Contract furnishings provider, Hightower received multiple awards at NeoCon 2021, including IIDA's 'Best Small Showroom' (under 4,000 sf) and 'Best of Competition' for its newly designed Chicago showroom.
Humanscale welcomes Elizabeth Margles to its Marketing Division in the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Margles comes to Humanscale with twenty years of experience in design, fashion and retail and a background in public relations and advertising.
The exclusive relationship with Kontrol's BioCloud® Technology will provide real-time detection of airborne pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 to help make workplaces safer as organizations return to the office.
ESI recently partnered with an interdisciplinary group of Arizona State University graduate students who conducted a year long study at Pivot Cycles' headquarters. The goal of the study was to ascertain whether the design interventions enhanced employee wellbeing and productivity, as well as reduce pain.
From the mouse that is freezing up your wrist and shoulders, the chair that is hurting your back to the aircon that is freezing you numb, Mrinal Shekar finds out how to deal with ergonomics issues that are a pain in the neck… literally.
As many of 80% of Americans suffer from back pain, thanks to our screen-addicted lives. A cottage industry of gadgets promises to fix us. So I tried several.
Ergonomics was a hot topic for OSHA in the 1990s, with the agency issuing a standard for ergonomics in 2000, which quickly was repealed in 2001. So why should employers continue to concern themselves with ergonomics?
The problem with the modish idea of fake news is that we’re not very good at spotting it. As with our driving, each of us possesses an unwarranted faith in our own abilities coupled with dismay at those of other people, unaware of just how much our own biases and fixed opinions distort the way we perceive information. It’s one of those things we need to be on the lookout for, especially if we are pronouncing on complex issues. This is just as true when it comes to workplace matters as it is in any other sphere of our lives. We are prone to buy into specific and oversimplified narratives, then remain committed to them in the face of all available evidence. This is particularly the case with heavily nuanced issues which often collapse into a simplistic black hole from which nothing can then escape.
The vast majority of office-based workers are aware of the health dangers of spending hours on end seated at their desks, but management is failing to respond to their needs, according to a survey by Active Working, a community interest company.
Researchers are focusing on the impact of sitting at work on one’s health, and determining what reasonable courses of action can be taken to reduce adverse health effects of office/sedentary work. One such intervention has been the introduction of sit-stand workstations.
Think of how fortunate you are to have an office job. Only a century ago, office jobs were uncommon, reserved mainly for the elite. The majority of people worked at jobs that required tedious and strenuous activities for most of the day.
It was during this time that the field of ergonomics (or human factors) was born. By applying simple biomechanical principles, early ergonomists were able to identify and combat the sources of many musculoskeletal disorders.
Over two thirds of people take work home with them from the office at least once a week, but the majority of these could be risking their health by using inappropriate office set ups, a new survey claims. Retailer Furniture123.co.uk has revealed that while 41 percent take work home with them at least once per week, the vast majority do not do so from a desk set up as just one in three (34 percent) of those who work from home claim to do their work at a desk within their home.
The Level by Fluidstance made an immediate and lasting impression the first time we stepped onto the active standing balance board back in 2015 at Dwell On Design (a demo which earned an enthusiastic, “SO FUN”). Designed to counteract the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, the company’s line of balance boards – previously available in two bamboo and aluminum versions – is marketed primarily at standing desk users. Their latest and most affordable model, The Plane, joins the Fluidstance catalog as their smallest and most affordable option.
Workspaces are changing quickly as yesterday’s cube farms become today’s open concepts. It’s important to evolve and keep current, but to also ensure that technology and aesthetics still provide function and reflect basic ergonomic principles.
In fact, ergonomics can optimize both human performance and the use of technology for improved efficiencies and reduced costs. That is, costs associated with injuries, lost time, insurance claims and generally wasteful work layouts and methods.
When designing a workplace, it’s important to consider all aspects of ergonomics, productivity and accessibility.
“When seated, you should be able to feel your sit bones on the seat. That’s another way of saying that flesh is not supposed to be load-bearing; bones are. This means that both sitter and designer should avoid deep padding for sitting. An over padded chair forces the sit bones to rock in the padding rather than make contact with a stable surface, thereby forcing the flesh in the butt and thighs to bear weight.
Your parents were right: Staring at a screen all day will ruin your eyes. The only thing they got wrong was the kind of screen. Light emitted by LED-illuminated screens, the kinds you find on smartphones, tablets, and computers, kill the cells in your retinas as you use them. New research found that, in rats, three-months' worth of screen use led to a 23% increase in retina cell death.
The study arrayed regular consumer tablets around rat cages. The tablets where switched on for 16 continuous hours per day for three months, and then the retinal damage in the rats was compared to that of a control group that didn't have to stare at the screens all day long. Finally, a third group was subjected to the same conditions, only with a filter over the screens to cut out certain wavelengths of light.
