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Choosing Office Chairs For Comfort and Looks

The office chair you use for work will play a significant role in your overall productivity. Office chairs are not glamorous and we pay little attention to them .... until they break.

Yet every hour you spend in that chair can help or hinder you work. If you select and use a chair that’s not suitable for your specific needs, you’ll never be completely comfortable. This can grow into a nagging irritation, making you take unneccessary breaks and hampering your overall productivity.

A good office chair, at the most basic level, needs to be well constructed. It should be solidly built using good quality materials with adequate padding that will cushion your weight. An apparently comfortable chair can feel hard as stone after three or four hours if the padding is inadequate for your weight. The chair should also be a good fit and the right size for your physique.

Construction, while important, is just the beginning.

Chair Should Adjust Easily

A good chair will adjust easily through a wide range of heights and angles to conform to your body and style. Have you ever come across an office chair where only a contortionist can adjust the height? There are designs that demand the strength of a lumberjack to raise or lower the height by a couple of inches. Others have the opposite problem, shooting up or down at the slightest touch of the lever. Avoid them if you can.

The design of a contemporary office chair should provide excellent support for the lower back. It will allow you to adjust the chair’s height so that you sit comfortably, with both feet on the floor and your thighs horizontal.

That’s key to ensuring you get the proper orientation to your desk and computer monitor and keyboard. You can then work in comfort, avoid long term health problems, and get more done for each hour you’re at your desk.

Depending on the size of your office, though, you may need more than just desk chairs for you and your partner, staff or co-workers. If you have clients or a reception area, good supplemental seating is a must. In Japan or China, what you offer your guests says a lot about how you regard them.

Westerners may place less emphasis on it, but the effect is still there, if more subtle. Mesh chairs or bungee chairs are both appreciated by everyone.

Good Design Says a Lot

The design of the primary office chair or supplemental seating can also say a lot about the business owner. We’ve all seen scenes in films of highly stylish law offices, for example. The seating isn’t just a matter of impressing clients, as important as that may be.

A good design presents an image that goes beyond vanity. It establishes an air of competence, good design sense that can mean the difference between clinching the contract or not.

Fortunately, there are hundreds of models on the market that fulfill both roles - good looks and function - very adequately. A leather-covered office chair with a cherry wood base is stylish. Wheels that never wear out with easy to reach controls make it highly utilitarian.

Back Support

An ergonomic chair with a rachet back adjustment puts support at just the right height for you. Great padding makes it comfortable. Stylish fabric makes it a joy to use.

Many small business owners have a tendency to resist spending on a fine chair. That’s understandable. Tight budgets are one key to success.

But given the years of use and the effect a good office chair has on the decor, it pays to spend a little more to get a lot more. After all, buying ugly, too-tight shoes isn’t for you. You’ll get as much use out of a good office chair as any footware.

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