Maybe you can’t fathom the idea of putting your feet up at work—where you come from, appearing too relaxed in the workplace is considered unprofessional. It’s clear that the line between what’s acceptable and what’s too casual varies from one organization and industry to the next.
But it’s also clear that, on the whole, workplace culture has loosened up over the past decade or two. As business dress codes have become less prescribed and more diverse, so too have the ways people prefer to sit while working.
Steelcase researchers studying workplace postures identified nine new ways of sitting that flow directly from our use of new technologies. Among these are various reclined postures. And it turns out that there are benefits to these “leaned back” postures. Sitting up straight isn’t always the best thing, according to ergonomics researchers.
“We know that a ‘static upright sitting’ point of view is harder to defend, as there is evidence that reclining postures reduce the load measured in the intervertebral discs,” said Peter Vink, a design engineering professor at the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.