10 signs you need to step away from your desk
June 19, 2008 by Shane BorerPosted in: "Would you want this person in Finance?", Special report
Between check runs, firing off memos and endless reporting cycles, you’re probably well-acquainted with your office chair — maybe a little too well.
When Finance beckons, it’s up to you to take care of things. But if you display one — or a few — of these signs, maybe it’s time for a summer vacation:
- Your idea of “exercise” involves a few neck rolls and focusing your eyes on distant objects.
- Friends and family members don’t bother calling you — they know they’ll get a quicker response via e-mail.
- Your desk has strange discolorations from where your arms rest at least eight hours a day.
- Taking a day off isn’t an option because you’d fall too far behind on your daily RSS feeds.
- You’ve got the number for the Carpal Tunnel hotline programmed into your speed dial.
- Because of the hours spent hunched over, your posture resembles a caveman’s.
- After you’ve finished a long day of work, you get home and relax — by watching TV on the computer, playing Second Life and reading recreational blogs.
- The only dreams you have are of the same tasks you normally do.
- When you say it’s time for a “major change” in your life, you really mean you’re just going to change your desktop background.
- You refuse to eat anything involving a fork and knife for lunch because you can’t use your mouse while munching.
How can you tell when it’s time for a break from the office? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Tags: Exercise, Second Life, Summer vacation, Taking breaks, Top Ten
June 19th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
What is the number for the Carpal Tunnel hotline?
June 20th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Those neck rolls feel so good though.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Not only the arm marks on the desk, but also, cold coffee and warm soda bottle condensation rings (since you get them and never have time to drink them).
June 20th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
So, ummmm, what’s your point???
June 20th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Second Life is sooo yesterday. It’s World of Warcraft now. Killing MOBS is a stress-reliever.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
How about doing the daily crossword puzzle online at night
June 20th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Hey! Some of us do have a life. It’s called going back to school so that we can move up the corporate ladder and spend even more time at our desk.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I haven’t even had time to change my desktop background on my computer!!!
June 20th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Do the fingers on your mouse-clicking hand ever get cold from lack of circulation?
June 20th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
When you start to decorate your desk with LOST figurines to help you get through the day… that is when you know you have a problem.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
How about when you answer your home phone, this is Kim may I help you and actually wait for a response?
June 20th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Time off is when you don’t have to rush out of the restroom to get a call or page….. Oh the luxury
June 20th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
You’re working 10 hour days and your piles keep getting bigger instead of smaller. Then, instead of figuring out which pile needs to be done first, your figuring out which will never get done, so you file it away. You can’t get rid of it because you “might” need it 6 years from now (that is, IF you can remember where you put it then).
June 20th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Everyone around gets new chairs; yours is still in the box because you are never out of the old one long enough to put the other one together…and the old one is sooooo lowwwww…….you now have to reach up to the keyboard and the no-line bi-focals you just got, you had to have the Dr.put the bifocal at the top of the lens….
I shut down mentally when I go home, but that works out because I haven’t had time to pay my bills and everything there is generally shut down too!!
Is this sane??
June 20th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Please explain what a day off is. Do people really take days off?
June 20th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I learned to eat one-dish microwave meals with the fork in my left hand so I can still run the mouse, and relaxation is computer solitaire because it’s pretty much brainless…
June 20th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Online poker at night is how I de-stress. I still need to count!
The half drunk cups of coffee or water…and they stay there until I don’t have room on my desk. ?
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
No one else can sit at my desk because the seat of my chair is molded to my rear end. Yeah, been at my desk too long!
February 6th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
I’m reading this for entertainment while having lunch!
February 6th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
You mean you can change your background on your desktop? No way!! when did that happen?? The color too? I’ll have to put that on my ‘List of things to do”.
February 6th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Bravo…Linda….Good for you, took time for Lunch! (by the way, what is lunch?) Is it allowed now?
February 16th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Whoaw This is crazy,my boss made me read this.Umm perhaps I need to step away from desk.I mean if your Boss says you work like a crazy cave person perhaps I should listen. Naw I like me.And who needs letters on their keyboards anyway.This is my third keyboard in 2years.And my mouse well it’s time for a new one,I have to keep banging it to make it work.