More & more often we are being asked to go into clients’ offices to “assess” an individuals’ workstation. Usually the individual has completed their obligatory DSE assessment form, although far too regularly the main problem is that they either haven’t adjusted their chair, or simply don’t know how to. It’s really odd but when you get into your car after someone else has used it, the first thing you do is adjust the seat, so why does this not apply to an office chair?

Either people are not aware that adjustments are possible on the chair they use or they simply don’t know how they should adjust it to suit themselves & their desk. We can help!

We are now providing a service where we will come into an office to show employees firstly the adjustments available on the chair and secondly how to correctly set a chair up themselves at their workstation. Visit this link for prices www.lundia.co.uk
You may be thinking that this could all be done internally, but if you haven’t done it yet, then why not & then isn’t it easier to pay someone who does know how to do it?

Email sales@lundia.co.uk or call 01904 471095 for more details.

£20 per employee within 20 miles of York or £200 for as many as we can do in half a day! – Hardly expensive is it? Imagine how much more productive a comfortable person is
Written reports can also be provided at a cost of £65 + VAT per employee describing any particular issues that may arise along with suggestions of what could be done to make things even better.

Stewart building Lundia Shelving

Our Managing Director, Stewart, found the shelves so good he’s still selling them.

DISCLAIMER: We’re not advocating child labour!

Be prepared to play around with your chair. If you need help, ask somebody else in the office.

Next, move your chair away from your desk. Maybe this sounds silly, but you are setting the chair up for yourself, not your desk at the moment. If the chair rocks, try to find the lever or button that will lock it in position as it will be far easier to make the other adjustments with the chair in a static position. Try to lock the seat in a horizontal position. We can unlock it later on.

1.  Chair height – Nearly all chairs will have a lever which alters the height. Lift the lever. If you are sitting on the chair with the lever lifted, it will drop. Stand up whilst lifting the lever & it will rise. Adjust the height so that with the seat horizontal, your feet are (just) flat on the floor. Your feet are very important when sitting as you will use them to move in all directions. Try doing anything without using your feet.
2.  Most chairs will also have a lever, button or knob that allows you to alter the height of the backrest. Some backrests will use a ratchet system so that you would just lift the backrest & click it to the required height. If so take it right to the top, drop it down & then lift it up click by click. One way or another raise or lower the backrest so that it feels at a comfortable height for you. Forget the thought that a chair with a higher backrest is a better chair. Different heights of backrests suit different individuals in different situations. If the backrest is shaped, or has an adjustable lumbar support then try to make sure that this is located correctly for you.  The curve in the backrest should match up with your lumbar curve.  A good way to check this is to put your hand into the small of your back with the palm facing outwards, then lean back against the chair back.  If the chair’s lumbar curve is above your palm, you need to lower the backrest.  If it’s below it, then try to raise the chair back.
3. Some of the better chairs will have the option of altering the seat length to suit your leg length – sounds obvious doesn’t it? This could be done by repositioning screws underneath the seat, by moving the backrest backwards or forwards or ideally by lifting a lever if you are lucky enough to have a sliding seat. Ideally the seat length should be adjusted so that when you sit with your back against the backrest you will have a gap of around 2-3 fingers width between the front edge of the seat & the back of your knee. This is so that you have sufficient of your upper leg supported without the front of the seat creating pressure on the back of your calf.
4. You may have the option of altering the angle of the backrest. If so then usually an angle of slightly more than 90 degrees is beneficial so that there is a slight open-ness between your upper body & thighs. Much better for the digestion and other bodily functions. You may decide to alter this angle for different tasks.  If you can’t adjust the backrest angle independently of the seat, can you tilt the seat so that the backrest is at a comfortable angle?  If not, your chair doesn’t comply with the Health and Safety regulations for people using computer equipment at work, and you may have grounds to have a quick whinge to your Health and Safety rep about it.
5. Armrests? – Hmm a tricky one here. If the armrests are of the fixed ring variety and are level with the front of the seat then seriously think about putting it back in the skip it came out of, or think about removing the armrests altogether. Fixed armrests can be very restrictive & can prevent you from getting close enough to your work particularly in a corner desk situation .If you have to sit on the front edge of the seat and can’t touch the backrest because the arms hit the front of the desk, then that’s not ideal. Hopefully your armrests will be certainly height adjustable & possibly also width & depth adjustable. Remember that they are called arm Rests as they are designed to rest your arm. They can be helpful to allow you to get in & out of your seated position, but generally that is not what they are designed for. If you have adjustment, then raise or lower them so that your arm rests comfortably without raising or dropping your shoulders. Make sure that they are the correct distance apart so that you don’t have your arms squashed against your body & neither do you have to pretend you have wings to reach them. If they move backwards & forwards slide them back for the moment so that you will be able to get in to your desk. You may find that if you are more heavily built that you want to have them set a little further forward.
6. How does that feel? If it’s no better so far, then I’m sorry to have wasted your time. However, if it feels ok, then let’s carry on. We are now going to give you back the movement if you want it. After all your body is designed to move, not to be static & theoretically, by moving, you should feel less tired at the end of the day as movement will push the blood through your system & feed your muscles. If you had to lock your chair at the beginning, then be careful as we will now unlock it, but because adjustments have been made the chair may rock forwards or backwards with you, so unlock it gently & be prepared to move. Ask somebody to help if you are unsure at this point. If the chair rocks right back or throws you forward then hopefully there is a wheel underneath the seat somewhere which adjusts the tension for different body weights, so tighten or loosen this wheel. Depending on the chair, this could be anywhere from 3 to 40 complete revolutions of the wheel. We are trying to achieve a balanced position so that the chair moves with you as you move rather than the chair forcing you in to a position. If you can adjust the tension wheel so that with your feet raised slightly off the floor, the chair will stay in a central position & then by moving your arm forwards the chair will easily move forward & by moving your arm backwards the chair rocks easily backwards then we are nearly there. Think of it in a desk position that by reaching forward for your phone the chair rocks forwards with you & then when you lean back to speak on the phone the chair rocks back with you without any great effort.  That’s what we are aiming for. If you then decide that you don’t like the rock then that’s fair enough, but at least you know it’s there if you want to alter it.

