How Cubicles Make Us Unproductive

As a student, it’s easy to move around while working and studying. In fact, it’s hard to stay in one place for 8 hours, as classes, meetings, and socializing require movement. But as someone who recently became one of millions of Americans sitting at desks for 8 hours a day this summer, I can already feel the sedentary lifestyle eating away at my health. My shoulders are stiff from sitting, my legs are sore from not moving, and my eyes are strained from writing at a computer. I’m exhausted from simply sitting. Each day, I find myself wishing that I could take my work outside to get away from the suffocating air conditioning and dull glare of fluorescent lights. At the end of the day, I feel like I’ve just gotten off of a Transatlantic flight. When I get up to use the restroom, I do surreptitious lunges down the hallway just so I can move, even a little. In comparison to the school year, my productivity is certainly suffering.