treadmill desks? a joke or a barometer of the insanity level

i thought this was from the Onion when i first saw it...  truly, a whole new level of idiotic.  fat corporate warriors need treadmill desks?  why stop there, how about workstations that double as toilets... eliminate those pesky bathroom breaks...  or beds even.  no doubt you can squeeze a few email during the night...   From market watch:

The idea of “active workstations” sounds great. Why not burn a few calories at a treadmill desk while you work, or strengthen your abs on a giant rubber ball while returning emails?

As these products have grown in use, so has feedback on their downsides.

When John Osborn’s treadmill desk arrived in his corner office last August, the New York CEO of advertising firm BBDO spent nearly 80% of the day working while walking. But soon colleagues began pointing out rampant misspellings in his emails. “You quickly realize how difficult it is to type anything longer than a sentence,” he says. And while he had hoped to drop some weight, he found that after a few weeks, his appetite increased. “The big joke around here was I got the treadmill desk and I put on 6 pounds,” Osborn says.

Office furniture that allows employees to stand, walk, cycle or sit on a giant rubber ball includes the Steelcase Walkstation (starting at $4,399) and the LifeBalance Station ($2,795 and up), a combination desk-and-elliptical machine. The products come with health-boosting claims such as relieving lower back pain or stimulating blood flow to the brain. Ergonomic specialists cite injury risks. User complaints include lower back pain. Employers are just beginning to deal with issues of hygiene, etiquette and liability.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-your-ergonomic-desk-trying-to-kill-you-20...