First, some history. The grand-daddy of pricey ergonomic chairs, the Herman Miller Aeron, hit the market in the mid-1990s, just in time for the internet boom. Stark, skeletal and using mesh where others used foam, it looked quite unlike your dad’s office chair – more Borg drone support system than USS Enterprise captain’s chair.
Aeron promptly became the design behind a thousand start-up back-ends, and one soon graced a display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Its runaway sales
success inspired a flood of rivals: the Steelcase Leap, the Haworth Zody, Herman Miller’s own Mirra, Celle and Embody, and many more. All are well made; all retail above $1,000.
And plenty of high-end office workers really do swear these chairs make them more productive.
Those fans, however, may be confusing real results with good looks. The word ‘ergonomic’ doesn’t mean much, according to ergonomists like Mark Dohrmann of Melbourne consulting firm Mark Dohrmann and Partners. What you need for maximum health and productivity is a robust, height-adjustable chair that pushes comfortably into the small of your back (your lumbar region).
“You don’t need to pay a lot of money to get those things,” notes Dohrmann. “You need only spend $200 to $500 to get a chair every bit as ergonomic as one of those $1,500 marvels.
Those Aerons? “Herman Miller has great spin doctors,” says Dohrmann. Like many other ergonomists, he reckons good chairs all have pretty much the same big problem: they encourage sitting for long periods of time, which can have some unhealthy repercussions.
You can mitigate the dangers of sitting, say Dohrmann and others. Take your robust height-adjustable chair and set it up carefully. Get your seat and keyboard at the right height. Push your hips right back in the chair. Set the seat height so your feet are flat on the floor. Get a small pillow to push on the small of your back. And get out of the chair as often as possible.
Or, you can buy a standing desk (see the June/July 2013 issue of Public Accountant) or even a treadmill desk. It won’t cost that much more than an Aeron, but it really will make you healthier. Even if it doesn’t look like you stole it from the Borg.
