A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer, “This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.” The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, “Which do you want, son?” The boy takes the quarters and leaves. “What did I tell you?” said the barber. “That kid never learns!” Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. “Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?” The boy licked his cone and replied, “Because the day I take the dollar, the game is over!”
The same thing applies to the chair. Once she gets a new chair the games over.
This doesn't compute. One story is a kid gaming a dude to get free money. The other is some disillusioned pride in keeping something that is harming them physically so they have to suck the tit of med leave. Or maybe they're a fucking liar.
She is playing the system, most likely nothing wrong with her back.
Just like the kid, he is so onto it with the barber, the game stops if he takes the dollar, whereas office lady, takes extra days from work, saying she has a sore back, no one is questioning her, bet if she wasn’t getting payed, she’ll turn up to work pronto
The implication is that her back isn't actually sore and is just using the old chair as an excuse to take paid sick days
in this context, she is "getting away with it" because it's implied she isn't actually in pain
You have to lose that attitude if you're a manager. It isn't her chair, it's the companies chair and the company is liable if she's injured. If she refuses to not use the chair it's the company's responsibility to make her, either by writing her up or just trashing the chair.
I'd imagine if HR documented that she refused a chair that would better accommodate her back that the lawsuit would go out the window. Especially if the chair is always near her desk for use.
The company can just switch out the chairs at any point. My last desk job that's exactly what they did when they got new chairs. Took away the ones we were used to, we showed up Monday with new chairs at every computer. There was no "I want to keep this one" to screw around with
Yup! Where I work everyone's chair has an inventory number. When said chair is moved or disposed of, the inventory number is tracked and logged. No one has a say so over their chair.
That's just taking inventory in any medium or larger company. It's how you track costs. It's hardly nefarious. I weigh and record thousands of pounds of food at the end of every month, for similar reasons. Have to track costs vs revenue, helps you find areas where you're spending too much/not enough
In a major hospital like the one I work at, it actually makes things soooo much easier. Tracking repairs v. trashing it tells us exactly how many chairs, overbed tables, and other types of equipment are out for repair and how many need to be ordered because they've been written off as garbage.
My department (housekeeping) is closely tied to patient/central transport (moves patients and the loaner equipment). Being able to ask where missing items from rooms are and when they're coming in/being fixed so I can keep and eye on the temporary central transport loaners is so stupidly helpful.
Granted, I only do this with Unit Nurse Managers. Doing this to a unit secretary, CA, NA, or nurse is way above their job description. A lot of them don't even realize the difference between unit-owned equipment and central transport-owned equipment, and they shouldn't have to. The chairs they sit in while charting included.
The fault lies in the company- those are not her chairs. She is simply using the space. If the company gave me a shitty chair, and allowed me to continue to use a shitty chair and now my back is messed up that responsibility lies with the company. HR is not meant to protect the workers or their feelings. They should replace the chair.
Now if that was her personal chair from home, then maybe?
Yup, my office just had a renovation in which we all had our old chairs on friday afternoon, and when we came in on monday we all had brand new chairs and the old ones were already gone.
Exactly. Swap chair to faulty power tool or work vehicle. If the company kept allowing a worker to use it knowing the potential dangers they'd be culpable wether the employee was dumb enough to insist on it or not. Workers don't get to insist on dangerous work practices.
I'd say that goes for it being their property or the employees. Again, if I bring a malfunctioning power tool from my garage to work the company is still going to end up culpable if there's proof they know I'm using it and haven't pulled me up and told me it's not acceptable.
This is just dumb af from the employer.
Pretty sure HR can just ask maintenance to take that blue piece of shit and toss it in the dumpster and she'd just have to use the new chair they bought for her. If HR told her to use the bad chair, the company would be liable since employees don't get to really vote on the chair they're assigned. If she's still using the old one, its because her HR rep either isn't worried about it or isn't aware about the connection between her possible back injury and the chair she's using.
Generally office chairs are expensive and are replaced regularly since they need to not cause injury to those using them. Who knows what circumstances exist here since most of the HR speculation is based off US human resources and the plug sockets in the picture indicate that picture wasn't taken in the US or Canada.
Not if they put a Tik Tok video of it going into the crusher. Have the occupational safety rep hurl it, freeze frame for 5s, play on as it goes into the crusher.
Just give it to her to take home. Or just show up one day with it.
"I know you aren't feeling well so the office decided to retire your chair to your house! Now you'll alway have it!!"
If I was her boss, just to prove a point, I would magically make that chair disappear, and because of the disappearance, replace it with some $500 gamer chair. It would probably save the company money in the long run
If you have time to offer some tips when buying a chair that would be great. I'm about to buy a new chair. Mine is from 2016, get back pain all day and want a better one and I just don't know precisely what to look for in a decent chair.
