Improving office workers' health & productivity

With over 25 years of marketing management & consultancy experience working with elite football clubs and major corporates (including Liberty Global, Cable & Wireless, Coca Cola and Unilever), it came as a BIG shock that a short spell working with a drug and alcohol abuse charity in Sweden would lead to a complete direction change in my life.

In Sweden standing desks have been around since the mid 90’s, and whilst most people have them, few are able to explain why - or what benefits they offer. Highly curious as I am, my intrigue led me wanting to learn more. It wasn’t until i returned to the UK when I watched a BBC medical documentary called “Trust Me I’m a Doctor” that I first realised that blood sugar levels were positively affected when people stood - especially after meal time.

I then started digging and soon realised that there was a plethora of health risks associated with prolonged sitting and growing scientific evidence of the benefits of interrupting sitting with standing and light activity.

Passionate as i am about keeping physically active and the uncontrolled growth of obesity and public health risks I decided to set up the Get Britain Standing® campaign which immediately attracted media attention. My motto soon became “Fake it until you make it” as no-one was championing the issue of prolonged sitting and the research was still fragmented and needed to be made “Simple Stupid”. The furniture industry was also not helping by selling ergonomic furniture at prohibitively high prices and marketed as “disability solutions”.

The sitting disease needed clear focus and strong leadership.

As founding director of Active Working CIC in 2013, I now take great pride in driving the growth of awareness, thought leadership and advocacy for the multiple benefits of sitting less and moving more by office workers in the workplace.

Active Working® CIC now operates Get Standing® campaigns in Great Britain, Australia, USA and Canada. These campaigns have risen awareness and understanding of the health risks connected with sedentary working of office workers from 15% to nearly 65% since 2013.

In 2014, I commissioned and co-wrote the first global Expert Statement on standing & light activity time for office workers (with financial support from Public Health England) and lead expert authors: Professor John Buckley and Professor David Dunstan. These guidelines were published by the British Journal for Sports Medicine in June 2015 and now serve as a benchmark for subsequent research projects.

Whilst it is with great pleasure that I have devoted the last 5 years to improving office workers health, I will not be fully satisfied until a provision of a standing desk becomes a basic work right for office workers everywhere, following the lead of Denmark where it is now the law.

I am committed to building Sit-Stand.Com® into the world’s favourite Standing Desk Megastore and ensuring that our solutions are used to maximum impact. Finally, few people know that user education will increase sit-stand desk usage by a multiple of FOUR times. That’s why we offer Active Working Seminars® and user guidelines FREE to ensure best practise and behaviour change become embedded to delivery improved wellness and productivity.