UpDown Desk is not your normal provider of standing desks. In fact, we don't really consider ourselves to be a retail store at all. Our background is in occupational health and safety, and our team are all Occupational Health Physiotherapists and OHS Consultants. As such, the focus of our business is to ensure that all of our customers, both corporate and individual, have safe and comfortable workstations. Selling standing desks just helps us to achieve our business vision.

Getting a standing desk goes part of the way in achieving an ergonomic workstation, as it at least provides you with the option to switch between sitting and standing, thereby helping to eliminate prolonged sitting. The next step is to get an ergonomic assessment of your workstation to ensure that everything is ergonomically friendly, and set up according to your individual requirements. 

Our team of OHS professionals specialise in office and workplace ergonomics. Whilst UpDown Desk is based in Melbourne, we have ergonomic specialists performing ergonomic assessments in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide. 
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An ergonomic assessment is focused around ensuring that your workstation is safe and comfortable for you, and that all of the furniture and equipment has been set up to suit your individual requirements. 

Ergonomic assessments should involve three stages:

1) The assessor will have a discussion with you to find out important information, such as current or past injuries, areas of symptoms, and sitting tolerances. Providing the assessor is a qualified and experienced health professional who specialises in injury management (i.e. an Occupational Physiotherapist), they will use this information to make appropriate changes to your workstation.

​2) The assessor will make appropriate changes to your workstation to improve the safety and comfort for you. Whilst there are general principles that apply when setting up a workstation, there is no one-size-fits-all that works for injured employees, or employees in pain. This is because their specific injuries need to be taken into consideration. Attempting to use a generic checklist to set up a workstation is often fine in preventative instances, where they individual does not have an injury. However, if the individual has an injury and/or is in pain, a generic checklist is likely to make their symptoms worse, leaving the employer liable to prosecution under the OHS legislation.

​3) The final stage of an ergonomic assessment is a report, which outlines the changes that have been made, why they have been made, and also provides recommendations for further improvement, such as new furniture or equipment. The report component of an ergonomic assessment provides the employer with guidance on to manage the employee moving forwards, as well as providing legal protection. 
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There are two forms of ergonomic assessments  - proactive and reactive. 

Proactive ergonomic assessments are suitable for everyone, and are performed as an injury prevention tool, or an employee wellbeing tool. The focus is to improve comfort and productivity, and help prevent any injuries from developing. We term these sort of assessments an Ergonomic Office Sweep. 

Reactive ergonomic assessments are for those who have an injury, or are complaining of pain at their workstation, or have a medical certificate requesting an ergonomic assessment. Such assessments are more in-depth than proactive ergonomic assessments and require more time with the individual. These assessments are termed Individual Ergonomic Assessments. 
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There are many providers of ergonomic assessments out there. However, there is one rule that you should consider when choosing your provider:

Ergonomic assessments are aimed at improving comfort and safety, thereby eliminating the risk of injuries. If the overarching purpose is eliminating injuries, then the person performing the assessment must have an understanding of the causes of injuries, how to management injuries, and the pathology involved. If they do not have this knowledge, then how can they effectively prevent an injury from occurring? This is why all of our assessors are qualified and experienced physiotherapists, recognised experts in injury management. 
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Our HQ is located in Melbourne. However, as well as performing ergonomic assessments in Melbourne, we have consultants located in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide and perform ergonomic assessments in these cities and the surrounding areas. 

​To make a booking, please complete the form located on our Ergonomic Assessment page here. If you would like to learn more about ergonomic assessments and get further information on the services that we provide, please visit our partner business, The Ergonomic Physio.
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The team at UpDown Desk are all OHS Consultants and Occupational Health Physiotherapists. We launched UpDown Desk to be able to provide our corporate clients with premium quality standing desks and sit-stand desks for a price that they could afford when we recommended them as part of an ergonomic assessment. 

The beauty of our ambition is that we have been able to eliminate the cost barrier that has historically prevented many organisations from getting an office fitout of standing desks. This has enabled us to help so many more organisations than our own corporate consulting clients. 

We are based in Melbourne and provide office fitouts in Melbourne and around Australia. 
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1. Prolonged sitting is quite literally killing us! 
2. Standing desks are the way of the future. More and more employees are requesting standing desks. So why waste your money on regular desks when you're most likely going to replace them for standing desks in the future.
3. By providing your employees with standing desks, you make a statement that you care about the health and wellbeing of your employees.
4. Standing desks reduce the incidence of overuse injuries in desk bound employees, caused by prolonged sitting.
5. Because standing desks reduce the rate of overuse injuries, they help to ensure that employers are compliant with the OHS legislation, by reducing the health and safety risks to their employees.
6. Studies have shown that standing desks can increase productivity by 10 - 43%.
7. Standing desks have been shown to reduce back pain and neck pain by up to 54%.
8. Standing desks have been shown to reduce fatigue levels by up to 33%.
9. Standing desks have been shown to increase energy and focus, whilst also reducing stress levels.
10. Why not?

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If you would like to enquire about our office fitouts in Melbourne, please complete our enquiry form, which can be found on our "Office Fitouts" page.

Once we have received your enquiry, we will be in contact to arrange a time to meet with you to confirm your requirements. 

Because our entire team are OHS Consultants and Occupational Health Physiotherapists, each office fitout of standing desks is accompanied by an ergonomic office sweep of ergonomic assessments FREE OF CHARGE. We do this to ensure that each workstation is set up ergonomically at the time of installation, thereby making sure that your employees are safe and comfortable, and that your organisation is compliant with its OHS obligations.

For all questions regarding standing desks and height adjustable desks, or ergonomic assessments, please contact us here.