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Professor Alan Hedge says that a person should be able to sit in office chairs without any discomfort for one to two hours. He made great research on the effects of human bodies for sitting long periods of time and he concluded that the users should take frequent rests to get relieve from stress on spine and lower back. This rest will also relieve pressure on thighs of the users which can restrict blood flow. There is no need to make research for any person to realize that the person will sit in more comfortable chair for longer time before getting up to relieve discomfort. People might forget this advice of Professor Hedge due to intensive work and they don’t take breaks and tend to sit on chairs for longer periods of time to do more work.
Financial benefits of Ergonomic Chairs
According to Lucy Hart who is an ergonomist, there are lots of financial benefits of ergonomic seating. The people will remain healthy on specifically designed seats for sitter and sitter can have easy movement. The calculations of Lucy Hart are focusing on time saving when people feel more comfortable in their chairs away from their less work. These calculations are not based on productivity, workers compensation and absenteeism but still they represent lots of benefits for the workers if they spend five minutes more daily on their desk.
Costs of Ergonomic Chairs
The calculation of Lucy Hart is based on cost of ergonomic chairs which is about $600 for the worker who can have $25 per hour and one hours training per worker for using the chair.
- The total cost is $625 including initial cost of $600 of chair and $25 for one hour training of employee’s time.
- 5 minutes in every day or 0.0833 hours will be the lost time.
- The saved salary per day in $2.08 by multiplying $25 by 0.0833.
- This chair can last for about seven years which is the standard life time of the chair.
- The total life of chair is 1540 days with 220 working days per year.
Return on Investment of Ergonomic Chairs
- The chair can pay itself in 301 days and it is the recover time of initial cost of $625 which can be obtained by dividing this cost with daily saving of $2.08.
- There are 1239 days left from the total life time days of 1540 days of the chair and these 1239 days are the payback time with which chair can add to the bottom line.
- The cost saving per employees is $2,577 which can be obtained by multiplying 1239 days by $2.08.
This calculation is based on saving five minutes daily from working time. There can be potential advantages if you add to this and you can get more productivity, less absenteeism and less workers compensation. There can be some interruptions to the flow of the work if the worker feel discomfort and is distracted.
Effective use of time with Ergonomic Chairs
The ergonomic chairs can help to increase the productivity. You can not measure white collar productivity especially in small business or in home office or where quality is values more than quantity and work is creative. The cost of ergonomic chairs can be more as compared to other chairs but this investment can result in effective use of time. |
