been clear: if your (high) chair is properly set you don’t ever need to change the desk height. You pop up on your chair when you need to, then drop onto your feet for the rest of the time.
I think maybe it was your mention of a manual winder being fine for height adjustment. I understand that a tall chair would mean no height adjustment is ever required - but of course then we will need to buy my wife a tall chair and get rid of her current one. In the long run, that might be a cheaper and more reliable solution than a motorized table height adjustment.
The manual winder would be just for the initial height setting, plus perhaps the occasional adjustment, or for a different user.
Note I’m not saying there is such a thing! Just that in retrospect it would have been fine.
I’ve been considering switching to a standing desk. In addition to asking for other people’s experiences in general, I’m particularly curious if those who posted in this and other older threads on the subject are still using standing desks and if so if you feel better than before you started using them.
You need a SDMB Hamster Wheel standing desk.
I made a standing desk out of a surplus Parson high top, mounting some 4" diameter casters to the bottom to raise it up and make it mobile, and then mounting a large monitor arm through the table top at one corner. I have a 34" curvescreen monitor and just enough deskspace to work without accumulating (much) clutter. I also a Steelcase Think stool (like the chair but taller and with an adjustable foot support) for when I get tired of standing and want to sit, but I spend most of my time standing. The desktop is just the right height for me for a keyboard and mouse, and while I considered getting an adjustable height desk I don’t have any reason to want to adjust it since I can move the monitor up and down. Depending on what I’m doing, I may position the monitor centered at eye level (as high as it goes) or low and tilted back so I’m looking down at it while able to look over the top at a workpiece or television. I honestly kind of hate going into work now and having to sit at a shitty sit-level MDF desk and look at dual monitors.
I also just received a copy of Kelly Starrett’s Deskbound: Standing Up to a Sitting World. I haven’t gotten past the introduction, partially because I’ve been busy but also I think I’m kind of scared about what he is presenting as the dangers of extended sitting and lounging. I know that standing while working is way better just from my own experience; when I work while standing my posture is better, I don’t get tired in the afternoon, and I’m just generally more mobile instead of waiting for an accumluation of demands/thirst/need to pee before I get up from my work.
Stranger
The standing desks used by several of my Swedish coworkers were all regulable, so those who wanted to could change heights: there was only one who always used hers standing up. Some would use it at the high position most of the time, but lower it when they were going over papers with someone else (having it lower made it easier to see all the papers at a glance). Others would raise and lower it to change position, as they disliked the high chairs.
The desk I have at home is also regulable, in my case because that lets me put it at the higher-than-usual height I find comfortable. If someone else is going to use my desk, they can move it up or down easily. Manual model.
I finally got one about nine months ago. I’m not using it standing as much as I should but I like it. One reason I’m not standing as much as I should is that since I’m working from home I don’t put on shoes unless I need to go outside. I find standing barefoot for long periods to be uncomfortable.
I have no problem with the standing desk made from a cardboard box.
If someone actually spends money, their own or anyone else’s, on a standing desk, that person should never be allowed to sit down again, anywhere, ever.
… should people who ever buy sandals also not be allowed to wear boots? 
You know better than that. Only people who wear sandals with socks should not be allowed to wear boots.
Oh, OK. What about crocs?
Try wearing some Five Fingers or other minimalist shoes that still give you freedom of movement of your foot put provide some padding to the sole. I work on concrete floors so standing barefoot is contradindicated, but wearing those helps a great deal.
Oh Mighty Judge of all that is Permissible, Great Thanks for your Illumination of what is Right and True! Please, Sir, will you also tell me what to eat and drink and how else to live my life by your Ineffible Rule so that I may also be Blessed by your Wisdom?
Stranger
Why yes, this sounds like a perfectly secure and stable way to elevate hundreds of dollars of computer hardware. :rolleyes:
Contrary to your wishes, we did buy my wife Focal’s “Locus” standing desk. Unlike a cardboard box:
-it’s possible to dial in a particular height;
-it provides a separate shelf at the rear for monitors, and a large work to accommodate a keyboard, oversized mouse pad, and various papers, books, office supplies, and other assorted work material, all at the same height;
-it’s stable;
-it provides a flat, firm surface for writing and other work.
We actually bought a whole bundle from them that included their oddball Locus seat. Wife did not like that, so we sent it back, but kept the desk. Instead we bought an Aeron high chair - same features as their super-comfy standard office chair, but in a tall configuration that includes a very well-built adjustable-height footrest ring. She stands most of the time, but the chair gets used now and then when she wants to give her feet a break.
She’s much happier with this arrangement than with her old low desk - and much happier than she would have been if I had just parked all of her shit on top of a cardboard box and said “there ya go, now get back to work.”
Since this thread has been brought back, let me update my post from last year:
I did get a hydraulic system installed on my main work desk so that it can raise and lower from sitting to standing at the push of a button.
As I suspected, more than an hour or two of standing is not comfortable for me. I do it in 30-40 minute stretches a few times a day. The real benefit, I think, is shifting position throughout the day - an hour sitting, half an hour standing, repeat until I go home. Much less back pain at the end of the tax season this year.
Another perk: by making the table height fully adjustable, I discovered that my most comfortable sitting position had the table about an inch higher than it was before. That change alone is bigger than I would have thought.
The cost was actually free to me because of an extremely long story story involving worker’s comp and an employee who never did return to work here. Out of pocket, it would have been $600 for the hydraulics and then another couple hundred for the labor to modify the desk and install it. Well worth it. I’ll probably pay to have a similar modification done to another of our desks.
I have a standing desk (a Varidesk on top of a regular desk) at work. I used to have a tall chair so I could switch between standing and sitting, but I’ve gotten rid of it. Now I spend 90% of my work hours standing. (I also have a small table + chairs which I use part of the time.)
The only down side is that I can’t stand long meetings (no pun intended) where I’m forced to sit for hours.