Thursday, June 4, 2009

Canon Employees Are Forbidden to Sit Down, Walk at Normal Pace

You might think your job sucks, but at least your boss wasn't insane enough to remove all the chairs and install security so an alarm goes off if you don't walk fast enough.
The president of Canon Electronics, Hisashi Sakamaki, is also the author of a book proposing some of the same measures he takes with his own company. His theory is that forcing employees to stand not only saves money but increases productivity and enhances employee relationships.
In the hallway, if an employee walks slower than 5 meters every 3.6 seconds, an alarm and flashing lights are set off, reminding the poor startled worker that he's an inefficient waste of air. Even better (or worse), there's a sign on the floor in said hallways that reads, "Let's rush: If we don't, the company and world will perish." The big boss, as a reward for thinking up all this stuff, gets to lounge in a nice, relaxing chair.
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3 comments:

Tattoo Jim said...

Turn around and look... it's right behind you... here in the U.S.A.

Michael said...

I've heard the same about meetings in the office: they are more efficient and over soon if people stand.
And there's actually a fashion, too. Software development methodology Scrum (an "agile" method) can have daily meetings (rather get-togethers) where people stand.

It's gaining ground and may be actually a healthy thing among all the sititng we do all day long.

Anonymous said...

More companies need to do this.