The business class flight experience has finally come to the desk, with the launch of the Altwork Station. It allows users to comfortably recline in a range of positions while their monitor and keyboard are securely held in the ideal position with magnets. Workers will even be able to comfortably doze off at the Altwork Station after a good feed at their lunch meeting.
The company claims, in their YouTube video promoting the launch, that not much has changed in the office environment in a century. That is contrasted with the significant advances in other technology from travel and communication, making this one of the most “comfortable times” to be human. The Altwork Station seems certain to solve “comfort” in the office, but just how comfortable will workers need to be before those naps aren’t just after lunch?
The Altwork Station is claimed to have taken five years of development in Sonoma County, where the Altwork will also be manufactured. The company is hoping to ship the Altwork Station in “mid-2016.”
Luxury at work will come with a hefty price tag, however, with gizmag reporting that it will retail for $5,900 and that early adopters will be able to get their sleep at work for $3,900.
Of course, the main hope of the Altwork Station’s creators isn’t that everyone dozes off in an unproductive haze, but instead that the Altwork Station will usher in a new era of comfortable productivity.
The Altwork Station allows for a range of different work positions, including the popular “standing-desk” arrangement that many workers have already adopted for the reputed health benefits compared to remaining seated throughout the day. Every facet of the Altwork Station can be adjusted to ensure everything from keyboard position, to monitor level are perfect for the individual user. A slick electronic control system means that the various positions can be selected by Altwork users effortlessly to suit their mood and the type of work they are doing at the time.
The Next Web were able to try out the Altwork Station and the “comfort and adjustability” were impressive. Working at the Altwork Station was likened to “working on a cloud.”
“I was able to go hands-on (back-on? butt-on?) with the Station, and though I couldn’t test it out for an extended period of time in an actual work environment, it kind of blew my mind with its comfort and adjustability in the brief period I did spend with it.”
While the comfort of the new Altwork Station may not be in dispute by those who got to try it out, the health benefits may not be so clear. The Huffington Post reported on a recent study by the International Journal of Epidemiology which concluded that although sitting at a desk all day is clearly not good for health, adjusting to a standing position with an expensive standing desk configuration, which the Altwork offers, may be no better. The reason given is that it’s the act of being relatively still that causes most of the negative health effects , rather than the position you’re in.
Having said that, the Altwork Station’s ability to deliver the perfectly comfortable seated or standing position to most users will have benefits, even if it doesn’t contribute to eliminating the issues caused by our sedentary lifestyles. LiveStrong details the many dangers of adopting an uncomfortable or sub-optimal seating position at work, which range from headaches to reduced lung function . While the Altwork Station won’t eliminate the negative health effects of work entirely, it will, for many, eliminate the negative health effects of sitting uncomfortably.
[Photo via Altwork]