Worksite International Blog

Perhaps one of the most controversial ergonomic actions in the workplace is whether to use armrests or not. I see many employees with chairs that previously had armrests but now do not. When I ask where the armrests are, the employee typically states, "The last ergo evaluator told me to remove them." To which I ask if that was helpful? Typically, employees report continued problems despite this action.

The question is why remove them? Is it necessary or helpful to use armrests with computer use? Is it bad to use chair armrests? There are many myths and half truths around the use of armrests. In this blog, I separate fact from fiction and help identify whether armrests are truly helpful or harmful.

Chairs matter a lot. A bad chair matters more. But a good ergonomic chair matters the most!

Why do I say this? Because as a professional ergonomist, I’ve come to realize chairs are foundational to seated work. If the chair isn’t right, then the ergonomics will never be right, and your employees will never truly be comfortable!

So often I see companies with no specific plan for buying chairs for their employees. Typically, they are old, worn, outdated, poorly assigned, non-specific to task or employee stature, don’t work and employees have no idea how to adjust what they have been provided. Chairs are undervalued and underappreciated in the workplace! They are a forgotten asset!

Which brings me to ask you, “Are you chair aware?” Chair awareness is complex. The best way to explain it is to see if you can answer these ten questions.

Are your employees constantly complaining about their chairs? Are you routinely guessing at what chairs to buy employees, using cost to drive your selection? Or perhaps you’ve experienced a high volume of seated work injuries?

I know we have come a long way in ergonomic chair furniture design. The mechanisms are smoother, more intuitive to our bodies, improved fabric and cushion comfort, more sustainable, but when is someone going to make a "smart chair" for all us chair addicts?

The purchase and implementation of your ergonomic chairs shouldn’t be a guess! Yet, I’ve seen over and over how many employers seem to do just that… guess. Random selection based on pictures in a catalog or based on an arbitrary budget and no objective criteria seem to be the drivers behind choosing standard chairs at most workplaces.

Oxford Dictionary defines a misfit as something that does not fit or that fits badly.

Do you know what you’re sitting on these days at work? What if the chairs your organization provided could give you a boost in energy and productivity? Or on the flip side, contribute to your aching back or neck? How would you know and what would you do?

Have you noticed your coworkers sitting at their workstations on large round balls? I’m often asked what I think of using a ball at work. With recent attention to the active workplace, more and more people are seeking alternative postures to work. One such strategy some employees and employers are turning to is exercise balls in place of their ergonomic chairs.But is the stability ball really a good idea in the office?