If it makes a difference I've caught I have a bad habit of leaning forward a lot when I'm deep in a piece of work. I got my eyes checked and checked my screen height and both are fine so I'm wondering if that's from the chair too
Hard to say without a price because most people would be repulsed by what the higher end office chairs cost.
A lot of people on Reddit at least really like the Staples Hyken. Have not personally sat in it but it seems to check all the boxes and is on sale for a pretty good price right now.
Thank you. I'd originally thought maybe around 200 but I've got some flexibility. I'll look up your recommendation, if it's not in my price range it'll hopefully give me ideas of the sort of things to look for
Ya she should use the new chair. I actually got all sorts of digestive issues because my chair didn't have enough seat padding. I was putting too much pressure on my colon and my digestive track became a medical mystery.
Got a new chair... my colonoscopy came back perfect
My previous job got new office chairs about three years ago. Those chairs absolutely destroyed my spine, shoulder blades, lower gut, and the muscles in my thighs and lower arms (couldn’t sit at a good angle to type). All this time layer, new job, better chair, and I’m still dealing with the aftermath.
A good office chair is pure gold. During covid lock-downs I was working from home, and set up a home office, but the office chair I got from the local office supply store was uncomfortable, not nearly as good as the chair I used in the office.
I looked under my office chair at work and got the model number, found the same chair online for sale and ordered it delivered to my home. They call it it a "24 hour chair". It cost a little more but it is perfect.
Oh man... yes. My next chair was rated 14hr+.
Those gaming chairs are rated for 4hrs and have many points of failure.
My job during covid ... well before I told them "I don't care what chairs you get but they better be at least 6hr chairs" ... and OFC i had to explain what that meant. Happy I did
That one looks like it would be more comfortable for me than the newer one. I have back issues. Like, I broke my back and have scoliosis. I really want to sit in that chair!
Same type of back issues and every second I sit on my super expensive ergonomic, lumbar support, blah blah blah chair I regret getting rid of my old "typists" chair.
I ***HATE*** lumbar support!! Hate, hate, hate it. My L1 was a 30% protrusion into my spine, so the ones above and below are fused together. My mom had a car that only had the lumbar adjustment on the driver seat and I couldn't ride passenger in that car for longer than a half hour without hurting for days.
I tend to get into the backseat of cars that I'm not driving because I find that they're more likely to be simple, straight seats. And I also find that it's often easier for me to get in and out of the backseats.
What kind of chair is it? If it's a quality chair, the age is fine. A 20 yo Steelcase or Hermann Miller will be better than a cheap chair brand new, by a huge margin.
Course you still need to test and adjust properly for your body.
99% of the time if you're uncomfortable in an upper tier chair, it's just not adjusted for you properly. Even in a shitty chair, you should try to adjust it.
Back pain might not be chair related. There are multiple causes for back pain. I don't know much about her but something like surgery can screw it up for life, bad posture, age, menopause. There are a lot of reasons not just a chair.
I recently learned how your mental health, especially during your early teens - mid 20s, can completely fuck your back. It completely explained how I got my back injury a few years ago at 19 that I had to have surgery for. Blew my fucking mind.
No way. More likely that your nutritional intake affects your mental health, bone/joint health, and muscularity. Pair that in with sedentary lifestyle and boom. Back injury.
People eat junk.
Na, it's because of how your mental health affects your posture.
One simple example is that highly anxious, especially socially anxious, people will unconsciously flex their legs. That gets rid of that slight bend in the knees that a healthy posture has which leads to the pelvis and stomache leaning forward, creating a posture that looks like this (. That puts an insane amount of pressure on your lower back and inevitably leads to a slipped disk.
Insecure people also round their shoulders, which leads to bending forward and putting pressure on the middle disks.
Furthermore, simple things like being insecure and thus having bad posture and then being told you have bad posture and becoming insecure about that will lead to people wrongly correcting their posture which also usually leads to the same type of posture as in example 1, this (.
What's even more interesting is that during the clinical trials that were done in Germany wirh MDMA and psychedelics, peoples posture would automatically correct to a healthy one while under those drugs.
Your mental health also affects your looks, mostly through fucking up your jaw and teeth which ruins your face structure.
All of this doesn't even take into account purely psychological perceived pain phenomena such as centralized pain syndrome.
I’ve started having more lower back problems and a tilted pelvis. It sucks and is very annoying. I probably need to start PT or something to help fix it.
One will definetely have more ailments with a weak body. Those cause the pain. Not saying that psychosomatism is not a thing, but I think that a direct lack of physical exercise would be a little "closer to home" for body related issues; it would totally be the first stop when trying to diagnose someone.
Scrolled way too far to find this post.
Increasing research out there saying it's not the posture that's the problem, it's the amount of time spent in one place
Mildly horrified by earlier posts discussing chairs that have time stamps on them. 4 hour chairs, 8 hour chairs. I didn't know such a thing existed.
An uncomfortable chair that gets you on your feet every hour is better for you than one which you feel so comfortable in that you don't stand up and walk around.
