Sitting at work: almost 9 hours a workday, and exercise does not make up for it
Elke Stap ·
Sitting at work in numbers: CBS and TNO find Dutch employees sit almost 9 hours a workday. Why exercise does not offset it and how teams break it up.
You open your laptop at half past eight, join the first call and only stand up again when your coffee runs out. Sitting at work is so normal for most Dutch employees that we barely notice it. Yet it adds up: according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and TNO, employees in the Netherlands sat for an average of 8.9 hours per working day in 2024, once you add up work, commuting and leisure time.
That figure comes from the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NEA), which asked more than 60,000 employees about their sitting time. The picture has barely changed in five years: in 2019 it was 8.6 hours. Working from home, screen work and back-to-back meetings all play a part.
In this article you will read what the latest figures actually say, why exercising a few times a week does not cancel out sitting, and which small habits TNO recommends. You also get a checklist for People and HR teams who want to organise less sitting at work, without a fitness plan or new furniture.
This is not medical advice. If you have complaints, see your GP or occupational physician.
Key takeaways
- CBS and TNO (2025): employees sit for an average of 8.9 hours per working day. That is 4.5 hours at work, 1.1 hours commuting and 3.3 hours in leisure time.
- ICT workers sit the most at work (7.1 hours). People who never work from home sit 3.0 hours at work on average; people who always work from home sit 6.3 hours.
- Exercise and sitting are two different things. According to Sport en bewegen in cijfers (2025 data), people who meet the Dutch physical activity guidelines sit about as long as people who do not.
- TNO advises breaking up sitting ideally every half hour, for example with walking phone calls, a lunchtime walk or meetings of 25 or 50 minutes.
- When a team does it together, standing up feels normal rather than odd. That is the biggest opportunity for employers.
How much do Dutch employees really sit?
On average 8.9 hours per working day, according to CBS and TNO figures for 2024, published in August 2025. Of that, 4.5 hours fall during work itself, 1.1 hours during the commute (cycling not counted) and 3.3 hours in leisure time. Add a night's sleep and there is little time left on a working day when you are not sitting or lying down.
The differences between occupations are large. These are the average sitting hours during work according to CBS:
- ICT: 7.1 hours per working day
- Business, economics and administration: 6.4 hours
- Managers: 5.9 hours
- Health care and welfare: 3.9 hours
- Service jobs such as hospitality and cleaning: 1.1 hours
CBS describes the background in its long read Zitgedrag op werkdagen (Statistische Trends, 2025). Looking beyond employees, Sport en bewegen in cijfers by RIVM, CBS and VeiligheidNL reports 9.2 hours of sitting per day for everyone in the Netherlands aged 4 and over (2025 data). Teenagers aged 12 to 17 sit the most (10 hours and 5 minutes), followed by adults aged 18 to 65 (9 hours and 37 minutes).
The Netherlands also stands out internationally. In the 2022 Eurobarometer, cited on the same page, 26% of Dutch respondents said they sit more than 8.5 hours a day, compared with 11% across the EU.
Do people who work from home sit more?
Yes, on average. People who never work from home sit 3.0 hours a day at work. Those who work from home part of the time quickly sit twice as long (CBS, 2025):
| Share of working time at home | Hours sitting at work |
|---|---|
| Never | 3.0 hours |
| 1 to 20% | 5.2 hours |
| 20 to 40% | 6.3 hours |
| 40 to 60% | 6.8 hours |
| 60 to 80% | 7.1 hours |
| 80 to 100% | 6.9 hours |
| Always | 6.3 hours |
Screen time matters too: people who work six hours or more a day at a screen sit 6.8 hours at work on average.
The reason is familiar. At home the small walks disappear: no stroll to the meeting room, no colleague asking if you want a coffee. An international study with RIVM researchers among its co-authors (Parés-Salomón et al., BMC Public Health, 2026) measured 163 hybrid office workers with an activity monitor. On home-office days they sat about 20 minutes more during working hours than on office days, and more often in long bouts of over an hour. It is a small cross-sectional study, so it describes patterns, not cause and effect.
Why the occasional workout does not solve sitting
Because exercise and sitting are separate behaviours. Someone who works out three times a week can still sit for nine hours the rest of the day. That is why the Health Council of the Netherlands, in its Physical Activity Guidelines 2017, gives a separate piece of advice next to moving enough: avoid sitting still for long periods.
The figures show this clearly. According to Sport en bewegen in cijfers, people in the Netherlands who met the guidelines in 2025 sat 9 hours and 5 minutes a day on average. Those who did not sat 9 hours and 17 minutes. Hardly any difference.
Even more striking: people who play sport at least once a week sit about 45 minutes longer per day than those who do not (9 hours 29 minutes versus 8 hours 45 minutes). Part of the explanation is probably the type of job. The same source shows that people with a higher professional or university education sit 77 minutes a day longer than people with primary or lower vocational education (9 hours 54 minutes versus 8 hours 37 minutes). The gap shows up mainly on working days.
So your Tuesday evening spin class is great, but it is not a voucher for the rest of the week.
For employers this has a practical meaning. A gym discount mainly reaches people who are already active and changes little about the working day itself. You see the same pattern in low participation in workplace wellness programmes. If you want to break up sitting at work, look at the hours between nine and five.
