More and more people are working from home, or not from the traditional office space, that they used to. The husband and I currently work from home several days a week each, and we also work at desks, when we are at work in our offices. So, our working arrangements are a little fluid and sometimes flexible. It started as a once off, every now and then arrangement but now both of us do work from home regularly and we need proper desk space.
Having the right desk and chair set up in your working space is really important, not just because it makes you feel like you are in a proper working environment but also it’s vital, that physically, your work station set up is comfortable, designed to help you sit correctly and with good posture, support your back and neck, whilst you are working. Little things like having the desk you are working at being the correct height for you, and your chair in the right position, can make your working hours easier and safer, whether you work from home or in a more conventional office space. If you are not comfortable then you are not productive.
What may seem like a simple piece of furniture, the office chair, is in fact more complex than you think. You spend rather a lot of hours in your day sitting in it, using your computer, reading, answering calls, and if your chair isn’t the right fit for you then you can end up with all sorts of problems, like back ache, and sore joints. Your desk space, the area you work, is the center of your work life, so you need to get it right. Having a table that works well like a Boardroom table from Furniture at Work can make a huge difference to your working day, and how you function and combining a good office desk or table with a chair that fits your needs could make a huge difference to how you work.
“It’s common knowledge that a poor quality chair can cause aches and pains, but could it also knock your confidence? Research suggests that it might. To understand how, it’s important to look at the link between seating and posture, and the connection between posture and mood. The vast majority of people we polled (nearly 96.7%) said they think that the quality of an office chair affects posture. Meanwhile, research conducted by a team at Ohio State University found that sitting up straight rather than slouching can make people feel more assured about themselves and their abilities. They observed a group of 71 students and found that those who sat in an upright position had greater confidence in their own thoughts than those who slouched. A separate study by researchers at Columbia and Harvard universities suggested that adopting ‘power poses’, which were expansive and opened the limbs, could raise testosterone levels and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. In contrast, poses identified as ‘low power’, such as slouching forward in a chair, were found to have the opposite effect on people’s hormones. So, if you want to give yourself an instant confidence boost at work, why not try sitting up a little straighter in your seat? Ensuring you choose a chair that provides good support for the lower and middle parts of your back could make this easier.” (You can find more tips and information here)
It’s clear that The Husband and I need to reevaluate our work-space and make some changes, and invest in a better desk and chair set up. This is the desk we both work at and share, yes it’s messy, and we need a much better chair…
This is the desk I share at work, I have no idea where there is Lego on the desk, I don’t play with it, I strongly suspect it belongs to someone I share my desk with, but you can see that I need to make better chair arrangements and a new desk that fits me would be idea.
What does your working desk set up look like? If you are in an office are your desk and chair working for you? If you work from home, have you thought about making sure the desk or table and chair you work from are comfortable, practical but also good for you physically? It’s not something we had really considered before, but we are taking it more seriously now. What works for you or do you need to make some changes, like us, too?
*this is a collaborative post*