If you stand up right now, you'll be extending your life. Scientists have discovered that sitting down not only causes all kinds of health problems, but it might actually also make you age quicker.
"Our study found cells age faster with a sedentary lifestyle. Chronological age doesn’t always match biological age," writes lead author Aladdin Shadyab of the UC San Diego School of Medicine in a release.
Our DNA has protective caps at its ends called telomeres. These caps deteriorate, like so much else, with age, and their decline can be accelerated by activities like smoking, or being overweight. But now Shadyab and his team have linked telomere decline with a lack of physical activity. In short, if you sit all day, then your cells will age much faster than if you are active. Your body, at the cellular level, may be older than you think.
I’ve done it all. I have a standing desk. I have a sitting ball. I have a treadmill. And now I just might go back to where it all started with the Edge Desk.
This Kickstarter darling raised $500,000 to produce what amounts to a portable kneeling desk. It has a huge work surface – 20×30 inches – and costs $350 for the entry level model. It folds up flat for storage and takes up about as much space as a standard office chair.
The question is, then, what does a kneeling desk do for you and your back. Essentially kneeling is approximately the same as standing to work and it’s less strain on your legs and knees. I can comfortably sprawl on the Edge for a few hours but I have to sit down every half hour or so at my standing desk. This has gotten better over time but I do enjoy the upright posture this thing affords.
Toss a sliver of information into the great stream of accepted public narrative and see what happens to it. There it goes, briefly visible on the surface then consumed; part of the stream but no longer to be seen. A perfect example of this is provided by a recent piece of research carried out by the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health into the effects of standing at work on a small sample of call centre workers. While the results of the study are impressive, notably a 46 percent increase in productivity, by the time the story was reported on Inc.com, the 167 call centre workers had suddenly morphed into ‘everybody’. It should go without saying that the headline ‘Your Productivity Will Increase by 46 percent if You Stand at Your Desk’ does not reflect the conclusions of the original research. The statements by the researchers suggesting that the study is significant with regard to call centre staff but merely indicative of a wider issue go ignored.
If you’re plagued by chronic back pain, driving can be a painful experience, especially on road trips and long commutes. Nearly two-thirds of Americans experience low back pain, according to a 2012 survey by the American Physical Therapy Association. That statistic doesn’t include physical complaints associated with driving.
Fortunately for drivers, there’s a roadmap for relief. You can start with a better driving position based on tips from ergonomic experts. Also helpful are a number of cushions and seating pads that in some cases can be custom-fitted to the curves of your back. Another, more expensive, option is to have a motorsports shop install a high-tech replacement seat for ergonomic comfort.
Deborah Read, president and founder of Seattle’s ErgoFit Consulting, is an ergonomics consultant, occupational therapist and fitness trainer. She and her team work to eliminate workplace injuries and increase productivity in a variety of working environments — business offices, construction sites, manufacturing facilities, transportation companies, etc.
Using standing desks is—in theory and in practice—a great way to incorporate a tad bit more activity into ones workaday life. Aesthetically speaking, however, the tall tables, typically clunky and industrial-looking—are less than pleasing to behold. Enter the Jaswig StandUp Nomad, a wooden standing desk that is adjustable, made locally with eco-friendly materials, and, most importantly, a pretty piece of furniture.
Inspired by simple, Scandinavian design, the StandUp is 100% manufactured in the United States and is crafted from sustainably-grown, Forest Stewardship Council-certified birch plywood. It can be assembled tool-free in under 15 minutes.
I'd been thinking about getting a standing desk for a long time, but I couldn't quite take the plunge.
It wasn't for lack of interest. I spend a lot of time at my desk, so I was anxious to figure out a new setup that didn't leave me seated for eight hours a day. What finally pushed me to commit was when one of my time-coaching clients told me her standing desk was helping her to be more productive.
But soon after I finally started to research them in earnest, I found myself a little overwhelmed with all the options on the market. Here's how I managed to comb through everything before finally settling on a standing desk I love.
The European Display Screen Equipment Regulations were first introduced in 1992 as a way of improving the posture and wellbeing of people working with computers in the office. Although welcome at the time as a way of promoting good ergonomics practices in a rapidly digitising world, that’s now a long time ago and the workplace has changed a great deal in the meantime. Here’s a list of thing that have happened in the intervening years: 1. The Internet. Actually, we can stop there. Any piece of workplace legislation that predates the Internet almost certainly won’t be fit for purpose, especially one that is based on how we should work with computers, let alone other devices. Yet there it all is on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website. It’s all so hopelessly out of date, it’s like starting a farm using a paleolithic cave painting as your guide to animal husbandry. The guidance is even called Working with VDUs which is certainly quaint, if nothing else.