If at the end of all this when you pull your chair up to your desk & you find that you want to raise or lower your chair to suit your desk height, have a think to see if you can adjust your desk height to suit you & the chair that you have just set up for yourself. In an ideal world, you would start with yourself & adjust the equipment around you to suit you not adjust yourself to suit the equipment?? If you  need to raise the chair to suit your desk, then you’ll probably need a footrest, so your feet are not dangling in space.  If you need to lower the chair, ask if you can be provided with some inexpensive desk raisers.  And yes, we do supply these if you need them.

If you find all this too complicated, remember that we may be able to come & set your chair up for you & also if at the fixed ring armrest stage you did actually put it back in the skip, we would be more than happy to sell you a chair that has all these adjustments.

I believe that by spending a bit more now on your office equipment you will achieve long term savings. Prove me wrong. I am so confident that we are prepared to lend you a chair for a month to see if you can tell the difference. If it makes no difference to you, please just ring us & we will come & collect the chair without any fuss. This is not a sales gimmick; just put your own figures in the attached spreadsheet. I would suggest that you enter the average annual salary of your employees in the relevant box & then you decide how many more minutes a day they may sit working in their chair rather than taking a trip to the coffee machine or just in trying to get comfortable in their chair. Personally I think that 5 extra minutes a day is very realistic. Bear in mind that with 5 weeks annual leave including bank holidays there are 234 working days in a year. So as an example if the employees salary is £20,000 & they work for 5 minutes more per day you would get your money back in increased productivity in one working year if you had spent £200 more on better equipment. The numbers in green are the number of days required to pay back the cost of the chair in extra minutes worked. If the new chair that you buy has a 10 year warranty like many of the ones we offer, then what can you lose?

Spreadsheet: 5 more minutes a day

If you answered yes to any of these questions, Lundia can help.

Postural problems can be a major concern at home, but tend to get overlooked.  After all, if your chair matches your décor, what can be wrong?

The answer is – plenty!  Without knowing what you are looking for, it can be very difficult to tell the difference between a bad chair and a good one, yet your back will let you know quite quickly.  We can advise you what to look for in a good chair that will support your back while you work or relax using the PC.

You have spent a lot of money on a custom-made desk to match your style at home, but is it practical?

Without knowing what is the correct height of desk for you and your family, and the correct set-up of the equipment on the desk, you could end up with a workspace that is uncomfortable.  You might not realise what is causing the problem and often it can just be a case of explaining how to reposition some of the equipment so it works better for you.

Contact us for an assessment of your home PC workstation or bring a photo along to our showroom and we can check that everything is set up correctly, suggesting solutions where needed.

We supply a wide range of ergonomic desks, chairs and accessories.  Items can pay for themselves very quickly by making you more comfortable and more productive in a home environment.  Give your kids a more comfortable place to do their homework and save them backache in the future.