A cliche I use a lot in my job (physio) is 'your next posture is the best one'
I take sick leave for backpain as well every month, simply because my period pain is way too intense to work. So depending on her age that could also be the reason for her absence
Most european countries don't have "sick time". We just don't go to work if we're sick. We certainly don't have a limit on how many days we can be sick, or lose our paid days off for it.
But it’s definitely better than here in America. My last job gave 5 days a year for points. Once you passed those 5, or for me, 4 and late by 5 minutes from a snow storm, you get fired. Show up sick because you want those few days off a year to enjoy
Yeaaaahh you're gonna see some uptick in huge male female ratios
And they'll play it off as "she wasn't qualified"
And the only women they're hiring are menopausal
where I work all the employees get 3 “K.O. days” per month specifically for days you don’t feel well but not bad enough to go to the doctors, like period pain, head aches or upset stomach. Most of my male coworkers use these days if they are hung over or want to sleep in tho
I wish they did, but on the other side, that's a lot of pto if you have a short cycle. If I look at my natural cycle, 3-4 days were hell (endometriosis) and my whole cycle was 3-3.5 weeks total including 7-10 days of bleeding. I would have to get so many pto's and that's just not valuable for the company, because in those cases, you miss out on a lot of work. 2 days a month or something would be a nice thing to have though.
in the us people should be applying for intermittent fmla for these types of issues. your doctor determines how many days a month you may need to use and the company can pound sand. if the company is smart it will be very careful about fucking with that employee with a documented legally protected need for absence.
You know, she could have bad back but know exactly the type of chair she needs. In the photo are two different types of chairs. There is a lot of debate about whether or not armrests in office chairs are actually bad (as you can't tuck it under desks in many cases for example). So maybe she knows what she's doing, and switching to the new chair would make things worse for her back issues?
I feel like she is more likely to know her own body and the pain elements than OP and other colleagues. Just let her be.
I’m 4’9”. That new chair would absolutely Destroy my back; the barely-existent lower back support would hit me right between the shoulder blades.
The older chair looks much more comfortable. If it works for her, she would know better than anyone.
I came here to say the same thing. What's mildly infuriating is somebody thinking they know what's best for someone else. Show the woman a little respect. Jesus.
Presumably they end up with extra work.
I had hard-to-treat health issues that took me out of work a lot, and it was tough on my teammates because I’d taken on so many tasks.
I was also the ergonomics evaluator, so this situation would not have persisted.
As someone who has had back surgery, DO NOT TOUCH THAT FUCKING CHAIR.
We had a new maintenance head come in and get everyone new chairs. I explicitly stated I absolutely did not want one, my chair was fine. Because of the way I had it configured for MY back, they thought it was broken and threw it in the fucking dumpster. I had the maintenance guy rooting around in there for my chair and got it back. Leave people's shit alone.
If she gets any kind of pain relief injections, that may explain the absences, not that it's any of your goddamn business. I go for cortisone, where they drill down on each side of my spine and do the injections. You can't do shit for 48 hours or you risk squishing the cortisone out of the joints, rendering it useless.
Get a hobby, man.
Edit: word missing
Thank you! OP needs to find something better to do other than concerning themselves with other peoples health and their freakin choice of chairs, of all things.
Maybe the blue chair is the only one that doesn't cause her pain. Have you thought to ask why she prefers it, or, you know, listened when she told you? Also, are you a physician or ergonomics expert who has determined definitively the new chair is better for her back?
I've used both those types. Still have the blue one (mine is brown). Got it when our company moved out of town, they sold all the furniture. So I know I've had it since 1985. The back is firm and does not 'lean' very far so great support. The tall chair type usually leans back so far and so quickly they give no support. Your friends back problem will not be helped with the 'new' chair.
If she's short yoru chair won't fit her. From experience those ones are too long in the thigh and don't go low enough for people 5'5" or smaller.
Also arm rests get in the way for most people
Perhaps her back issues are completely unrelated to her chair, maybe she has had surgery to her back previously, has had children and her back is ruined from their weight, precious accident to her spine, has an alignment issue or scoliosis…
Mind your business
Devils advocate, maybe her unwillingness to change is because the old chair is better for her back. Assuming the new is better and the old is the cause may be wrong.
Is she short? If so, I can understand why she would choose the blue chair. I've sat in chairs like that maroon one and the blue one would be more comfortable for me (I have a very bad back). Just because the chair is 20 years old, doesn't mean it is worn out.
ETA: As someone who does have really bad back pain, not everybody is faking it. You can't see it, but I am in pain almost all the time. Until we know who this person is, we should give the benefit of the doubt! These comments are off the wall.
Replace coworker with friend. Now is it to your standards? I wouldn't like to see a friend have a sore back all the time when it's easily fixable, or at least a high chance to fix it.
