Its been several months since I made a post based on my readings of the Why of Work by Wendy and Dave Ulrich. I had several big events going on within my work that have needed my complete focus. As I am now returning to a more standard rhythm I picked up the book and flipped to the next dog eared and highlighted page to see what Dave and Wendy had written that almost a year ago caught my attention.
This section is on the attitude and value of physical space. As a change maker in your institution you can either let the physical space haphazardly evolve or make some strategic decisions that can generate long-term benefit for your institution.
The first argument that caught my attention was this statement "Investing in seating and work surfaces that fit the individual worker may be more costly than one size fits all office furniture but can pay for itself in workers' compensation alone (back pain leads to almost a quarter of workers' comp claims and a third of the dollars spent).
This is mind blowlingly clear that every leader when evaluating their budgets should be taking office furniture into consideration. But why than is this such a systemic challenge in the work place 1/4 of workers comp claims could be mitigated with better office furniture?!?!
Having just come out of our annual budget allocation and planning meeting I can attest first hand that these types of "luxury " expenses were not event on the radar. Often in organizations budgets things such as facilitates, and workers comp are held by individuals who are not directly linked to the workforce and their responsibility and scope would not enable them to make personalized office furniture decisions.
Mid level management who might be best positioned to make these types of decisions are often given limited budgeting authority and their discretionary funds are so limited that they would be faced with the choice of a few new chairs or funding holiday socials and recognition events. In the non for profit world this becomes even a larger challenge as its extremely hard to fundraiser so that your staff can have the most advanced office furniture. While in the long run it will make your organization more successful at mission delivery the donor is typically not interested in giving to office chairs.
I try to take this information and turn it into action. First thing I did was find what I think is my dream desk chair: The Herman Miller Embody - http://myergonomicchair.com/ergonomic-chairs/herman-miller-embody-chair-review/
This section is on the attitude and value of physical space. As a change maker in your institution you can either let the physical space haphazardly evolve or make some strategic decisions that can generate long-term benefit for your institution.
The first argument that caught my attention was this statement "Investing in seating and work surfaces that fit the individual worker may be more costly than one size fits all office furniture but can pay for itself in workers' compensation alone (back pain leads to almost a quarter of workers' comp claims and a third of the dollars spent).
This is mind blowlingly clear that every leader when evaluating their budgets should be taking office furniture into consideration. But why than is this such a systemic challenge in the work place 1/4 of workers comp claims could be mitigated with better office furniture?!?!
Having just come out of our annual budget allocation and planning meeting I can attest first hand that these types of "luxury " expenses were not event on the radar. Often in organizations budgets things such as facilitates, and workers comp are held by individuals who are not directly linked to the workforce and their responsibility and scope would not enable them to make personalized office furniture decisions.
Mid level management who might be best positioned to make these types of decisions are often given limited budgeting authority and their discretionary funds are so limited that they would be faced with the choice of a few new chairs or funding holiday socials and recognition events. In the non for profit world this becomes even a larger challenge as its extremely hard to fundraiser so that your staff can have the most advanced office furniture. While in the long run it will make your organization more successful at mission delivery the donor is typically not interested in giving to office chairs.
I try to take this information and turn it into action. First thing I did was find what I think is my dream desk chair: The Herman Miller Embody - http://myergonomicchair.com/ergonomic-chairs/herman-miller-embody-chair-review/
And while this is not going to come into my life this year, I hope that with my next promotion I can have this chair.
The second thing to do is a bit more complicated and that's determining how I can influence better office furniture within my organization. I think the first step might be a conversation with my direct manager during our next monthly review to see her thoughts on this information; and I will need to do a bit more research in the mean time.
Update:
Links to supporting documentation on better office furniture -
http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/hwce/office-ergonomics/supporting-literature-for-office-ergonomics/
http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/pbs/Innovative_Workplaces-508_R2OD26_0Z5RDZ-i34K-pR.pdf
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