Is the motorized standing desk worth it?

Is the motorized standing desk worth it?

Motorized standing desks have gained popularity due to their potential to improve health by reducing the risks associated with prolonged sitting, such as heart disease and diabetes Source: Mayo Clinic. They allow users to switch between sitting and standing throughout the day, which can increase energy levels and productivity Source: Healthline. But are they truly worth the investment?

The Pros and Cons of Height Adjustable Desks

Height adjustable desks (or sit-stand desks) allow workers to shift easily from seated to standing positions. They promise healthier, more comfortable, and more productive workspace settings for those who use them. In recent years, they have gone from office novelty to a permanent fixture in many modern workplaces.

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But what are the pros and cons of height adjustable desks? Are they worth investing in for your office? And what are the best products out there?

The rise of height adjustable desks

Some of the earliest adopters of height adjustable desks include Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, and Charles Dickens, who were all known to be fans of writing at standing desks. But in the office design world, they are a relatively new trend.

We know that sitting at a desk for seven or eight hours a day, five days a week, can leave workers prone to aching shoulders, back problems, and chronic joint pain—even when sitting in a healthy ergonomic posture. Beyond aches and pains, sitting all day can impact workers' overall health. When Dr. James Levine said, "sitting is the new smoking," it seemed like a dramatic statement. But many medical experts now believe it to be accurate. Multiple studies report that sitting for long periods of time can increase the risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer.

So it's no wonder height adjustable desks have become a popular office furniture solution.

The charity Get Britain Standing has long been campaigning for employers to offer sit-stand workstations to employees. Their mission to stop workers from prolonged sitting has been supported by Public Health England.

In Scandinavia, sit-stand desks have become ubiquitous. Pre-pandemic, over 90% of workers using computers in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark were working at sit-stand desks. In fact, in Denmark, it is a legal requirement for companies to offer employees the opportunity to use one. Could this be yet another reason Scandinavian countries regularly top lists of the happiest places on the planet?

The WELL certification, a building standard that focuses on enhancing people's health and wellbeing through the built environment, also advocates for height adjustable desks. One criterion states that for at least 25% of workstations, employees should have the ability to alternate between sitting or standing, either through height adjustable desks or desktop height adjustment stands.

As more organisations embrace new ways to support employee wellbeing post-Covid, we are likely to see more height adjustable desks in workplaces across the UK and the globe.

But furnishing your workplace with a whole set of new workstations is a big investment. Are height adjustable desks really worth it?

The benefits of height adjustable desks

Improved employee health and wellbeing

The health benefits of height adjustable desks have been well documented. One standout study is "Stand Up to Work," the first longitudinal study into the impact of using sit-stand desks. Key findings include:

• 47% of people with height adjustable desks reported a significant reduction in upper back, shoulder, or neck discomfort.
• 65% of people said height adjustable workstations positively impacted their health outside of the workplace.

Another study found that users of height-adjustable desks experienced less stress and fatigue compared to those who worked seated every day. 87% said they felt more energetic overall.

"Focusing on physical wellbeing is one critical part of designing workplaces that help people move, think and feel better. Research such as 'Stand Up to Work' continues to demonstrate that height adjustable desks can be an important part of a strategy to design for the holistic wellbeing of people." — Steelcase

The pandemic has heightened awareness of the need for comfort, with employees expecting their employers to address this in the workplace. Introducing height adjustable desks is one way to meet these expectations.

Increased productivity

Beyond health benefits, height adjustable desks are also believed to enhance productivity. The Stand Up to Work study found:

• 65% of people with height adjustable desks reported increased productivity after one year, along with better concentration ability.
• Users felt more active, refreshed, awake, limber, and energetic.

Alternating between sitting and standing gets the body’s largest muscle groups working, which increases blood flow to the brain. Workers often report having more energy and less fatigue from using sit-stand desks, enabling them to be more productive.

Gives employees more control over their working environment

Now that many people have experienced the autonomy of working from home, they demand more control over their working environment. Steelcase research identified this as one of five critical factors that improve employees' feelings about their company. Workers who have more control over their experience at work are more satisfied and engaged.

Height adjustable desks give workers the freedom to adjust their workspace throughout the day to suit their needs and preferences. Some desks even allow workers to save their favorite settings. In offices with hot desking systems, app-powered height adjustable desks mean workers can arrive at a desk set to just the right height for them.

Supports a dynamic, agile workplace

Height adjustable desks support agile working by fostering a dynamic and more collaborative environment. Increased standing and more movement can lead to more interaction and engagement throughout the workplace, encouraging people to return to the office for flexibility.

