Get Up!: Why Your Chair is Killing You and What You Can Do About It by James A. Levine

Author:James A. Levine [Levine, James A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2014-07-29T00:00:00+00:00

Office of the Future

One day in 2007 my assistant, Amy Flickinger, telephoned me. “Dr. Levine, I have John Folkestad on the line. He insists that he talk with you.” My knee-jerk response was to decline. “But,” Amy protested, “it’s the fifth time he’s called today.” I remembered how I felt when Professor Fartoobusy ignored me, and I took the call.

John Folkestad was cofounder of a midsize, highly successful financial services business in Minneapolis called Salo. He asked if I would come and give a talk to his staff about NEAT and lethal sitting. I explained that I simply didn’t have the time.

Two weeks later, after being repeatedly called by John, I walked into Salo’s offices in downtown Minneapolis, 100 miles from the lab. Salo was housed in a converted warehouse, redesigned with modern lines and bright colors. In less than a minute, John burst through the office doors to meet me, words pouring out. No introductions. “Dr. Levine, I love, love, love what you’re doing, you’ve got to do it here at Salo and you’ve got to do it here first. I’m your first volunteer. You know what a six-pack is? I’ve got a keg.” Amy Langer, a trim brunette with a giant smile, joined us. She explained that she and John were the joint founders of Salo, and they wanted, more than anything, for their employees to have the opportunity to work healthily. “After the twins,” she went on, and patted her tummy, “I’ve got a few baby pounds to lose.” John interrupted. “I think it’s great business too,” he added.

“Why don’t we walk and talk about it?” I said. John bounded out of the office; Amy and I followed. It was winter; we started to walk through the sky bridges that connect Minneapolis office buildings. John’s enthusiasm was like a fast-replicating virus—completely unstoppable. Every time Amy tried to interject calm, John simply took a breath and spoke in torrents about his need to have Salo lead the world in this new NEAT chair-free revolution. We came to a large escalator going up. Amy stepped on and I followed. Much to my astonishment, John took the down-going escalator and sprinted up it against the flow. More astonishing still, he continued to talk to me as he did so.

John’s passion was a force of nature. Amy’s calm was an island of safety. I understood why Salo was so successful. “Doctor, we’ll do whatever you tell us,” John said. I smiled, extended my hand and said, “Can’t wait to work with you.”

I wanted to transform Salo, not only into the first NEAT chair-restricted office in the world but also into my new lab. I told John and Amy what I had in mind. “I want to build a laboratory right inside of your offices so we can test whether our chair-escape programs work in a real office environment.” Amy was silent; then she spoke. “Surely a laboratory has to be in a research institute.” I explained that that is normally so,

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