SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOB MARKET : WEATHERING THE WORKPLACE : Here’s the Bottom Line: There’s No Perfect Chair : Adjustable Models Provide More Comfort for the Unnatural Act of Sitting
Walter Kleeman, a North Carolina consultant, was hired a while ago by Martin Marietta to help it come up with the best possible office, desk and chair designs for 4,000 work areas. The company’s review was so intensive that it tested 28 different office chair models.
“They were all ergonomically designed,” Kleeman recalled, “but that didn’t mean a hell of a lot. One of these chairs collapsed without anything sitting in it.”
Ergonomics has become a buzzword that means, among other things, designing work conditions so they are comfortable and safe for employees. But the term has taken on something of an unfounded seal of approval and has found its way into advertising copy for a slew of new office chairs that seem to promise a high-tech, backache-free, wonder chair.
Unfortunately, no matter how high the science, chairs and people don’t make a perfect fit. Rani Lueder, who runs Humanics, an ergonomics consulting firm in Encino, says, “If you sit in any one posture for a long period of time, it becomes uncomfortable.” She pointed out that when somebody is seated, up to half the person’s weight is supported by only 8% of their bones. It’s no surprise then that 70% of those over 40 will suffer at some time from back troubles; and once it happens, it tends to recur.
Dr. William Dillin, a spine surgeon at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Inglewood, explains that with age “you get degenerative changes in your back” as the water in the spinal disks begins to dry up. Those thirty- and forty-something-year-olds have the highest rate of back pain and herniated disks, Dillin says.
So what kind of chair should you use? Consultants seem to agree that fixed chairs--those that can’t be adjusted--should be avoided. At Lueder’s office in her home she uses a Sensor chair (price: $500 to $2,000) made by Steelcase, one of the big office furniture firms. She likes the chair because it has a 5-inch height adjustment and a high seat back that floats back and forth as she moves. The seat back still provides ample support because of a tension adjustment. A floating seat back, indeed, is one of the trendiest features in chair design and is widely advocated for many desk jockeys.
It also marks a turnaround from the 19th Century, when straight-backed, 90-degree-angle chairs were the rule and workers were expected to sit straight as a ruler. “In the last few years, there has been a dramatic reversal in attitudes about seating. The idea of an upright posture now we know unequivocally is bad for people,” Lueder said. That wouldn’t surprise a medical technician; a side-view X-ray of the spine reveals a slight S shape, not a vertical line, and supporting that curve is a key aim of the better chair designs.
Lueder also likes another floating chair design offered by Herman Miller Inc. called the Equa (price: $550 to $1,700) that’s been available since 1984. “A lot of office chairs go back 100 degrees, but it really should go back another 20 degrees. It’s that last 25 to 30 degrees (past vertical) where you have the greatest benefit,” Lueder says.
Dillin agrees, saying that studies have shown that leaning back 110 degrees in a chair with good lower back support “cuts disk pressure by 40%.”
One of the worst chair designs, Lueder says, is the so-called secretarial chair, a low-backed chair that first caught on in the 1940s. “The secretarial chair was the theory for a while. The upper back rest was considered unnecessary and in the way. That is really ridiculous. Especially with computer users, studies show back rests are very important,” she said.
Ergonomics consultant Kleeman also prefers a chair with floating back rests, and in his office he parks himself in a Comforto 1517 model (price: $500 to $1,100) made by Haworth Co., though Kleeman concedes he’s biased. “I helped design the damn chair. The seat is not too soft, not too hard, the back slings freely.” Kleeman also made certain that the chair can adjust down to within 15 inches of the floor.
Kleeman insists that many office chairs are too high. He studied nearly 2,000 air traffic controllers and found that shorter people--those under 5 feet 2 inches tall--suffer from an inordinately high number of muscle problems. The FAA’s chairs, he said, went no lower than 17 inches off the floor so shorter people were likely to have problems with swollen legs because their seat would pinch the blood circulation above their knees.
But the Equa, Sensor and Comforto chairs are only three models in a sea of available office chairs. How to properly test-drive a new office chair? “Sit in it for at least 10 minutes. Second, check that the seat has a height adjustment. Check the back height adjustment and also check that there is some kind of lumbar support,” Kleeman said.
Lower back aches--in the lumbar area--are the most common back ailment. It’s so common that Dillin totes along a $15 lumbar roll, or cylindrical cushion, that he uses in his office chair, in his car and at home. “If you sit in a chair at 110 degrees, you ought to jam a lumbar roll in there. It’s more comfortable,” he said.
Another feature that can help are arm rests because they “allow you to take some strain off the shoulders,” says Sanders. But arm rests can also cause problems, he says. If they are too high it can prevent your chair from sliding under your desk, so you end up leaning forward, which strains the spine.
One chair design that’s come into vogue is a seat that tilts forward a few degrees. In theory, Sanders said, the idea is sound “because it opens up the hip angle and drops your hips to reduce pressure in your back. But it can be bad because it feels like you’re sliding out of your chair.”
Kleeman concedes that while he likes his own chair design, he still has some pain because of an arthritic shoulder. After years of studying chairs he may have just discovered the true bottom line. “Maybe man was not meant to sit,” Kleeman said.
