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Asked by anon-257014 on 15 Jun 2020.
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Stephen Powley answered on 15 Jun 2020:
Pretty much, especially since lockdown. This is one of the downsides of a job with computers and you have to take care of yourself by getting a good ergonomic workplace set up, and regularly taking screen breaks and moving around. You should do this when you’re studying too.
Workplace technology is getting better now and when I’m in the office at the university I have a fancy chair and an adjustable standing desk, so I can switch between sitting and standing. Unfortunately this isn’t standard for everybody, it’s only because I have back and neck problems (from injuries, but also from too much sitting in one position).
I hope in future we will have better ways to interact with computers, for coding jobs and other tasks, that allow us to move around more. This might include virtual reality, augmented reality and voice interfaces. Sitting down all day isn’t what the human body was designed to do.
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Louise Davies answered on 15 Jun 2020:
Most of the time yes! In fact, this is made worse by lockdown, as normally I would have to do things like go to meetings to talk to other people about what I’m working on or what they’re working on, but during lockdown these meetings are all done at my desk as well!
However, it’s not healthy to sit in one place for 8 hours a day, so we’re encouraged to stand up and move around every so often – a bit like break times during school!
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Emma Wilson answered on 15 Jun 2020:
Unfortunately at the moment because of the lockdown, the answer is yes. I use my computer to run code, explore data, have video meetings, and attend virtual events.
Before the lockdown, my day was a little more varied. I still worked at my computer most of the time when working with code and data, but I had a lot of in-person meetings and attended events and conferences, some of which allowed me to travel to different countries.
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Martin Coath answered on 15 Jun 2020:
Absolutely not! I have to do a lot of reading, writing, and thinking. Reading and writing I do in the garden (unless the weather is terrible) and thinking I do while I walk or sit in a cafe ;D
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Nikita Moghe answered on 15 Jun 2020:
Yes. I spend most of my day at work sitting at my computer.
All of my experiments require coding on a computer and running them on a separate computer.
Say, I am conducting an experiment that translates English text to German text. I use a technique called neural networks which are inspired by the organization of the human brain. The English to German translation model cannot fit on the computer which is used for writing the code as it is huge. We use a more powerful computer which is specialized with a GPU to run this model.
I can contact this separate computer directly using my computer.However, spending your whole day at work, staring at the computer affects your eyes. I take breaks from the screen periodically to protect my eyes.
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Sreejita Ghosh answered on 15 Jun 2020:
Nowadays it is sadly true. Though in the afternoon I run up and down the stairs from 5th floor to ground floor to do some exercise.
During the pre-corona, pre-lockdown time my colleagues in ML and I would sometimes take frisbee break around 3pm during the summer months, while each of our codes would be executing on our respective computers. During the winter instead of frisbee we would go play foosball for an hour. I also have a sit-stand adjustable desk in office. So sometimes I stand and work, and sometimes even stand on one-leg and work just for the fun of it (nah sorry, to improve my balance for jiujitsu).
In short, during the pre-lockdown times even though my work still revolved around a computer, I was far more active physically, even during work hours. 🙂 -
Will Furnell answered on 15 Jun 2020: last edited 15 Jun 2020 12:19 pm
Most of the time I do unfortunately, although I make sure to get up away from my desk as often as I can (about every 30 minutes) to have a walk around the house to make sure I’m not sitting in the same position all day! Unfortunately this is worse during lockdown.
However, I do find that getting up from my desk and taking a break from my computer and going somewhere else helps me work out problems – so I try and do this regulary too! -
Steve Williams answered on 15 Jun 2020: last edited 15 Jun 2020 12:27 pm
During lockdown I like all of the software engineers where I work have been working from home and that does mean I do nothing else but sit at a computer all day. Normally when we are not all in lockdown I work within a team of people where we sit at desks that are close together. Working in a team is one of my favourite parts of my work because we are all working together to achieve a working product. Working in a team means we do throughout the day have conversions about how the various parts of the project are going to work together. This is best bit because we each test our ideas out on other members of the team. Often after discussion those ideas are modified so that they actually become better ideas and ultimately work better too. Sometimes ideas are rejected but that is good too as nobody whats to waste time on an idea that in the end isn’t going to work. These conversations are a useful way for us all to learn.
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anon answered on 15 Jun 2020:
It can feel that way, especially at the moment as I am working from home so the opportunities to meet people face-to-face are limited. I have made it my aim to get out for exercise every day at the end of the day’s work; as others have said, getting up, moving around, changing position – keeping the whole body working – is really important for long-term health. The computer is a just am means to access other things, of course. I spend much of the day talking to people still, either one-on-one or as part of a bigger meeting, I do some data analysis and report writing too, and lots of e-mail and using work-based social media and collaboration tools.
