Open Plan Benching and Traders’ Desks

Today’s Healthy Office doesn’t resemble the plans of offices from 20 years ago. LEED dictates moved offices into the core of the building and moved panel heights down to bring more natural light throughout the space. The desire to increase collaboration among employees has also driven down or pushed out panel dividers. Technology has made workers more mobile and has reduced individual storage needs. More square footage is being allocated to informal collaboration spaces and less to individual workstations. In many offices, the actual workstations in a benching system are virtually indistinguishable from modern trader’s desks.

At Applied Ergonomics, we’re expert at these types of workspaces, and we have strong feelings about how to make them work best so that employees can function optimally. Some teams may work best when they can communicate easily, but most people still need some privacy and the ability to focus to tune out the distractions around them. Other departments don’t function as teams, and employees need space to spread their work out. When we design spaces, we listen and interpret how best to accommodate our clients’ needs.

And of course, we strongly advocate bringing height adjustable workstations, properly outfitted with ergonomic accessories, into these modern offices. Some people will choose to stand most of the day, and others will rarely stand but will adjust the surface height to be comfortable for them. In either case, giving the choice is best, empowering your employees and showing them you value them and their health. With most vendors these benefits come at a big cost to the client, but since we’re in the business the added cost is far less than you’d expect. It’s a win for everyone.

Chicago is home to the Board of Trade, the Merc and the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE). For each of these exchanges, the trading floor is no longer where the work is done. It’s almost all off the floor at multiple monitor intensive workstations. That is of course also true for stock and bond traders. Sound familiar? Traders need great ergonomics to support them over the many hours of intense work every day, and there is no better resource than Applied Ergonomics for either fixed or height-adjustable stations, ergonomic seating, monitor arms and other accessories that make the station fit the worker—the very definition of ergonomics. For individual traders and others who are tied to their desk, be sure to consider our Focal Upright desking system for state-of-the-art ergonomic perching.