For example, Steelcase Flex height adjustable desks can be pushed together for collaborative work or moved to a quiet area for focused work. Frovi’s Relic Project Table can be electrically adjusted to create the ideal workstation for any task, including both collaboration and focused work.

People actually use them

The Stand Up to Work study found height adjustable desks reduced the time spent sitting:

"People who received height adjustable desks reported a 17 percent reduction in sitting three months into the study, a trend that remained at the one-year mark."

Some desks come with tech integrations that make them even more effective and efficient for users. The Steelcase Rise app syncs with height adjustable desks and reminds workers to sit, stand, and move throughout the day with gentle desk movements set at user-defined intervals.

The drawbacks of height adjustable desks

There is a risk that workers won't make the most of their height adjustable desks if they aren’t given direction on how to use them or if the desks don't meet their needs.

Giving them to people without any direction

Dr. April Chambers at The University of Pittsburgh warns of the dangers of giving height adjustable desks to workers without any guidance or instruction on how to use them to their advantage:

"There are basic ergonomic concepts that seem to be overlooked. Many workers receive sit-stand desks and start using them without direction. I think proper usage will differ from person to person, and as we gather more research, we will be better able to suggest dosage for a variety of workers."

Fortunately, most sit-stand desks are incredibly easy to use. 88% of people who took part in the Stand Up to Work research found them easy and convenient to use.

Is it really a priority?

Furnishing the workplace can be expensive. If your current workstations are working well for your employees and the business, sourcing sit-stand desks for your office may not be a priority. You could get sit-stand desks for just some of your employees, but this could lead to tensions within the workforce. If you’re considering trying out height adjustable desks, why not purchase two or three for the office and create a hub where people can try them out? If people love them, then you can consider buying more.

Prototyping and piloting new furniture solutions is becoming more common as employers navigate the changing landscape post-Covid. Testing some out will ensure you don’t make costly mistakes. Or, if you want to reuse your existing workstations, you could look at purchasing stand-up desk converters. These sit on top of the desk and can be moved up and down to find the most comfortable position.

So, are height adjustable desks worth it?

Height adjustable desks have clear health benefits, can improve productivity, and give employees a sense of control over their working environment. But it's important to educate your employees on how to use them and the benefits of using them to make the most of your investment.

If you’re unsure whether to invest in height adjustable desks, talk to your workers. How do they feel about their current workstations? Would they like the choice of being able to move between sitting and standing? How might it help improve their comfort and ease of completing tasks?

It's clear that height adjustable desks are the future of the workplace. Imagine smart offices with apps giving you control over the height of your desk, the temperature, and the lighting. This is the world we’re heading towards.

Summary

Height adjustable desks are a key part of the wider trend to improve the wellbeing and overall health of employees. But perhaps the biggest benefit is that they give workers complete control over their workspace—one thing they are telling us they need.

If you would like to chat with one of our team members about height adjustable desks and possible options, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

Is a $100 standing desk worth buying?

As someone who works at a computer more or less all day every day and has chronic back problems, a standing desk is an important part of my office setup. I’ve been using one for over ten years and back then it was something of a luxury. But lately I’ve been seeing motorized standing desks, not dissimilar in design to the one I bought all those years ago, popping up for shockingly low prices. Are these super-cheap desks worth your money?

I’ve used three different desks in the last decade of working from home and writing about technology—maybe four, depending on how you count all the various parts and components. And I reviewed another model for one of my previous employers, all from different suppliers, so I feel like I know what I’m talking about here. My latest one is something of a behemoth, to deal with my huge desktop and triple-monitor display. (Hey, I write for PCWorld, I come by it honestly.)

Between the heavy-duty, four-legged, quadruple-motor Uplift frame and the custom-made six-foot desktop I ordered from a Dallas carpenter, the entire setup cost me over $1,500. And I’m sorry if that sounds like flexing, but I literally spend more time at this desk than in my bed some weeks. It’s worth making it a good one. For comparison, my previous desks, which I've since passed on to friends or family members, were all $600 or more.

Looking to pick up a new monitor for your home office? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best monitors available today.

Where are all these cheap standing desks coming from?

You don’t have to spend four figures on a standing desk, even a “fancy” one with a motorized raising and lowering action. In fact, I bought (or rather expensed for this very article) a motorized standing desk off Amazon for precisely $100. (The same model is $200 at the time of writing, but it’s easy to find alternatives.) Shipping was free, tax an additional $6. It was only the latest entry I’d seen on SlickDeals for super-low-priced standing desks, which got me wondering if they were actually worth the price or in any way comparable to the more premium desks to which I’m accustomed.

A hundred bucks is a pretty good price for a 55-inch bamboo desk all on its own. You might be able to find a particle board version of one at Walmart or Target, for example, to say nothing of a standing version. Or at least that’s what I assumed—in fact, I found a nearly identical desk, only slightly smaller and lacking the keyboard tray, for precisely $100. Even less expensive ones are available if you look around.

