We all think of a desk as something you sit at but the word originated from “bureau” which was a box with a sloping top on it. You used the slope as a writing surface and the storage are underneath for your pens and paper (or quills and parchment- whatever it was called in those days). The bureau was placed on a table or a bench and you invariably stood at it in order to write.

This original idea has mutated over many years into various offspring, mainly centred around the underlying concept that you sit at it. In fact millions of people sit at desks all week for hours at a time, often sitting on badly adjusted office chairs.

Height adjustable desks are not a new idea but design improvements and technology have made them more affordable and therefore more available. In some countries like Holland, legislation has been passed which has made height adjustable desks available to most office workers.

The average difference in height can be accommodated by standard office chair which is nearly always height adjustable, but for unusually tall or short people it is a different story. They need to raise or lower the actual desk top and this is when they need a height adjustable desk.
Most desks can be raised or lowered with a hand-wheel, or more commonly a switch operating an electric motor. Both of these systems are much more expensive than a standard desk due to their complexity and moving mechanisms. A cheaper system is a sliding leg and locking bolt or peg mechanism which is not much more expensive than a standard desk, but cannot be easily adjusted in height by the user. In most case this type of desk is set to the preferred height and then left at that height.

But what most people forget is that certain height adjustable desks have such a range of adjustment that you can sit or STAND at the desk, and you can switch between the two, literally, at the flick of a switch. Many people prefer standing to sitting at their desks as apparently it helps posture (more difficult to slouch standing up- unless you are wearing a hoody), improves concentration and productivity, and burns more calories than sitting. There are some disadvantages with standing for long periods of time, but if you have the option to sit as well then you have the best of both worlds.

Some famous people have always stood up whilst working; Thomas Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence at his stand up desk. Winston Churchill, Earnest Hemmingway, and Donald Rumsfeld also worked at their stand up desk most of the time. They didn’t have the advantage of being able to adjust the desk down to a sitting level, when they were tired though.

The competitiveness of the office furniture market has forced retailers and dealers to look overseas for cheap office chairs, some of which are not designed as well as they should be, and can cause the user discomfort and pain when used for long periods of time. A height adjustable desk gives you the opportunity to vary your working posture as often as you wish, resting tired muscles and using fresh ones. The long term benefit of this is obvious, plus you might even lose some weight.