life-sized ’emma’ reminds everyone what bad posture at work can lead to

‘emma’ is a realistic full-size model, commissioned by office equipment company fellowes, that reminds us how detrimental poor posture and inadequate workstations can be in 20 years time. in partnership with behavioral futurists william higham, fellowes performed a survey to investigate the current and long-term health of office workers in the UK. 

all images by fellowes brand

survey findings show that nine in ten british office workers are suffering from poor health due to their work environment. working close to 6 hours a day sitting on a desk, seven in ten workers resort to medication to manage their issues. the most common physical pains reported are strained eyes (50%), sore back (49%) and headaches (48%).

‘it’s too late for emma now; but there are many things we can do to take better care of our health at work,’ comments fellowes. ‘we spend hours at work sat at our desks, but by introducing movement with a sit-stand solution, we can combat the health issues caused by sitting for prolonged periods. ensuring our workstations are properly set up with the right ergonomic accessories will also ensure that our posture is correct at work; thus, helping to reduce the risk of work-related musculoskeletal injuries and other illnesses.’

a permanently bent back

’emma’ shows multiple extreme outcomes of her untreated symptoms caused by an unhealthy working lifestyle — such as a permanently bent back, varies veins on her legs, a rotund stomach, dry and red eyes, swollen wrists and ankles, sallow skin, eczema, red forearms and upper legs, and hair on her ears and nose causing swollen sinuses.

previously on designboom, we covered similarly quirky human body art projects such as the ‘perfect’ human body without evolutionary flaws and ‘graham’, the only person designed to survive a car crash.

hair on her ears and nose causing swollen sinuses

dry and red eyes

a rotund stomach

eczema

swollen wrist / eczema

swollen wrist

veins on legs due to lack of circulation

emma going for a handshake

project info:

project: ’emma’

company: fellowes brand