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We just rounded up the best office chairs for working from home, but I somehow went down a Joss & Main rabbithole recently of cute, ergonomic task chairs, and thought I'd offer this one for today's Coffee Break.
Ergonomic task chairs are definitely not as cute as some desk chairs can be (like this minimalist one, or this glam(ish) one) — but as so many of us are working from home (or even working around the house in different spots), we're probably all reexamining how comfortable our current situations are.
This pictured task chair has an almost 5-star rating with more than 1,500 reviews — and it's only $143. It offers lumbar support, adjustable seat height and armrests, and has a tilt mechanism. They note that “the ergonomic back design has proper curvature to support your lower back, paired with a ventilated mesh back material to allow air to circulate.” NICE!
Some of the other top-rated ergonomic chairs include this stark white one (3300 reviews and the price is down to $149, even lower than when I looked last week); this more typical ergonomic one has 3500 reviews and comes in a zillion colors for $175. Pictured above: Bret Ergonomic Mesh Task Chair
(Some of the top chairs readers loved in our previous roundup include these…)
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Sales of note for 10.10.24
- Nordstrom – Extra 25% off clearance (through 10/14); there's a lot from reader favorites like Boss, FARM Rio, Marc Fisher LTD, AGL, and more. Plus: free 2-day shipping, and cardmembers earn 6x points per dollar (3X the points on beauty).
- Ann Taylor – Extra 50% off sale (ends 10/12)
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything plus extra 25% off your $125+ purchase
- Boden – 10% off new styles with code; free shipping over $75
- Eloquii – Extra 50% off a lot of sale items, with code
- J.Crew – 40% off sitewide
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off entire site, plus extra 25% off orders $150+
- Lo & Sons – Fall Sale, up to 35% off
- M.M.LaFleur – Save 25% sitewide
- Neiman Marcus – Sale on sale, up to 85% off
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – 50% off 2+ markdowns
- Target – Circle week, deals on 1000s of items
- White House Black Market – Buy one, get one – 50% off full price styles
And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!
Some of our latest threadjacks include:
- What to say to friends and family who threaten to not vote?
- What boots do you expect to wear this fall and winter?
- What beauty treatments do you do on a regular basis to look polished?
- Can I skip the annual family event my workplace holds, even if I'm a manager?
- What small steps can I take today to get myself a little more “together” and not feel so frazzled all of the time?
- The oldest daughter is America's social safety net — change my mind…
- What have you lost your taste for as you've aged?
- Tell me about your favorite adventure travels…
Anon
Does anyone feel like lockdown rules should be much more individualized than they are, like at the county or city level instead of even the state level? I’m in a relatively hard-hit state but my rural county has had ONE case. Literally one. And it was in March. And we have plenty of testing, so it’s not just that no one is able to get tested. I’m not saying we should return to normal life with massive gatherings and everything, but I don’t think we need to be as fully locked down as a place like NYC with a ton of cases and a large population packed into a tiny space. Us rural people social distance naturally!
(Before anyone flames me, I’m obeying my state’s stay at home order. And I understand the need to protect the community and that just because I’m a low risk person doesn’t mean I can go do whatever I want, because I could harm higher risk people. But I feel like different areas need different rules because the risk here seems so much lower than in a big city.)
Anon
Completely agree.
Anonymous
Completely agree. I am sure that once NYC recovers (even now it seems to be recovering), it will not want to have to live under the strict rules for any newly-surging areas. For places that have managed their peak down, I think we can ease up on some things. For places not having problems, I also think that they can have some easing.
Anonymous
I think that will only work if having antibodies mean you can’t get reinfected with Coronavirus — but that is NOT what the current understanding is. So in a place like NYC where in a Manhattan restaurant may have a dishwasher from a second borough, a server from a third and the manager from a fourth borough would never work “by area.” Think of how many people get in and out of a single cab, or one person coughing on a crowded subway platform, let alone car… yeah, no.
