Are You Sitting Comfortably?
An office worker will spend an average 5 years of his life sat in a chair without getting up. You wouldn’t wear a pair of shoes for 5 years that didn’t fit properly, yet so many office chairs do not fit the person sitting on them.
A study in 2010 concluded that lower back pain is the world’s most common workplace disability. And as so many of us spend 6 hours or more sitting, it’s easy to understand that a properly fitting chair is crucial to our wellbeing and productivity.
A good ergonomic chair should fit the user correctly, give good support, maintain good support working at different tasks and meet individual needs - we are not all the same.
A good chair will allow an active dynamic posture. Being still is bad, so a good chair will allow you to move.
An ergonomic chair will have a sliding seat pad: If you cannot adjust the depth of the seat, how is it going to fit people with different leg lengths? It will be height adjustable, have a backrest that tilts independently of the seat pad, and be height adjustable. Many will also have a lumbar support, adjustable for pressure and height. But most importantly it needs to have movement built in. And this is where you’ll appreciate the difference between a chair and a good chair. A chair with a really good movement will support you comfortably all day.
Different chairs have different approaches to the ergonomic question. Designer Peter Opsvik’s chairs tend not to move so much, but offer the user different options on how to sit that encourage movement, while RH’s Logic chairs have so much movement designed in, if your workmate jumps onto yours and adjusts it while you are in the canteen, you’ll throw your mug of tea at him when you get back as you know it’ll take you 20 minutes to get it back to exactly how you like it!
Good office seating not only looks good but makes colleagues feel good and this all helps them work good!
Backworld is the Southwest’s premier supplier of ergonomic chairs, desks and accessories. Whether you need a workstation assessment or a chair for someone with specific issues, or you want to look at upgrading the seating in your office - call the experts today.
Visit Backworld’s website or give them a call on 01392 202012 to find out more.
