Ergonomic Office Chair: Let's Dance!

You can tell much about a person by looking at their office. Is it streamlined and sterile? Piled high with work that needs attention? Strewn with loose papers and supplies? Are there lots of personal items like pictures, interesting objects, and pencil holders made by small children at preschool? And what about the furniture? Is it cheap stuff from a big chain store or has care been taken in its selection? Is the desk chair old and wonky or sleek and well-upholstered? Does it look like it was crafted to last?

Offices should be comfortable and appointed with enough personal items to feel warm. After all, think about the percentage of your waking life you spend in a desk chair! Who wants to spend a third of each day in a cold, sterile shoe box sitting in a crummy desk chair? The nicest thing you can do for yourself—or your employees, is outfit each desk with an ergonomic office chair. While that might sound like an unusually complicated name, it simply refers to any tool, item, or piece of furniture created with the human body in mind; it is the science of building things that are perfect for human use.

It is not really a recent concept. Men have always tinkered, improving on the old. There is written evidence, in fact, that the ancient Greeks used the principals of ergonomics to design their workplaces and tools!

In terms of an office chair, ergonomic design used an understanding of the human body to offer seating that far surpasses the old-fashioned desk chair. An ergonomic chair is better to sit in for long periods of time, can be quickly adjusted in multiple ways to suit a number of different heights and weights, is esthetically pleasing, and provides superior support for the back and neck.

The difference between an ergonomic office chair and a regular office chair is most significant at the end of the day. Those in traditional chairs rise shakily to go home with barely enough feeling in their legs to walk to the door. They trudge painfully home, looking forward to some Advil and an early bedtime. Those with ergonomic chairs, however, are ready to have some fun!