How do you break up sitting at work, in the office and at home?
By interrupting sitting often and briefly, ideally every half hour, as TNO advises. It is not about hard training but about standing up, walking and moving within your normal routines. Below are TNO's tips for sitting less and moving more, translated into an ordinary working day.
At the office
- Finished a task? Walk to the coffee machine or get a drink.
- Take the stairs instead of the lift. Even part of the way counts.
- Walk along when a colleague asks if you want a coffee too.
- If you have a sit-stand desk, alternate. TNO also advises against standing for long periods, so variety is the point.
Walking meetings and walking calls
Walking meetings work best for conversations with two or three people that do not need a screen. TNO suggests choosing a route in advance that matches the length of the meeting. That way you do not end up in a car park halfway through the conversation.
A smaller step: set your calendar's default meeting length to 25 or 50 minutes instead of half an hour or an hour. That leaves a few minutes between meetings to stand up. If meetings run long, plan breaks to move and stretch.
At home
- Take calls on foot when you do not need your screen, indoors or outside.
- Stand up after every video call, even if it is just to get some water.
- Take a short walk before and after your working day. It replaces the walk to the station or bus stop you miss on home-office days.
The lunchtime walk
A lunchtime walk with colleagues is one of the easiest ways to break up sitting, and TNO mentions it explicitly. Pick a fixed day, a fixed time and a route of fifteen to twenty minutes. Whoever sends the calendar invite usually makes the difference between a good intention and a habit.
What we see in practice with team walking
Movement sticks better when it happens together and is a little playful. TNO says so itself: when you do it together, it no longer feels odd but normal. We see that in our own figures too.
From practice. More than 52,000 users walk on the Lawa platform, together good for 16.1 billion steps. On average they take 17% more steps than the Dutch average. That is a platform figure, not research: people who join a walking game are often already a bit more active. It does show what happens when walking becomes a shared game instead of a lone resolution.
Our starting point: it is not the first week that makes the difference, but repetition. That is why a company walking challenge that runs all year works better than one campaign week. It also matches what we wrote earlier about mental health at work: low threshold, frequent repetition, doing it together.
Checklist: organising less sitting at work as HR
Start small, make it visible and let managers lead by example. You can take these six steps this month, without a budget for new desks.
- Measure where you stand. Run a short poll on how many hours colleagues sit and where it pinches, for example on home-office days. Use the CBS figures as a benchmark.
- Change the calendar. Set the default meeting length to 25 or 50 minutes for the whole organisation.
- Make walking meetings normal. Start with the management team and mark a fixed 20 or 30 minute walking route around the office.
- Schedule a regular lunchtime walk. Once a week per team or location. Remote colleagues walk in their own neighbourhood at the same time and dial in.
- Turn it into a shared game. Teams, short rounds and a leaderboard make movement visible. Compare teams mainly with their own previous week. The HR checklist for a workplace step challenge helps you set it up.
- Evaluate after six weeks. Look at participation, repeat participation and feedback. You do not need medical data for that.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours a day does an office worker sit on average?
It depends on the job. According to CBS and TNO (2025), employees in business, economics and administrative roles sit 6.4 hours per working day at work on average, and ICT workers 7.1 hours. Across all employees and the whole working day, the figure is 8.9 hours.
How often should you stand up when you have a desk job?
TNO advises breaking up sitting ideally every half hour. It does not have to be long: a short walk, getting a drink or taking a call standing up already counts. The point is to build movement into your regular routines.
Is a sit-stand desk enough?
A sit-stand desk helps you alternate, but it is not a solution on its own. TNO also advises against standing for long periods. The goal is to alternate between sitting, standing and walking.
Does walking to the station or bus stop count?
Yes. TNO mentions walking or cycling to the station or stop as a way to make your commute more active. In the CBS figures, cycling was not counted as sitting time during the commute.
How many steps a day is enough?
There is no magic number. TNO writes that you do not have to hit 10,000 steps and that 6,000 or 8,000 steps is also a good effort. Read more in our article on how many steps a day is healthy.
One small step today
Set your next meeting to 25 minutes and use the five minutes left over to step outside. Or turn your next one-to-one into a walk. That way, sitting less at work starts with a single appointment in your calendar.
Want to break up sitting as an ongoing team challenge, with teams, rounds and a leaderboard? See how it works on Lawa for organisations and start with a small pilot.
Sources
- CBS (2025), Werknemers zitten gemiddeld bijna 9 uur per werkdag (NEA, CBS and TNO, 2024 data; in Dutch)
- CBS (2025), Zitgedrag op werkdagen (Statistische Trends; in Dutch)
- TNO, Algemene adviezen voor minder zitten en meer bewegen (in Dutch)
- RIVM, CBS and VeiligheidNL via Sport en bewegen in cijfers (2025 data), Zitgedrag (in Dutch)
- Health Council of the Netherlands (2017), Beweegrichtlijnen 2017
- Parés-Salomón et al. (2026), The associations of sedentary behaviour and physical activity with musculoskeletal symptoms in hybrid office workers, BMC Public Health
- Lawa platform figures on lawa.world/en/organisations (52,000+ users, 16.1 bn steps, 17% more steps than the Dutch average)
Elke Stap is Lawa's AI editor. Articles are reviewed by people before they go live.