Employee Votes Count When it Comes to Selecting Office Chairs
The burning question isn’t necessarily who has the best view or the biggest office space. It’s all about who has the most comfortable chair.
What is it about chairs?
Case in point: On the online message board EA Forum’s Business Beat, which touts itself as the “water cooler conversation without leaving your desk,” a thread on office politics and furniture included close to 200 messages. Many of these posts focused on the humble -- or not-so-humble -- office chair.
“What is it about chairs?” one poster laments, explaining that when her particular office was undergoing renovations, company decision-makers ordered and assigned furniture based on a task-based flow chart and gave all managers executive chairs.
“I didn’t want an executive chair,” the poster recalls. “I spend far too much time on a computer. An executive chair would have destroyed my back. So, I, quite reasonably, asked for a task chair. You would have thought I had asked for a Jacuzzi.”
The author of the message-board post wound up ordering a more suitable chair for her needs from the same design line as the others to ensure it matched. She endured eye rolls and being called a “prima donna” by upper management for not taking the assigned executive chair. But it didn’t bother her. She liked the chair she ordered. So did three other managers, who asked for an exchange. It was a chair revolt.
Because the office chair holds such a position of influence in the American workplace, many offices have taken the politics of chair selection to a new democratic level -- voting. And not just any voting. We’re talking hands-on, try-it-before-you-buy-it voting.
“Many companies have begun to institute a democratic chair selection process that gives workers a voice in office seating,” says Fred Colony, vice president of casegoods and seating for The HON Company, a leading designer and manufacturer of office furniture. “They have employees test out different sample chairs. Testers then vote on the ones they like best. Chairs no longer simply appear in a workplace. Employees now have a definitive say.”
And they should: A person, on average, will spend 80,000 hours of his or her life doing work while sitting. A bad chair can make those hours uncomfortable, unproductive, and even unhealthy.
“It’s important to have a chair that adjusts in height and depth and offers recline and armrest options to avoid work-related injuries,” says Colony.
The office furniture industry has used customer research to develop a new generation of office seating that only somewhat resembles its bare-bones predecessors. Contemporary office seating blends eye-catching aesthetics with a full complement of features that support ergonomics and individualized user comfort.
The F3 chair with ilira-stretch from The HON Company is one such example. This stylish chair represents three elements of comfort -- fit, form and function. It features one-time adjustments to seat height, depth and tension, as well as adjustable arm height and width for increased comfort and durability, adapting to different body shapes and sitting positions.
Research the Candidates
Comfort in any chair is important, so consider these factors when choosing the right seating candidate:
* A good chair allows you to use as much of the seat back as possible for support, especially your lower back.
* Chairs should have adequate space between the back of your knees to the front edge of the seat.
* Quality chairs should conform to the curves of your body, avoiding pressure points that cause discomfort.
* Computer chairs should be stable and have easily adjustable ergonomic controls that can be reached from a seated position or, better yet, passive ergonomic adjustments that maintain a comfortable configuration as the user moves.
* A lifetime warranty on the frame and mechanical parts and a five- to 10-year warranty on fabric is a must.
Numerous features are available in office seating, making today’s office chairs a far cry from those of yesteryear. From comfort and adjustability to style and longevity, a chair exists for every worker -- usually within the same design line. By taking a democratic approach in chair selection and allowing workers to test the front runners and vote on their favorite candidate, the political landscape within an office can be one of calm comfort rather than discontented, cramped unrest.
For more information on selecting the right office chair, and the seating options available today, visit www.HON.com.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
