Standing Desk Users Log 43 Extra Minutes of Work a Day

The researchers then attached a dollar figure to those hours. Multiplying the 171 extra hours by a standardized hourly wage of about $52, they estimate that a height-adjustable desk could generate close to $9,000 in annual productivity value per employee.

The gains were not limited to time. Employees at adjustable desks also typed more words and logged more keystrokes overall than their counterparts at fixed desks.

"The data showed that people aren't just engaging with their work; they are producing output in a meaningful way," Benden said.

What is the "workplace effect"?

When organizations want to raise performance, they usually reach for new technologies, training programs or management strategies. Benden argues that a quieter force operates in plain sight: the physical workspace itself.

"It's what we call the 'workplace effect,'" Benden said. "The direct impact that the physical work environment has on the behavior, health, psychological well-being and even engagement and performance of employees."

Sit-stand desks — also called height-adjustable or standing desks — illustrate the idea. Instead of locking a worker into one posture for hours, they allow a person to sit, stand and move as tasks and energy levels shift through the day.

"It can have a profound effect," Benden said. "Alternating between different working positions promotes better health outcomes by reducing physical strain and encouraging movement for those who might otherwise spend most of their workday sedentary."

What should employers take from it?

The findings remain observational in part: the study compares computer activity between two large groups of workers rather than randomly assigning desks to individuals, so other workplace factors could contribute to the gap. Still, the scale of the dataset — a full year, more than 10,000 people — gives the result unusual weight for the field.

"Our findings were exciting because they suggest that height-adjustable desks can directly influence overall work output and economic organizational productivity," Benden said.

For employees, the desks may support sustained energy and longer stretches of focused work. For employers, the study suggests a return of nearly $9,000 per worker annually.

"The implications are hard to ignore," Benden said. "When we design workplaces around employees and their needs, better health, better performance and better organizational outcomes follow."

What comes next?

For Benden, the study opens a broader research agenda — one aimed at another force reshaping offices. Artificial intelligence, he notes, is becoming increasingly integrated into daily work, and he wants to apply the same lens to it.

"Just as we've studied how the physical environment affects human health and performance, we're interested in understanding how emerging AI technologies could influence the physical workspace and outcomes of organizations," he said.

Benden directs Texas A&M's Center for Worker Health, where engineering, management and technology converge to improve workers' lives. A former Army Reserve officer, engineer, health care professional and inventor, he has spent decades studying the relationship between people and the environments in which they work.

"We spend a lot of time at work," Benden said. "It's my passion to make sure that workers feel supported in their workplace, built on informed and guided scientific evidence."

His conclusion from the 10,000-worker dataset is restrained but pointed: "The next breakthrough may not come from working harder, but from designing workspaces and systems that help people work smarter and more efficiently."

The desk, in other words, may be doing more than holding up a computer.

Reference: Tricia Lynn Salzar et al., Improved Computer Utilization Associated with Height Adjustable Workstations in a Large Office Population, Theoretical and Applied Ergonomics (2026). DOI: 10.3390/tae2030021.