Having lived out in Dubai for the past three years has meant I have been a stay-at-home mum, even though that was never my plan originally. Despite searching out here, interviewing to become a working mum, I have never found the right job or indeed when the right job came up I didn’t make the final cut. But times, as always, are a-changing and with our big move looming it is time for me to start thinking about work once again.
It’s led to a multitude of thoughts and questions, should I head back to banking? Should I look at a complete career change? Can I even become a professional blogger? How will this effect the boys? How will this effect me?
How will life change….
I’ll be going from being a, relatively active, stay at home mum who spends days running around soft plays, up and down slides, walks in the park. The ability to be on my feet all day if I choose and not sat hunched over a laptop – I save that for at night – the fact that my commute is now out of bed and I am there rather than hours spent hunched in a traffic jam on the M6 or pushed against sweaty people on the tube. The back pain I was carrying around with me has miraculously improved the longer I have been out of work.
Will it come back?
In all probability, yes. Unless I do something about it. No matter which option I choose, be it a return to banking, a career change or working from home, I am in control of my body and what I choose to do with it including how I choose to work. Which means I can give myself the happy compromise of sitting and standing. Of letting the muscles in my back have a work out, or taking the time to sit down and have a (hot) cup of tea.
But why stand? It’s been said that too much sitting is a bad thing, as the NHS explains, increased levels of sitting can increase your risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, makes our waist size larger, affects our mental health and decreases concentration, none of which makes for happy reading or indeed happy working conditions.
Enter the standing desk.
People often think that these things are the latest fad, the latest thing you *should* be doing because the media tells you. Let’s step back in time, Charles Dickens was said to have utilised a standing desk. Winston Churchill is famous for refusing to sit whilst working out the battle plans.
Of course standing all day can lead to a different set of health problems. Which is why I plan to take a leaf out of Thomas Jefferson’s book. Jefferson created himself a 6 legged adjustable desk to alternate between standing and sitting, and if it’s good enough for Jefferson to pen the Declaration of Independence it’s good enough for me to blog about my obsession with sleep, or lack of. And since I lack all forms of DIY skills on making anything I am starting my research with standing desk supplier Back2.co.uk
I’m not sure my balancing my most treasured and precious MacBook on top of a pile of books to get to the right height mixed with my clumsiness would lead to devastation and a MacBook in pieces on the floor….I’m much better to buy a desk to do the job for me assuming I take the work from home option. Otherwise I’ll have to convince the future employer that standing is in fact the future as well as the past.
Do you sit or stand while you work? Would you use a standing desk?
This is really interesting. I agree with you, I’d want a desk that I could both sit and stand at. I’m not going to go back to working outside of home and I hope not to go back to full time hours. That said I’m sure my hours will build steadily over the coming months so it’s definitely something I need to consider.
Nat.x
I think the standing desk is a great idea. I get quite fidgety if I’m sat down too long and being able to adjust your desk so you can work either way is a brilliant way to get around this whilst still being productive
Debbie
This wouldn’t work for me, as I have varicose vein issues, I can’t stand up still for long periods of time. I agree that couldn’t this just lead to a different kind of health problems? I’m not sure we’re meant to either be sitting all day or standing all day either. I think it would be better to change the way we work for example be more flexible, work from home etc, so we can listen to how our bodies feel, and work our lives around that, rather than force our bodies to do things they’re not designed to do.