Office Chair - A Serious Issue

After shopping in the mall with his girlfriend Roma, Leo returned to the parking and found that his helmet was missing. They could not go out without helmet as there was a risk of fine by traffic police.

While Leo was still thinking, Roma picked up another helmet from a nearby bike and gave it to Leo. Leo hesitated but accepted when she said, "is there anything else you can do to avoid fine. Would the traffic police believe that your helmet was stolen."  They both drove away with that helmet.

Somewhat similar happens with office chairs. If someone took your chair or if your chair has a problem, you take some other chair. When that person returns (whose chair you took) he looks for some other chair and this continues forever but the problem remains. Such short term solutions seldom help. 

One of the organizations I know recruited people beyond their seating capacity. Employees had to struggle to get a seat and more importantly the LAN connection, but the organization was not ready to compromise with performance. As a result of which some employees started coming early and most of them started staying late. This resulted in unnecessary stress and frustration among the employees.

There are some people who would not hesitate to pick up chair from other workstation but there are some who would not like doing so. Lakshmi found her chair missing and was about to pick Ramon's chair but Ramon came just at that time and gave Lakshmi a strange look. Lakshmi felt like a thief.

Chair is the basic facility that an employee should get in an office. It is interesting to note that at most organizations I have heard of (from my friends, colleagues and where I worked) there is no policy related to securing the chair of the employee. Employees earning from 10,000 rupees to 200,000 rupees per month are all in the same situation.

Condition of a chair is another important factor but when the solution is limited to just exchanging the chairs, one or the other employee would suffer every time.

Below are some points I think why having a good quality chair is important at workplace:

Health Issues

Working for 8-10 hours in a chair can certainly impact the health of the spine. And not only spine, it can cause strain on muscles, pain in shoulders, neck and thighs etc. Certainly this is not realized in a day but in long term this can be dangerous. Attending ergonomics training sessions won't help but a good workstation would.

Efficiency and Concentration

Is it not that the employee will not be able to give his best if part of his attention is towards the chair. He changes his positions repeatedly and at the end of the day he is stressed more than ever. Fortunately god has made it mandatory to sleep for almost all humans.

Also, it is better to let the employees work rather than letting them waste time in looking for chair. Industrial Engineers stress on so many factors to minimize the wastage of time but this basic thing is missing in their training sessions (at least those I have attended so far).

Vibrations - The Most Ignored Point

I have heard that Guru Gorakshanath (also called Baba Gorakhnath) performed penance inside a cave near Brahmagiri Hills several years ago. Still this cave is visited by thousands of devotees to get relief from their sins. Several people visit the Samadhi of Maharishi Aurobindo, Gajanan Maharaj and other saints saying that they find peace there. But why do they find peace at such places?

Because such great people have a divine aura that continues to be there even after so many years. The concept of positive energy is not only about positive thinking but also about positive seating. If you are a serious negative thinker you would certainly create (unknowingly of course) a negative aura around the place where you sit and part of that energy is transferred to the chair in which you sit.

When someone takes a seat there, his/her energy would combine with that energy and affect his/her mental status depending on how he/she thinks and how strong his/her inner strength is. Sensitive people are more prone to such things.

Interestingly, you would usually not allow anyone other than your family members to sit on your pooja asana where you hardly sit for an hour. Why then allow anyone on your office chair where you have to sit for hours on regular basis.

Simple Solution

Chair management program, I do not know how many organizations do, should be introduced to be taken seriously. I have seen employers marking the workstation numbers. Why not mark the chair too? So that no one else can put his/her hands on the chair that belongs to someone else.

Also, if anything goes wrong with the chair it could be replaced instead of just rotating on the work floor for months. Admin can make a policy of having spare chairs in the office and also it can track how many problems reported, for which person etc.

It is seen quite often that people take chairs from any vacant workstation to the conference/meeting rooms to never return. This all can stop if the chair is simply marked with the workstation number.

The seating arrangement these days is so congested in most organizations that if someone comes to meet you on your desk you can't offer him place to sit. But that person if not an external visitor might not hesitate to pick a chair from neighboring workstation. This is one of the most common reasons for chair struggle.

Employers can think of dedicating an area on the floor where some spare chairs (depending on requirement) can be kept so that those chairs can be used by visitors. Instructions should be posted and training provided to employees so that they do not forget return the chair to their original place after use.

Admin team generally takes care of the seating arrangement. Nowhere have I seen the admin contacting the workforce for the quality of chairs. Many employees don't know where to complain about chairs. It should be easy. A quarterly or half yearly interaction with the employees on feedback regarding quality of chairs or workstation can be done.

This is not a mammoth task given that employers spend so much on training programs, parties and other entertainment activities for their employees.

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