Clearly, there’s been a race to the bottom in this market, with a hoard of overseas suppliers making desks as cheaply and quickly as possible. I suspect a spike in demand during the pandemic has created a huge surplus of these desks. But “cheap” doesn’t automatically mean “bad,” as my hard-working Kia Soul can testify. The question I aim to answer is whether you should save some money on your setup by going with one of these ultra-cheap motorized standing desks or if you’re better off saving up for a more deluxe option from a reliable supplier.

Putting it together

The INNOVAR (ALL CAPS) desk arrived from Amazon in just one day, and as it was a Saturday, I set to assembling it immediately. I’m no stranger to flat-pack furniture in the Scandinavian style, and I’ve assembled and taken apart similar desks about a dozen times, so it only took me about 45 minutes to put everything together. While there are commonalities in all of these desk designs, I spotted a few important differences.

Opening the box and starting assembly. My personal standing desk is on the left.

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The first thing I noticed was that it was shockingly light. At 46.2 pounds (just under 21 kilograms) in the box, I was able to move it into my office in one trip, even with my back problems. This didn’t bode well: If there’s one thing I like in a desk, it’s some heft, especially when the important bits are steel. Upon opening the box, my suspicions were confirmed. While the bamboo top is pretty typical and appears to be fine, all of the steel parts are made from 1/8” or 2mm panels. They’re all light enough to toss around—not that you should try it. For comparison, the frame of my old Fully Jarvis desk with a similar size weighed at least twice as much.

Unlike other standing desks, there’s no bracer frame under the desktop—it merely screws right into the wood.

Speaking of steel, I immediately noticed that there’s no top frame to the Innovar. All three of the previous desks I’ve used, plus one review unit, had steel crossbars that are affixed to the bottom of the desktop. The top is laid upside down on the floor, then the legs are bolted in place. Not so here: the instructions had me assemble the legs first, complete with the motor and the T-bars, then screw the entire assembly onto the bottom of the desktop, along with the included keyboard tray and plastic accessory hooks.

The desk’s frame is made out of extremely thin sheets of steel.

Being familiar with these desk designs, I did a double-take looking at the actual motor mechanism. It’s housed in a semi-exposed barrel on one side of the frame, whereas the other standing desks I’ve used had motors hidden inside the leg pillars. Note the plural there: this desk has just one rather weak motor driving both legs at once. It does this by means of a long hexagonal steel bolt, essentially a giant Allen wrench spanning between the two legs.

The motor drives the left leg with a simple hexagonal bar—basically a giant Allen wrench.

The fact that this driver bolt was exposed to the bottom of the desk threw me for a loop. Not only is it exposed, just begging to get caught on cables or wires, but it’s also positioned on the front side of its crossbeam, facing the user. The odds of actually rubbing against your knees are pretty low unless you moonlight as an NBA player, but as someone who often runs wires all across the underside of a desk to keep the top nice and clean, it makes me nervous to see moving parts anywhere in there.

Also, having an exposed mechanism like this means that the legs aren’t automatically level out of the box. I had to manually adjust the initial height of one side of the frame to match the other. And to get them matched on a separate hexagonal bar that I had to install myself, I had a limited choice of approximately six positions to place the “master” leg to match it to the other side. I think I was able to eyeball it reasonably well, but this is a problem I haven’t encountered on desks with mechanisms that are less threadbare.

The Innovar desk includes a matching bamboo keyboard tray, a surprising extra at this price.

There are a couple of extra points in this specific desk package worth highlighting. First, it comes with a slide-out keyboard tray, something you don’t often see at any price. I prefer to raise my monitors up with VESA arms rather than lower the keyboard and mouse area, but it all achieves the same effect, so having the option without spending any extra money is a point in its favor. The cheap plastic hooks, presumably for hanging bags or headsets, I could do without entirely. I wouldn’t trust any kind of heavy bag to it (certainly nothing with textbooks inside), and I’d rather see more useful cable routing, like a tray for a power strip at the rear of the desk.

Highs and lows

There’s one point in this desk’s favor: it comes with a four-setting, programmable height controller, complete with an LED readout. That surprised me—it was a pricey little upgrade when I bought a Fully desk. I imagine that these desks have become so ubiquitous that like Bluetooth in the head unit of a budget car, it’s just standard now. It’s a nice little controller with the LED readout smartly hidden within the white plastic. It’s just a shame that the power connector pins were so bent when I assembled it that I had to manually straighten them out with a flathead screwdriver. Some more stringent QA would have caught that.

Bent pins were far from the only issue