Anon
The understanding is definitely that antibodies are evidence you’re currently immune. How long that immunity lasts is unclear. With SARS-1 it was 3 years and the best guess is that this is similar, although it’s not proven and likely won’t be for some time. Even if you get reinfected subsequently, it will be much more mild. You won’t see massive hospitalizations and deaths among people who are on their second round of COVID infection.
anon
There’s also little evidence of surface to human spread.
Anon
If you don’t develop antibodies after an infection, then it’s impossible to develop a vaccine. So why bother with the lockdowns?
Anonymous
So NYC stays on lockdown forever? That does not seem like the right answer.
Anonymous
I LOVE that NY’s rat-out-your-neighbor service was flooded with d*ck pics. Serves them right.
Anon
I’m in Tennessee, and this is the approach my state is trying to take. I’m not totally sure it’s going to work though. They did this before the statewide shelter in place order, and all that happened was people from Nashville and Memphis (that were locked down early) went out to the rural counties and spread infections there.
anon
Yes. There’s a rural area about an hour outside my hot-spot city where people from the city tend to own property. Apparently, before our state-wide stay-at-home order, the population of the rural area surged. The rural town tried to implement an order that only people whose primary residence was in that town could enter it (access is via a single bridge). I don’t know how that worked out, but the rural area was concerned that it didn’t have the police, fire, or emergency medical services for the population that had moved into the town overnight.
Anon
Good point – I can definitely see how vacation-y rural areas like coastal towns would be really impacted if everyone from cities flees there, and there hospitals aren’t prepared for the population increase. I should clarify that my rural area is mostly farmland and nobody would ever vacation here or own a second home here.
Anon
*their
Carol
You would think rural people are automatically socially distanced – but that’s surprisingly not the case! While of course people live far away there has been a lot of transmission when people across a vast rural area go to the same basic place – like a church or grocery store.
Anon
But people in cities go to church and the grocery store too. I’m not saying rural counties have no risk, I’m saying they have less risk. We all go to the same types of places, but people in cities often get there on public transit and are packed in so tightly, even outside. When I go outside I can easily avoid getting within 20 feet of anyone else, which I understand is difficult, if not impossible, in NYC, especially under normal conditions.
Anonymous
I think just car commuting cuts your risk hugely. And working in an office-with-door vs somewhere like a commercial kitchen or close quarters.
Anonymous
Yes, but you’re still dealing with an HVAC system for temp control.
Anonymous
I agree and I’m on Long Island. FWIW, I think cuomo agrees too. He’s just trying to figure out how to practically and legally prevent an influx of downstate people to rural counties when they open more things sooner. That’s my takeaway from his conferences away.
Anonymous
Lol anybody that could leave the city already left (ask Chris Cuomo). Saying that people will leave now as the restrictions lift are a strawman.
Anonymous
Right. City people have fled to the surrounding areas, which is one reason why infection rates are about the same here. (It’s also because people like me and my husband commuted in until mid-march).
But, if I can get my hair cut and nails done in Albany, where the rates of infection are currently much lower, I might go there for the first time in decades, which will present a different problem. So that’s our conundrum.
AIMS
I think your Albany point is the issue. That was part of the issue in Italy, where people from locked down areas would go to non-locked down areas for a beer.
Pure Imagination
I don’t disagree, but I do think it becomes challenging for people to understand what they’re supposed to do if the rules vary widely between counties or regions. We’re already seeing so much confusion and bending of the rules when it’s been crystal clear statewide. However, maybe there’s a way to implement it so it could actually work and be more tailored to each context.
Pure Imagination
Also, FWIW, a rural area in Idaho had the highest per-capita cases for a few weeks. Not sure if it still does.
Anonymous
Blaine county. I don’t know if it’s reported widely enough, but for a period ALL the hospital admissions had to be sent from their local ER to better equipped hospitals in more largely populated areas. So if rural areas open & their sick are sent to the cities it just exacerbates the problem in the more highly populated areas. So it doesn’t make sense to let rural areas open but not cities because the rural areas are not equipped to handle an outbreak for themselves. They can’t really be treated as separate.
Anonattorney
This is entirely community dependent. Some rural or just less densely-packed counties have plenty of hospital resources to handle an outbreak. Communities should be evaluated on the resources they have available.
