Emma doesn't look so great.
Emma doesn't look so great.
Her legs are puffy and covered in varicose veins. Her eyes are flat and dead, and her back looks like she spends her days ringing the bell at Notre-Dame Cathedral.
It's harsh but true. Emma is a life-sized doll depicting what the team think an average office worker in the United Kingdom could look like in 20 years if changes aren't made to the workplace environment.
For a new report titled The Work Colleague of The Future, a team of health experts led by behavioral futurist William Higham looked at survey data submitted by more than 3,000 office workers in France, Germany, and the UK.
The percentages of UK office workers who said they already suffered from sore eyes (50 percent), sore backs (48 percent), and headaches (48 percent) as a direct result of their work environment informed the design of the sickly Emma, who also suffers from stress-related eczema, excess weight, and swollen limbs.
If we don't majorly shake-up the standard office environment, according to Higham, we're headed toward a future rife with Emmas.
"Unless we make radical changes to our working lives, such as moving more, addressing our posture at our desks, taking regular walking breaks, or considering improving our workstation setup, our offices are going to make us very sick," he said, according to The Independent.
Of course, this isn't a peer-reviewed study, and Fellowes – the office furniture company which commissioned the report – is undoubtedly trying to promote its own products here. But it's still an interesting concept looking into exactly what our office spaces could be doing to our bodies.
Her legs are puffy and covered in varicose veins. Her eyes are flat and dead, and her back looks like she spends her days ringing the bell at Notre-Dame Cathedral.
It's harsh but true. Emma is a life-sized doll depicting what the team think an average office worker in the United Kingdom could look like in 20 years if changes aren't made to the workplace environment.
For a new report titled The Work Colleague of The Future, a team of health experts led by behavioral futurist William Higham looked at survey data submitted by more than 3,000 office workers in France, Germany, and the UK.
The percentages of UK office workers who said they already suffered from sore eyes (50 percent), sore backs (48 percent), and headaches (48 percent) as a direct result of their work environment informed the design of the sickly Emma, who also suffers from stress-related eczema, excess weight, and swollen limbs.
If we don't majorly shake-up the standard office environment, according to Higham, we're headed toward a future rife with Emmas.
"Unless we make radical changes to our working lives, such as moving more, addressing our posture at our desks, taking regular walking breaks, or considering improving our workstation setup, our offices are going to make us very sick," he said, according to The Independent.
Of course, this isn't a peer-reviewed study, and Fellowes – the office furniture company which commissioned the report – is undoubtedly trying to promote its own products here. But it's still an interesting concept looking into exactly what our office spaces could be doing to our bodies.