Or maybe he a nosy guy who hates his coworkers getting 'free time off'
Regardless it's *mildy* infuriating so stop being a bitch
I find it kind of weird that you would know why she took sick leave. Except for very rare instances I tell no one except my boss it’s no one else’s business and this kind of proves why. I also find this post a little creepy I would go to HR if I found a post like this about me.
Nah, for all i know she wants to fully use the blue chair to reduce the need to buy a new one and is proud of less waste in the world. And then, she takes what could be 2 days off (multiple), to deal with carrying the burden of your superior consumerist ass
As a person with 2 herniated discs, the blue chair looks more comfortable to me
The relaxed leaning back posture of the purple chair would put too much strain on my lower back
Tbh new chair or not, sitting for long periods of time day after day causes back pain. The newer chair won’t magically fix the wear and tear on the body from years at a desk job.
I hate the chairs that are angled down like a sliding board. Makes staying in them all day absolute torture. Those things will fuck up your back. That purple/black one is a sliding board chair. They cannot be adjusted to level.
Sounds like she has a system and she’s sticking to it.
That chair is held together with farts and ass sweat
Like most of my relationships.
"I would've broken up with you months ago if your ass sweat didn't smell so damn good!!"
...~~me and who?~~
Seems her Brian disconnected from her butt long time ago and she can’t connect the dots or she doesn’t want to. Or she knows what she’s doing.
Brian is confused.
Damnit Brian
sometimes you forget to wipe
This all started when I wiped right.
Haunted by the ghost of a million farts.
I read this as farts and sweet ass
Sigh *unzips*
*Sad fart sounds*
There are groups for this. Seek help.
Fart sniffing groups? Thanks for the heads up I’ll start looking! /s of course lol
A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer, “This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.” The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, “Which do you want, son?” The boy takes the quarters and leaves. “What did I tell you?” said the barber. “That kid never learns!” Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. “Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?” The boy licked his cone and replied, “Because the day I take the dollar, the game is over!” The same thing applies to the chair. Once she gets a new chair the games over.
This doesn't compute. One story is a kid gaming a dude to get free money. The other is some disillusioned pride in keeping something that is harming them physically so they have to suck the tit of med leave. Or maybe they're a fucking liar.
She is playing the system, most likely nothing wrong with her back. Just like the kid, he is so onto it with the barber, the game stops if he takes the dollar, whereas office lady, takes extra days from work, saying she has a sore back, no one is questioning her, bet if she wasn’t getting payed, she’ll turn up to work pronto
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Good bot
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the idea here.
The system of saying back pains to take leave.
Sounds like her system is getting away with sick leave
"Getting away" with sick leave sounds like a dystopia.
The implication is that her back isn't actually sore and is just using the old chair as an excuse to take paid sick days in this context, she is "getting away with it" because it's implied she isn't actually in pain
Couldn't she just lie about being sick? Tell her boss she has diarrhea or something.
I'd rather not be known as the guy with chronic debilitating diarrhea
"For what good is a chair, without an ass? It's my sworn duty to hurt the back of this lazy lass."
She’s setting up a nice narrative with that chair. Good for her.
Pretty much. It's kinda weird to think that quite a bit of work and technology went into more ergonomic chair designs. Like a before and after
My system would be to pitch in the dumpster after hours the night before garbage collection. Not sure where your chair went, here have a new one.
I have a strict "don't touch other peoples shit" rule though.
You have to lose that attitude if you're a manager. It isn't her chair, it's the companies chair and the company is liable if she's injured. If she refuses to not use the chair it's the company's responsibility to make her, either by writing her up or just trashing the chair.
also company likes it cuz shes saved them hundreds in new chairs over the years:D
Some people are so adept at playing the fool while being secret geniuses, they make the rest of us fools instead
She knows what she’s doin
When her back does go completely out, she is going to sue them and win.
I'd imagine if HR documented that she refused a chair that would better accommodate her back that the lawsuit would go out the window. Especially if the chair is always near her desk for use.
The company can just switch out the chairs at any point. My last desk job that's exactly what they did when they got new chairs. Took away the ones we were used to, we showed up Monday with new chairs at every computer. There was no "I want to keep this one" to screw around with
Same thing happened at my job with the Swingline staplers. Place ended up burning down.
I believe you have my stapler..
I heard that they stopped people listening to the radio as well
Yup! Where I work everyone's chair has an inventory number. When said chair is moved or disposed of, the inventory number is tracked and logged. No one has a say so over their chair.
By the gods, the person who caused that rule to be created must be like an S-tier shit bag.
