Meet Emma – the future office worker

Posted 5 years ago

A life-sized doll has been created to show what office workers could look like in 20 years time.

Her name is Emma, she has a permanently hunched back, red eyes, a protruding stomach and varicose veins, amongst many other health problems.

Emma, who was created by office equipment firm, Fellowes, provides a stark reminder of the often-overlooked dangers of sitting for too long throughout the day, bad posture and incorrect workstation setups. According to the report, more than 90% of office workers in the UK who suffer from health issues because of their jobs are therefore underperforming at work.

“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 work station set up, our offices are going to make us very sick.”

Photo by Sky News & Fellowes Brands – William Higham Unveils Emma the future office worker

What can employers do to ensure that their workers don’t end up looking like Emma (No offence, Emma)?

The solutions are actually very straightforward and cost-effective to implement and employers need to understand that by investing in staff wellbeing, they will see returns in staff productivity and performance.

A few simple solutions include:

• Encourage staff to take regular breaks from DSE (See recommendations here)
• Provide DSE that is suitable for the worker. It’s unlikely that a one-size-fits-all approach will work in most offices.
• Carry out DSE risk assessments. Our DSE Training provides free DSE risk assessments for all staff.
• Provide IOSH Approved DSE Training to all DSE users.

You can try our IOSH Approved DSE Training for free at any time…

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