Pure Imagination
It’s rare for rural areas to have “plenty of hospital resources,” especially given the drastically accelerated rate of rural hospital closures in the last 10 years.
Anon
My rural county has a great hospital system. I know that hospital resources can be an issue in rural communities, but it’s definitely not a uniform thing, and hospital resources info is easy enough for public health authorities to access and use in making determinations about how and when to open.
anon
I have relatives who live in a very, very small town in the middle of nowhere. The husband is a truck driver, and he has COVID-19. He thinks he was exposed on the road. Because the family is staying at home, they probably have not spread it outside of their household. If things were open? They could have gone to the store, the sit-down restaurant, and church before he showed any symptoms and spread it basically to the whole town!
Anonymous
They still could have gone to to the store and gotten takeout from the restaurant.
anon
They are under a state wide stay-at-home order, so they are home all the time except for infrequent trips to the grocery store. Without the order, they would have been milling about town as usual.
Airplane.
Shrug. They are doing this in my state. You just disagree with your local decision. Our state and cities/counties did have different levels of lockdown and even now our governor is saying reopening will happen in stages and the earlier openings will be county by county depending on circumstances.
What about travel between locations? If someone from your rural county travels to a more dense area because you are not under shelter in place and spreads the virus?
Anon
No, I don’t disagree with my local officials. Our state executive orders override all local decisions. I thought that was true everywhere, but maybe it’s not.
Anon
Re: travel, since we have fewer cases here (even per capita) than the cities, the risk would be someone from a city bringing it here, not vice versa. And yes, that’s a risk, but I think it would spread through the community slower here than it would in a city where everyone interacts much more closely. I’ve been to grocery stores in Manhattan – they are tiny and there’s no way to stay even 6 feet away from other people. I went to the grocery store this morning and didn’t come within 50 feet of another human (I used self-checkout).
mascot
I’m in Georgia (not one of the hard hit areas). I think an unintended effect of the SIP orders was that people forgot what the purpose was. It wasn’t ever to stay at home forever or minimize all risk. It was more of a stop-gap to slow things down and let the healthcare system get better positioned. Our governor is taking a ton of heat for the way our reopening is getting rolled out and some of it is called for. People don’t have confidence in the numbers or the testing capabilities and there hasn’t been much of a runway given to business on how they should reopen. People are scrambling to reconfigure their offices and spaces. Childcare is a major issue because schools are still closed. There is a lot of confusion about unemployment still. And, the governor has forbidden the local officials from exercising any orders that contradict the state level directives. In short, it’s a mess and all is does is make people even more nervous or more cranky. But, for those areas like mine that have arguably higher risks because we are a heavy tourist town, we can’t do much about it.
Anon
+1 million to this “I think an unintended effect of the SIP orders was that people forgot what the purpose was. It wasn’t ever to stay at home forever or minimize all risk. It was more of a stop-gap to slow things down and let the healthcare system get better positioned.”
I am so frustrated by all the people here and (some in real life too) saying we have to shelter in place until we have a vaccine or herd immunity. That’s impossible.
Anonymous
Preach! Agree 1000%
Anon
Troll!
Anon
THANK YOU!!!
Anon
Sociopath!
Anon
100% agree.
Anonymous
It’s also not logical to expect everyone to be resigned to getting sick (especially just because they’ll be getting sick or dying at a more “convenient” time).
anon
I mean if you want to stay at home forever, you’re more than welcome to do so but I think the reality is simply that we’re all going to get this. There may never be a vaccine.
Anon
There’s a huge difference between staying home until there is a vaccine and opening up hair salons right now. There should be a middle ground.
anonymous
But here’s the thing. Yes, some will be hospitalized and some will die. But the majority of people will not get that sick even if they are infected. Does that mean that we should just say “screw ’em, let people die, get me to the bowling ally”? Of course not. But saying that we are saying everyone should be resigned to getting sick is a straw man and is absolutely a misrepresentation of reality.
anon
Yes! I am so tired of seeing/hearing this. It’s highly likely most/all of us will get this, which was always the message. The point of SIP was to make it so that when you get it, there are doctors/hospital beds available should you need them (and also hopefully better information on testing and treatment).