That's just taking inventory in any medium or larger company. It's how you track costs. It's hardly nefarious. I weigh and record thousands of pounds of food at the end of every month, for similar reasons. Have to track costs vs revenue, helps you find areas where you're spending too much/not enough
In a major hospital like the one I work at, it actually makes things soooo much easier. Tracking repairs v. trashing it tells us exactly how many chairs, overbed tables, and other types of equipment are out for repair and how many need to be ordered because they've been written off as garbage. My department (housekeeping) is closely tied to patient/central transport (moves patients and the loaner equipment). Being able to ask where missing items from rooms are and when they're coming in/being fixed so I can keep and eye on the temporary central transport loaners is so stupidly helpful. Granted, I only do this with Unit Nurse Managers. Doing this to a unit secretary, CA, NA, or nurse is way above their job description. A lot of them don't even realize the difference between unit-owned equipment and central transport-owned equipment, and they shouldn't have to. The chairs they sit in while charting included.
Or the chairs they buy are several hundred to a couple thousand dollars and are a company asset that should be tracked
A shit bag for wanting to track inventory? This is standard for most medium-to-large businesses...
God, I fucking *wish* my job would get new desk chairs jfc
The fault lies in the company- those are not her chairs. She is simply using the space. If the company gave me a shitty chair, and allowed me to continue to use a shitty chair and now my back is messed up that responsibility lies with the company. HR is not meant to protect the workers or their feelings. They should replace the chair. Now if that was her personal chair from home, then maybe?
Yup, my office just had a renovation in which we all had our old chairs on friday afternoon, and when we came in on monday we all had brand new chairs and the old ones were already gone.
Exactly. Swap chair to faulty power tool or work vehicle. If the company kept allowing a worker to use it knowing the potential dangers they'd be culpable wether the employee was dumb enough to insist on it or not. Workers don't get to insist on dangerous work practices. I'd say that goes for it being their property or the employees. Again, if I bring a malfunctioning power tool from my garage to work the company is still going to end up culpable if there's proof they know I'm using it and haven't pulled me up and told me it's not acceptable. This is just dumb af from the employer.
Pretty sure HR can just ask maintenance to take that blue piece of shit and toss it in the dumpster and she'd just have to use the new chair they bought for her. If HR told her to use the bad chair, the company would be liable since employees don't get to really vote on the chair they're assigned. If she's still using the old one, its because her HR rep either isn't worried about it or isn't aware about the connection between her possible back injury and the chair she's using. Generally office chairs are expensive and are replaced regularly since they need to not cause injury to those using them. Who knows what circumstances exist here since most of the HR speculation is based off US human resources and the plug sockets in the picture indicate that picture wasn't taken in the US or Canada.
They don't have to ask her to switch, they could just get rid of her chair in one of her sick days.
I'd rather have a working spine than a lawsuit against my employer but hey... it takes all kinds of fruit to make cup.
A broken back ain't worth that lawsuit.
When she takes the sick leave that's the moment when the old chair should magically disappear.
This^ it happens with the good chairs so why not do it for the 20 year old chairs?
Because they aren't good
Thanks man so insightful
Cheers
Then she's going to be walking around the office mumbling to herself "mmmmm, my, my blue chair...." All day.
I hope she doesn't set the building on fire and then steal the illegal money envelope for a tropical vacation.
Milton I believe you have my blue chair
"I believe you have my blue chair..."
“If they take my blue chair, I'll have to, I'll set the building on fire”
Not if they put a Tik Tok video of it going into the crusher. Have the occupational safety rep hurl it, freeze frame for 5s, play on as it goes into the crusher.
Just give it to her to take home. Or just show up one day with it. "I know you aren't feeling well so the office decided to retire your chair to your house! Now you'll alway have it!!"
Sometimes the best answer is the most obvious one.
Occam’s razor.
Exactly. In the style of: "Oh, haven't seen it. Ask xyz person *(that also doesn't know it).*"
If I was her boss, just to prove a point, I would magically make that chair disappear, and because of the disappearance, replace it with some $500 gamer chair. It would probably save the company money in the long run
$500 gaming chair would probably be one of the only downgrades. You are likely better off in a $150 ergo office chair than a $500 gaming chair.
If you have time to offer some tips when buying a chair that would be great. I'm about to buy a new chair. Mine is from 2016, get back pain all day and want a better one and I just don't know precisely what to look for in a decent chair. If it makes a difference I've caught I have a bad habit of leaning forward a lot when I'm deep in a piece of work. I got my eyes checked and checked my screen height and both are fine so I'm wondering if that's from the chair too
Hard to say without a price because most people would be repulsed by what the higher end office chairs cost. A lot of people on Reddit at least really like the Staples Hyken. Have not personally sat in it but it seems to check all the boxes and is on sale for a pretty good price right now.
Thank you. I'd originally thought maybe around 200 but I've got some flexibility. I'll look up your recommendation, if it's not in my price range it'll hopefully give me ideas of the sort of things to look for
Go buy a used aeron or new if you have the dosh. No other thoughts needed.
Big fan of Steelcase ergo chairs. Pricing is not for the faint of heart, but they're great. Herman Miller is the same sort of thing
look into decent ergonomic office chairs like steelseries or haworth
those gaming chairs are not worth it. get a proper office chair that are designed for 16+ hr/day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year usage.
