Here’s something we’re curious about: How many of you have picked out your own desk chairs, keyboard drawers, and so forth in an effort to make your office more ergonomic and comfortable? Which brands have you found to be the best?
We’ve read a million articles about how — without the right set-up — your office could be causing you back pain, headaches, eye strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and more. In terms of eye strain, we’ve noticed a huge difference in a flat-screen monitor versus one of the old CRT monitors. We also prefer a keyboard tray versus having our keyboard sitting on top of our desk. Otherwise, we are far from experts on the subjects, so thought we would turn to you guys. Does anyone swear by the Aeron chair? Did changing the “refresh rate” for your monitor change your life? Do tell…
(Pictured: Ergonomics matters, originally uploaded to Flickr by Ezu.)
Further reading:
Office Ergonomics, WebMD
How to Ease Back and Neck Pain at the Office, eHow
About a week and a half ago, we asked a pivotal question: at what point does a high heel become TOO high for work? As always, the poll is still open, but the initial results are in:
- 44% of readers said a medium heel height was most appropriate for work — 3.5″ being the absolute highest.
- 33% said 3.5″ or higher was acceptable, so long as the shoe itself was appropriate for work — nothing a teenager would wear.
- 12% said any heel height was fine, so long as you could walk in it
- 9% said low heels were the only ones appropriate for the office: 2.5″ or under.
Pictured above: Christian Louboutin’s Marie Antoinette shoe, available only in Paris boutiques. Commenters repeatedly stressed that the heel had to be in proportion to the outfit: the higher the heel, the lower the hemline of the skirt – if not wearing pants with your towering heels. Some noted that they only wore 4″ heels with pants. Proper hemming is very important here: your pants should almost entirely cover the heel. (We would argue that readers should trek to and from work in the same height of heel that they wear at the office, but for those who don’t agree with us there are gadgets to help you hem your pants temporarily, such as Zakkerz, pictured below.)
There was general agreement that platforms are not acceptable office shoes; wedges were also not popular with readers. (We would disagree with that and say it depends on the kind of wedge — the chunkier the wedge, the more inappropriate it is — but a triangular-shaped wedge that blends with the shoe would be all right with us. For example, something like the
Nine West – Tuffy (Brown) – Footwear, pictured at right (available at Zappos.com for $78.95.)
Above all, though, readers noted that the shoe itself should be tasteful. As one commented, “never, ever wear clear heels to work. Never.” Another suggested readers not purchase their heels at the Hustler store. (Or perhaps, just save those Hustler shoes for the, uh, weekend.)
We’re still on an abbreviated posting schedule (don’t forget the 