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Lucy Craddock answered on 15 Jun 2020:
For a data scientist, my work is done through using a computer to code, research, etc. and so if I have no meetings, I will spend most of my day on my computer. This is the same for most of my colleagues and we have to be proactive in taking breaks to get tea or walk around the worksite.
Our offices are also very flexible to allow people to change up desks, work standing, or find ‘quiet’ spaces in the office. If we have impromptu meetings we can find collaborative spaces and rooms for more formal setups. I’d say 40-80% of my time at work will be sat at my computer.
Most of my colleagues are very active outside of work, and we take part in charity marathons and triathlons are very popular. Going from an A-Level student to working 37 hours a week, I think I spend less time on my computer overall. I’ve put more value in my free-time and sought more a healthier and active lifestyle by taking up running and yoga.
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Sarah Lean answered on 15 Jun 2020:
Mostly yes, I’ve worked in IT all my career and sitting in front of a computer is a massive part of my job.
It’s what I love though, and I knew my job would be inside and sitting at a computer desk all day.
I’ve always tried to make sure I get time away from the desk, enjoying walks at lunch time or making time for exercise after work and at weekends.
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Freya Addison answered on 15 Jun 2020:
No! Ordinarily I have a very mixed plate of coding, fieldwork, a bit of labwork, meetings which take place in different environments. When I am writing, I write a lot of things by hand before typing up, and that also includes coding. I like to write out a plan of new code, or diagnostic workflow by hand so I have a clearer idea what I am doing, and sometimes I do even write out coding sections by hand before actually inputting this into a script and I do this away from my desk. However since lockdown, most of my work has been at the computer, and I am only starting to get back to the writing side, so it has been most of my day sat at my computer. I do make sure I have a proper lunch break and additional breaks as well as some stretches which I can do at my desk.
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Laura Mears answered on 15 Jun 2020:
Some days, yes. But even when I’m on my computer all day, I rarely spend the whole time sitting at my desk. I like to move around a lot when I’m working – it helps me think. And, because my experiments are all done on my laptop, I can work wherever there’s wi-fi, which includes my local park.
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Andy Smith answered on 15 Jun 2020:
Like most others here, yes, most of my day is sitting in front of a computer, especially now we’re working from home due to Covid-19. About half my day is having meetings with other people, either by phone or by videocall through the computer.
There’s a pretty cool advantage to this, however. I can work from anywhere where I can plug my laptop in to a good internet connection. That means I can travel to different parts of the world and still be able to continue working. For example, a couple of years ago I visited a friend in Colombia for a few months. During the day I would work (and most importantly get paid!) then during the evenings and weekends we would explore new places. One weekend we even took a trip to the Amazon rainforest!
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Anar Yusifov answered on 16 Jun 2020:
I used to, but not anymore. Now I spend almost all my daytime helping others to do their work by transferring my knowledge to them. That takes a lot of time, but pays back in the future and good investment of my time within the team.
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Oliver Gordon answered on 16 Jun 2020:
Since lockdown, yes for the most part 🙁
Normally, it’s a significant part, but not the “whole” day. I have equipment in research labs to check on, as well as meetings and so on.
It’s important to make an effort to sit properly, do stretches, take walks and regular breaks and so on. While what I do is comfier than a manual labour for example, there can be long term health consequences of not taking care of yourself!!!
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Laura Murgatroyd answered on 22 Jun 2020:
Since working from home, like most of the others, I have spent more time at my computer. However, I am not always at it!
When I am at work I enjoy attending talks that other scientists give about their work, or random cool science. Unfortunately these talks are now online which means looking at my screen, but I can cast these onto my TV which makes it feel like a bit more of a break from the computer.
At work I also get involved with public engagement events we run, such as giving tours of our site (we have lots of exciting experiments the public can come and visit), and even running robot coding sessions! Obviously these too have moved to online. Today I was part of an online event where we set coding challenges each week. Children send in their code, and I run it on a lego robot I have in my house (or another member of our team runs its on theirs). So that was certainly a break from sitting at my desk!
Comments
Gulnar commented on :
Thanks for an interesting question. Generally, not. But during lockdown, I can answer ‘yes’. In my normal routine, I am busy doing experiments in a lab, reading papers about my research and trying to spend more time for thinking and planning. In my leasure time, I prefer listening audio books, writing my novel outside and walking.
However, since lockdown I have been working from home, doing all my analysis through different bioinformatics tools, attending seminars and online courses. It should also be noted that I am trying to control my daily routine so I have enough time to do exercises and have a rest during a day.