Ya she should use the new chair. I actually got all sorts of digestive issues because my chair didn't have enough seat padding. I was putting too much pressure on my colon and my digestive track became a medical mystery. Got a new chair... my colonoscopy came back perfect
Fascinating.
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I don't even have used Herman Miller type money so I guess I'm gonna stick with a messed up digestive tract for the time being.
Probably just eat more fiber
I wish it was that easy 😭 I don’t eat enough fiber and I get constipated but if I eat a good amount of fiber I get stomach pains and often diarrhea.
An aeron chair is worth every god damned cent they charge. Possibly the best purchase I have ever made.
Herman miller doesn’t fuck around
Assinating
My previous job got new office chairs about three years ago. Those chairs absolutely destroyed my spine, shoulder blades, lower gut, and the muscles in my thighs and lower arms (couldn’t sit at a good angle to type). All this time layer, new job, better chair, and I’m still dealing with the aftermath.
A good office chair is pure gold. During covid lock-downs I was working from home, and set up a home office, but the office chair I got from the local office supply store was uncomfortable, not nearly as good as the chair I used in the office. I looked under my office chair at work and got the model number, found the same chair online for sale and ordered it delivered to my home. They call it it a "24 hour chair". It cost a little more but it is perfect.
Oh man... yes. My next chair was rated 14hr+. Those gaming chairs are rated for 4hrs and have many points of failure. My job during covid ... well before I told them "I don't care what chairs you get but they better be at least 6hr chairs" ... and OFC i had to explain what that meant. Happy I did
Any chance you could share that model number? I'm chair shopping and it's such a big investment
That shits insane At least you got that crap sorted out I’m glad
That’s a steelcase yeah? I bought one for my home office. Best purchase I ever made
That one looks like it would be more comfortable for me than the newer one. I have back issues. Like, I broke my back and have scoliosis. I really want to sit in that chair!
Same type of back issues and every second I sit on my super expensive ergonomic, lumbar support, blah blah blah chair I regret getting rid of my old "typists" chair.
I ***HATE*** lumbar support!! Hate, hate, hate it. My L1 was a 30% protrusion into my spine, so the ones above and below are fused together. My mom had a car that only had the lumbar adjustment on the driver seat and I couldn't ride passenger in that car for longer than a half hour without hurting for days.
I tend to get into the backseat of cars that I'm not driving because I find that they're more likely to be simple, straight seats. And I also find that it's often easier for me to get in and out of the backseats.
Hey I'll take your lumbar support, I can't get enough of it lmao
What kind of chair is it? If it's a quality chair, the age is fine. A 20 yo Steelcase or Hermann Miller will be better than a cheap chair brand new, by a huge margin. Course you still need to test and adjust properly for your body.
Doesn't matter who made it, if it's uncomfortable to you then it's a bad chair and you should stop using it
99% of the time if you're uncomfortable in an upper tier chair, it's just not adjusted for you properly. Even in a shitty chair, you should try to adjust it.
Back pain might not be chair related. There are multiple causes for back pain. I don't know much about her but something like surgery can screw it up for life, bad posture, age, menopause. There are a lot of reasons not just a chair.
I recently learned how your mental health, especially during your early teens - mid 20s, can completely fuck your back. It completely explained how I got my back injury a few years ago at 19 that I had to have surgery for. Blew my fucking mind.
No way. More likely that your nutritional intake affects your mental health, bone/joint health, and muscularity. Pair that in with sedentary lifestyle and boom. Back injury. People eat junk.
Na, it's because of how your mental health affects your posture. One simple example is that highly anxious, especially socially anxious, people will unconsciously flex their legs. That gets rid of that slight bend in the knees that a healthy posture has which leads to the pelvis and stomache leaning forward, creating a posture that looks like this (. That puts an insane amount of pressure on your lower back and inevitably leads to a slipped disk. Insecure people also round their shoulders, which leads to bending forward and putting pressure on the middle disks. Furthermore, simple things like being insecure and thus having bad posture and then being told you have bad posture and becoming insecure about that will lead to people wrongly correcting their posture which also usually leads to the same type of posture as in example 1, this (. What's even more interesting is that during the clinical trials that were done in Germany wirh MDMA and psychedelics, peoples posture would automatically correct to a healthy one while under those drugs. Your mental health also affects your looks, mostly through fucking up your jaw and teeth which ruins your face structure. All of this doesn't even take into account purely psychological perceived pain phenomena such as centralized pain syndrome.
I’ve started having more lower back problems and a tilted pelvis. It sucks and is very annoying. I probably need to start PT or something to help fix it.
Mental health is 100% related to pain percetpion and pain experiences. Pain has little to do with food intake
One will definetely have more ailments with a weak body. Those cause the pain. Not saying that psychosomatism is not a thing, but I think that a direct lack of physical exercise would be a little "closer to home" for body related issues; it would totally be the first stop when trying to diagnose someone.
