A hundred years ago, tram drivers still had to perform their work standing up - it was believed that a seated driver could fall asleep and cause an accident. Drivers can now sit (giving rise to new problems), but several hundred thousand workers still have to stand all the way through their working day. It definitely isn’t healthy, which is impressively underscored by the fact that standing occupations account for a disproportionate number of cases of work incapacity. Studies have shown that continuous standing causes an unbalanced load on the human organism and is responsible for numerous disorders of the cardiovascular system and the musculoskeletal apparatus.

The consequences of continuous standing are similar to those of continuous sitting. This partly also answers the question concerning possible solutions for standing occupations: Surely it is no solution to turn continuous standers into continuous sitters - after all, it would only replace one evil with another. Rather what we are looking for are approaches which make work more mobile and hence free workers from constrained postures - whether continuously standing or continuously sitting.

This brochure shows why standing is so bad for people and why it isn't possible to get used to it - in this case practice does not make perfect, only sick! Furthermore, it presents possibilities for relieving the burden on workers in standing occupations
and for generally designing work so that it is healthier, more humane and more productive. At the same time, the brochure's intention is not only to encourage companies to give some thought to those of their employees who have to stand continuously, but also to speak to workers. Under the heading of "Individual Prevention" an indication is given of what every individual can do at least to alleviate the adverse consequences of continuous standing over long periods. Nevertheless, it should be stressed at this point that individual prevention is the second-best solution since it can only relieve the symptoms. The prime consideration must therefore be to reduce the proportion of working time spent standing. This is the only way to improve the quality of work and to enhance well-being and health at work - both important prerequisites for the competitiveness and sustainability of every individual company because economically healthy enterprises are not possible without healthy workers.