Worksite International Blog

The 2019 Ergo Expo held at the Paris Hotel, Las Vegas has come and gone now. But it leaves us with more innovation this year than we have seen in a while. Old and new companies with new products were on display for ergonomics professionals to evaluate, test and even take home. I’ve attended this show for the last 2 and a half decades consistently and it never fails to disappoint! There is always too much to absorb than time allows, and this year was no different.

With the growing interest in ergonomics as a corporate strategy to promote health and wellness, it’s a perfect time for employers to assure they have adequate ergonomics knowledge in-house to solve day to day employee concerns related to workstation and work practice needs.

If you work in an office, you know what sitting all day can do to your back. It aches, you’re stiff, and your legs are tired mostly because you didn’t get up often enough or take any long walks. This can all be attributed to poor ergonomics, poor body awareness and a poorly designed office chair. When you know your job requires sitting for long lengths of time, you need to choose the perfect ergonomic office chair. If you can’t control what chair you get, no worries. Here are some tips on what to look for in a proper ergonomic chair.

Industry organizations have developed widely accepted ergonomic guidelines for the set up of office workstations and the design of ergonomic chairs. What’s missing — and very much needed, I argue — is an objective methodology for making the decision to keep, repair or replace task chairs once they’re in the workplace.

Despite recent trends toward promoting more standing in the workplace, average sitting times now exceed 7.7-10 hours per day or longer in the workplace, not including commute time. Most employers do not yet have widespread capacity for sit-to-stand workstations. As a result, far more emphasis needs to be placed on selecting chairs and the ongoing use of an ergonomic chair.

Hear me out…. I know what you are thinking, “Really?” Yes, Really!

The reason I propose this question is because of the preponderance of evidence around the health impacts of sitting, our seated work-lifestyle, and trends in workers’ compensation.

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.

According to Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the father of quality, as quality improves, costs go down and productivity increases. Quality and productivity can be continually improved for better profitability. These are the same drivers that steer a company towards improving their workers’ compensation management and ergonomics process.

As a supervisor or manager, you are accountable for the actions and productivity of your staff. One area many fall short in is helping employees with injury prevention and management strategies. Management can often be “the weakest link” in the safety and workers’ compensation program as it is your accountability to the organization’s policies and procedures that sets the stage for your employees.

If you walk and talk the safety program, your employees will step up to participate. If you are supportive of their work injury, they will trust and respond favorably to the assistance you offer in getting them back to work.

This past August, I presented my Chair Assessment Model at the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) Florence, Italy. Over 1700 ergonomists, most of whom were professors and academic researchers from more than 35 countries, were in attendance. This year’s theme was “Creativity in Practice”, the challenge of transforming the experimental, field research, and evaluation processes into the daily practices of the ever-changing working and living organizations. There was an over-abundance of lectures highlighting the latest research in ergonomics and human factors.