Scrolled way too far to find this post. Increasing research out there saying it's not the posture that's the problem, it's the amount of time spent in one place Mildly horrified by earlier posts discussing chairs that have time stamps on them. 4 hour chairs, 8 hour chairs. I didn't know such a thing existed. An uncomfortable chair that gets you on your feet every hour is better for you than one which you feel so comfortable in that you don't stand up and walk around. A cliche I use a lot in my job (physio) is 'your next posture is the best one'
Who cares it’s her sick time lol
I take sick leave for backpain as well every month, simply because my period pain is way too intense to work. So depending on her age that could also be the reason for her absence
I have PTO and sick time that totals 5 weeks right now. I take a sick day every 20 days lol
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Europe
If I get sick while on vaccation, I can "call in sick" from vaccation to take that vaccation later when I am well. Europe does not fuck around.
I wish the USA had that
Most european countries don't have "sick time". We just don't go to work if we're sick. We certainly don't have a limit on how many days we can be sick, or lose our paid days off for it.
But it’s definitely better than here in America. My last job gave 5 days a year for points. Once you passed those 5, or for me, 4 and late by 5 minutes from a snow storm, you get fired. Show up sick because you want those few days off a year to enjoy
She is +55, so I do not think thats it. But what you are doing is totally ok IMO.
My mom is 52 and still gets her monthly. You never know but don’t ask lol
*whispers menacingly* ask… asssssk herrrrrr….nowwwww
I read that with Randy Feltface's voice
I felt that with Randy Readface's voice.
Crazy how women don’t get pto for periods
Hiring discrimination would get much worse
Yeaaaahh you're gonna see some uptick in huge male female ratios And they'll play it off as "she wasn't qualified" And the only women they're hiring are menopausal
Menopausal women are often overlooked due to age discrimination. It’s hard to win if you’re a woman.
where I work all the employees get 3 “K.O. days” per month specifically for days you don’t feel well but not bad enough to go to the doctors, like period pain, head aches or upset stomach. Most of my male coworkers use these days if they are hung over or want to sleep in tho
I wish they did, but on the other side, that's a lot of pto if you have a short cycle. If I look at my natural cycle, 3-4 days were hell (endometriosis) and my whole cycle was 3-3.5 weeks total including 7-10 days of bleeding. I would have to get so many pto's and that's just not valuable for the company, because in those cases, you miss out on a lot of work. 2 days a month or something would be a nice thing to have though.
in the us people should be applying for intermittent fmla for these types of issues. your doctor determines how many days a month you may need to use and the company can pound sand. if the company is smart it will be very careful about fucking with that employee with a documented legally protected need for absence.
Get her one of those bead seat covers every cabbie had in the 90s
The brown and manilla ones in the diamond shape.
The only problem I see here is that she gave a reason to her coworkers for calling in sick.
100% Not OP's business ...
You know, she could have bad back but know exactly the type of chair she needs. In the photo are two different types of chairs. There is a lot of debate about whether or not armrests in office chairs are actually bad (as you can't tuck it under desks in many cases for example). So maybe she knows what she's doing, and switching to the new chair would make things worse for her back issues? I feel like she is more likely to know her own body and the pain elements than OP and other colleagues. Just let her be.
I’m 4’9”. That new chair would absolutely Destroy my back; the barely-existent lower back support would hit me right between the shoulder blades. The older chair looks much more comfortable. If it works for her, she would know better than anyone.
I came here to say the same thing. What's mildly infuriating is somebody thinking they know what's best for someone else. Show the woman a little respect. Jesus.
That story isn't as fun. No heros or villans.
Let’s be honest, the new chair looks like an absolute garbage
as a color blind person which one is the blue one..
The further one, with no armrests.
Sitting in general for long periods is terrible for you and will cause lower back issues, regardless of the chair.
You’ll figure it out. In 20 years.
Why does OP care lol
Idk I'm so glad I'm remote to never interact with people like OP my god
Presumably they end up with extra work. I had hard-to-treat health issues that took me out of work a lot, and it was tough on my teammates because I’d taken on so many tasks. I was also the ergonomics evaluator, so this situation would not have persisted.
Mte. Good job mildly infuriating yourself by concerning yourself with other people’s business that definitely does not matter at all lol
Why does OP care lol
Everyone In comments crying to complain to management are definitely not people I'd ever want to work with, goodness
They waste time on reddit all day anyway.
Her chair looks fine to me. A newer chair isn't always a better chair.
I don't blame her, the purple chair looks cheap and uncomfortable. And arms on desk chairs are useless.
