Exercise, Health Care / Medicine, Insurance

Is Your Biglaw Job Making You Fat? Try A Treadmill Desk

Associates: maybe you could try to lose some weight at your firm, but you'd still be at the whims of partners.

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You knew this day would come. You knew that eventually, eating nothing but delivery meals from Seamless would take its toll. When you were a first-year associate, the world was a different place. You didn’t have problems zipping up your pants. Your blouses weren’t gaping between buttons. Your clothes actually fit you properly. Now, you’re lucky if you can manage to squeeze yourself into them.

A legal career can be extremely hazardous to your waistline, and you learned that the hard way. It’s a high-stress, sedentary profession, but somebody’s got to do it. Unfortunately, that somebody was you.

So how can you possibly fix what you’ve done to yourself? You don’t have the time. There are only 24 hours in a day, and more than half of them are spent at your desk. One law firm may have an answer…

The last time we covered treadmill desks was in 2008, and back then, having one was odd (even for a Quinn Emanuel attorney). Five years later, it’s a trend that’s catching on. From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Lawyer Mary Rust is no stranger to taking client calls, reviewing documents and responding to email messages from her desk.

But in the last few months, she has been able to fit in walks or jogs without leaving her office – or her desk. Rust, a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP’s Private Client Group, uses her treadmill desk between one and four hours a day when in the office to burn calories and remain active.

She loves it. “There’s very little time in the day that I can’t spend on here,” Rust said.

The Taft firm is trying to “emphasize a culture of wellness” because unhealthy (read: overweight) employees can affect the firm’s bottom line. Health insurance costs a pretty penny, and expenses can be higher when employees are tipping the scales of justice in the wrong direction.

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Of course, it’d be much easier for the firm to achieve its healthy lifestyle goals if treadmill desks were present in every office. It’s really too bad that those things are expensive as hell:

Rust and another partner at Taft … have treadmill desks in their offices, but they helped convince office leaders to buy two more for communal use. Several firms manufacture treadmill desks and costs posted on their websites typically range from $800 to $3,500 for equipment.

“I actually pass them periodically and they always seem to be used,” Rust said. “In fact, someone said the other day there was a line.”

Oh, of course the partners have their own personal treadmill desks. For everyone else at the Taft law firm, you have to wait in line to fall in line with its new health initiatives. When all is said and done, associates’ fates are still subject to partners’ whims, even when it comes to weight loss. Figures.

Treadmill desks help Taft law firm get fit, cut costs [Cincinnati Enquirer]

Earlier: Law Firm Life as Treadmill? Not Just a Metaphor (Say Hello to the Treadmill Desk)

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