Do You Hate Your Chair?

We found some chairs by the dumpster the other day.

That doesn’t sound too unusual, does it? I mean, maybe they were broken. Maybe they were badly stained. Maybe the upholstery was ripped.

But…

They were in perfect shape. They were clean, not broken, and not ripped.

Could it be that someone hated these chairs?

You might be wondering – “Hey, it could be that maybe they just got new chairs, and didn’t need these anymore! Why are you jumping to conclusions?”

Well…

Craigslist is easy. OfferUp is easy. Facebook Marketplace is easy. Chairs that are no longer needed - but that were loved - typically get sold or even given away, not thrown away.

Which leads me back to the conclusion that I so deftly jumped to: Someone hated these chairs.

Let me tell you some more interesting things about these chairs:

·      They’re good quality

·      They’re highly adjustable

·      When purchased new, they weren’t cheap

 So what happened?

Even the best chair in the world is going to have to be adjusted before it’s comfortable for the person sitting in it. And these chairs probably never got adjusted properly.

Almost every time we get called in for a case of “I hate my chair,” it’s usually just a matter of adjusting it to fit the person sitting in it. Every adjustment – chair height, seat pan length, seat pan tilt, backrest angle, lumbar position, armrest position – is going to affect parts of the body, either negatively or positively. And it can be hard to get all of that right without a little help. We go to places with some very smart employees, who just don’t know how the chair should fit, or how to adjust it to fit. I’d be rich if I had a bitcoin for every time I heard, “I had no idea my chair could do that!”.

Now, there are definitely cases where the current chair just won’t fit, even with all the adjustability in the world. But the more adjustability the chair has, then the more likely it is that it can be adjusted to fit. But that’s a loooooong email for another day.

So these poor, abandoned chairs were likely replaced with new chairs that may meet the very same fate someday, if they don’t get properly adjusted.

These thrown-away chairs have since been re-homed, properly adjusted, and given a second chance. But what about your chair? Do you hate your chair? Are you on the way to the dumpster with it right now?

Stop! And download our Guide to Selecting a Great Office Chair first.

Then, if you need more help, you’ve got options - reach out and let us know. An ergonomic evaluation can help determine if your chair needs to be replaced, or just adjusted to fit you better.