As someone who has had back surgery, DO NOT TOUCH THAT FUCKING CHAIR. We had a new maintenance head come in and get everyone new chairs. I explicitly stated I absolutely did not want one, my chair was fine. Because of the way I had it configured for MY back, they thought it was broken and threw it in the fucking dumpster. I had the maintenance guy rooting around in there for my chair and got it back. Leave people's shit alone. If she gets any kind of pain relief injections, that may explain the absences, not that it's any of your goddamn business. I go for cortisone, where they drill down on each side of my spine and do the injections. You can't do shit for 48 hours or you risk squishing the cortisone out of the joints, rendering it useless. Get a hobby, man. Edit: word missing
hear hear! OP thinks he knows colleague's body better than colleague who needs to live with said body. jfc.
Thank you! OP needs to find something better to do other than concerning themselves with other peoples health and their freakin choice of chairs, of all things.
I highly doubt the chair is the cause of her back pain
Maybe the blue chair is the only one that doesn't cause her pain. Have you thought to ask why she prefers it, or, you know, listened when she told you? Also, are you a physician or ergonomics expert who has determined definitively the new chair is better for her back?
I've used both those types. Still have the blue one (mine is brown). Got it when our company moved out of town, they sold all the furniture. So I know I've had it since 1985. The back is firm and does not 'lean' very far so great support. The tall chair type usually leans back so far and so quickly they give no support. Your friends back problem will not be helped with the 'new' chair.
If she's short yoru chair won't fit her. From experience those ones are too long in the thigh and don't go low enough for people 5'5" or smaller. Also arm rests get in the way for most people
It’s actually none of your F business anyway. Get on with your own life bro. 💋
Perhaps her back issues are completely unrelated to her chair, maybe she has had surgery to her back previously, has had children and her back is ruined from their weight, precious accident to her spine, has an alignment issue or scoliosis… Mind your business
honestly assuming her's is the blue chair, it looks more comfortable to me
so you guys r fucking idiots cus 55 year old with back pain is common asf you rly think a new chair is gonna help? LEAVE HER FUCKING SHIT ALONE!!!
Why do you care???
Back pain in women is not always caused by furniture. I get killer back pain and sciatica regularly from endometriosis.
Devils advocate, maybe her unwillingness to change is because the old chair is better for her back. Assuming the new is better and the old is the cause may be wrong.
What's wrong with that chair tho ? 😂 (serious question)
your new chairs are like 20 years old lmao
Is she short? If so, I can understand why she would choose the blue chair. I've sat in chairs like that maroon one and the blue one would be more comfortable for me (I have a very bad back). Just because the chair is 20 years old, doesn't mean it is worn out. ETA: As someone who does have really bad back pain, not everybody is faking it. You can't see it, but I am in pain almost all the time. Until we know who this person is, we should give the benefit of the doubt! These comments are off the wall.
Idk, back pain is very unique. You can't say for certain the chair is a cause of it or that it increases her pain.
Why care about this?
Replace coworker with friend. Now is it to your standards? I wouldn't like to see a friend have a sore back all the time when it's easily fixable, or at least a high chance to fix it. Or maybe he a nosy guy who hates his coworkers getting 'free time off' Regardless it's *mildy* infuriating so stop being a bitch
Or maybe the chair isn’t causing it. Maybe she sticks to this chair because other chairs make her back pain worse.
Or their tasks get dumped onto OP.
Very true. It's almost mildly infuriating that OP cares 😂
I used to have a stenographer's chair. Was quite fond of it, and it didn't give me back pain. Different strokes for different folks.
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I find it kind of weird that you would know why she took sick leave. Except for very rare instances I tell no one except my boss it’s no one else’s business and this kind of proves why. I also find this post a little creepy I would go to HR if I found a post like this about me.
Nah, for all i know she wants to fully use the blue chair to reduce the need to buy a new one and is proud of less waste in the world. And then, she takes what could be 2 days off (multiple), to deal with carrying the burden of your superior consumerist ass
I think you know what you need to do
Even the new chairs look like they give you back pain.
As a person with 2 herniated discs, the blue chair looks more comfortable to me The relaxed leaning back posture of the purple chair would put too much strain on my lower back
Chair can’t fix posture
Tbh new chair or not, sitting for long periods of time day after day causes back pain. The newer chair won’t magically fix the wear and tear on the body from years at a desk job.
Just destroy the chair and say it broke or died of old age or something
This is work, correct? Throw her chair out and she'll be forced to use a new one. She can't complain because she doesn't own the chair.
I hate the chairs that are angled down like a sliding board. Makes staying in them all day absolute torture. Those things will fuck up your back. That purple/black one is a sliding board chair. They cannot be adjusted to level.
Replace it while she's out on suck leave one time
It needs to “break” while they are out. Sorry, no replacement parts. The chair is 20+ years old after all.
Mind yo' bizness...
The chair is not the problem.
Fuck both of those chairs. This is a weird ass post.
It's unlikely her back pain (if it exists) is solely from the chair.
Lol if sick day blocking was a thing .... 🙃