When Ergonomic Office Furniture Can Cause Harm

Many office workers spend the majority of their day at a workstation. It is at these workstations that they make their living, and hopefully their workstations are setup in a manner to keep them happy, healthy, and productive. However, each year thousands of people suffer from carpel tunnel, back problems, and a host of other problems from working at a workstation. At the center of any workstation is the work chair, which can be the source of many problems associated with office work. With the use of ergonomic chairs for the workplace, workers can avoid injury and be more comfortable and happy while working.

One factor that many offices overlook when selecting ergonomic office furniture, especially chairs, is that not everyone is the same size. Although managers in charge of selecting ergonomic chairs may scrutinize features like lumbar support, tilt options, and overall adjustability, they often forget that these chairs are designed for people of average size, but people who fall outside this range are likely to be discomforted. Many ergonomic office chairs do not accommodate the unique size or shape of a very petite woman or a tall man with wide shoulders. While lumbar supports do make chairs much more comfortable and easier on the spine, a poorly adjusted lumbar support will cause more harm than good. This is because a lumbar support is designed to fit a certain part of a person’s back to reduce pressure and the weight that the back has to support, but when improperly adjusted for a very large or small person, it will put extra pressure on their upper back, or hit their lumbar too low to be effective. Because of this, workers who are very large or small may need a specialty chair to reduce the risk of injury or strain.

Keyboard trays are another piece of ergonomic equipment that is designed to reduce stress on the hands and wrists, but many times they cause more harm than good. Many keyboard trays are often arranged so that they cannot be adjusted, which assumes that there is one universal typing position for everyone. The inability to change the position of keyboard trays leaves many workers with their wrists at odd angles and maintaining a static position to reach their keyboard comfortably. Many experts recommend that a keyboard be tilted away slightly instead of toward you like many keyboards. Another downfall of many keyboard trays is that they do not provide a place for the mouse, so workers must reach away from the keyboard every time they need to use the mouse.

Although many employers mean well by getting their workers ergonomic chairs, they do not realize that they are not one-size-fits-all. While most ergonomic office chairs do work well for most people, chairs with more adjustments will allow a wider range of workers to be comfortable and more productive than chairs that force workers to maintain static positions throughout the workday.