Business Office Furniture Tutorial: Choosing the Perfect Task Chair

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Office Furniture

Business and office furniture is designed to endure heavy use, year after year. The necessary quality and design standards to create this level of durability accounts for the higher cost, especially when compared to similar products designed for home use.

Whether you’re in the market for new commercial office furnishings for yourself or for members of your staff, check out these pro tips for selecting the ideal task chair for the job.

The Hidden Importance of the Task Chair

If you have a career that keeps you behind a desk for much of the day, you already understand how important having the right business office furniture is. It’s all important but, if your desk chair isn’t comfortable, you may struggle to concentrate on work. Even worse, you risk ergonomic and orthopedic injury.

If you don’t sit for a large portion of the day, you may not realize how much the right chair contributes to an employee’s job satisfaction and productivity.

You may have seen recent headlines comparing a sedentary job and sitting for most of the day to cigarette smoking, in terms of physical harm. In reality, sitting all day is not the problem; sitting improperly is.

Understanding Ergonomic Sitting Positions

These are the most important factors for anyone who works at a desk:

  • The ability to maintain correct resting eye levels
  • The ability to easily reach all necessary areas of the workspace
  • The ability to maintain ergonomically correct arm and leg angles
  • The ability to maintain correct spinal alignment and pelvic tilt

The last item in this list is the important one, at least for the purpose of this discussion. Because, unless the spine is positioned correctly, discomfort will cause fidgeting, distraction and discomfort or pain. Over time, orthopedic injury is the likely outcome, a risk that increases exponentially with age.

If business office furniture is not designed in a way that maintains proper spinal curvature – especially in the lumbar area – posture will slump forward. This, in turn, places pressure on spinal disks, weakening them and causing pain.

Which Task Chairs Facilitate the Correct Sitting Positions?

When choosing your business office furniture – especially task chairs — look for those models with two key features: adjustability and lumbar support.

Adjustable task chairs adapt for differing employee height, weight and reach. Some ergonomics experts recommend choosing task chairs with adjustable arm rests also, to provide increased support for the arms and upper spine.

Task chair lumbar support must support the spine in a natural position. Beware of those that offer too little or too much lumbar support. The seatback should also be adjustable, as the sweet spot for lumbar support varies based primarily on height. Otherwise, your taller- or shorter-than-average staff members won’t be able to get comfortable in their chairs.

Today’s business office furniture manufacturers have addressed these concerns in the design of their task chairs. You have many excellent product lines to select from, ensuring that you will find the ideal styles to match your office décor as well as support the health of your staff.

Guild Hall Home Furnishings, based in Salt Lake City, represents some of the finest commercial furniture manufacturers. Visit us today and let one of our professional interior design staff members show you the many options you have for selecting task chairs and other business office furniture products.