Anonymous
The point was also to allow for the development of testing capacity so we could have at least some level of containment after the initial period of lockdown. That level of testing capacity does not yet exist. All the experts agree that if we just reopen everything without surveillance and a willingness to reimpose social distancing measures when infections surge, the first round of social distancing will have been undertaken largely in vain. Look up “the hammer and the dance.” We are not ready for the dance.
Anonymous
It’s not “staying at home until there’s a vaccine” I’d love to b at the very least be able to buy Lysol wipes and Purell whenever I want again. And that’s not even taking into account when hospitals can keep up with PPE demand. All of these things should be so much easier than even having the hospital resources (which also are lacking). But people want to go bowling again? Just stupid.
How about we get haircuts once customer and stylist can wear N95s? Can’t across-the-board do that yet? That’s exactly the problem.
anon
Who has said people want to shelter in place until there’s a vaccine? That seems like a straw man.
I would LOVE to start reopening, but we need dramatically more tests and teams of contact tracers to that without causing another spike. In my state, the governor is trying to reopen all kinds of businesses without taking those steps. When I see an evidence-based plan in my area for our new normal, I will be ready to go.
AIMS
I agree that we aren’t ready to reopen but in answer to your question of who has said it – lots of people on this s*te and the moms s*te. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve read ‘and no one is doing anything for the next 18 months’.
Anon
Someone says we can’t reopen until there’s a vaccine in every thread here that discusses this (although it could be the same person over and over again). I also have at least a couple friends who feel this way, although admittedly they toward the anxious end of the spectrum. Even 18 months of lockdown seems unreasonable to me, but more importantly these people also don’t grasp that 18 months represents the absolute *best case* scenario for a vaccine, not a date certain for a vaccine! It could easily be multiple years, or never even happen. My own husband keeps repeating “We just have to get through 18 months of this and then we’ll have a vaccine” and it drives me crazy. Maybe! But maybe not. We can’t make our life plan “do nothing for 18 months and then BOOM! Magic vaccine.”
anon a mouse
It was to flatten the curve to preserve medical capacity AND give the testing infrastructure time to ramp up so that we could reopen things with better information. The latter part has not happened at all. I don’t care if my area opens up, if I don’t have good information about the actual rate of transmission and origins of any new cases, I’m staying home.
Anon
The testing infrastructure isn’t perfect, but it has ramped up a lot compared to February/March.
Anonymous
Agreed! It makes me insane when I hear this sentiment here
cbackson
I have been really frustrated that Kemp overrode the local orders. There are really significant variations from place to place in GA and local leaders are best positioned to manage those. Albany and the surrounding area should be allowed to maintain really restrictive measures; tourist towns (Blue Ridge, Tybee) with limited medical care should be allowed to block short-term rental and take measures to discourage people from congregating, etc. I’m less concerned about a sit-down restaurant in Middle Georgia – yes, spread could occur there but the network effects are dramatically reduced in areas of low population density.
But I also don’t feel like Kemp’s SIP order is what helped us mitigate the outbreak here – it was the more-restrictive orders that local officials had already put in place. That’s what really made the difference, IMO.
Anon
Does he even have the legal ability to override local restrictions like that? Additionally, what if business owners don’t want to reopen yet?
Anonymous
Business owners don’t have to open up- we are seeing plenty here that are taking a wait and see approach. As long as the business remains closed or even if it operates on reduced staffing, then it appears that the employees may continue to get unemployment. But again, that is evolving and is incredibly state specific.
Anon
Yes, states can override local rules. Private business owners who don’t want to reopen obviously can’t be forced to, but the state can take away eligibility for unemployment benefits if they choose to remain closed.
Anon
I know the state could have STRICTER rules than local areas and local areas would be forced to follow them but I didn’t know a state could force a locality to have more lenient rules.
Anonymous
As someone who’s parents owns one of the sit-down restaurants in Middle Georgia, they are worried about it and furious Kemp is reopening so soon. They are admittedly in the largest town in Middle Georgia, but there are a decent number of cases and from talking to friends who are nurses/doctors in town, they are really worried about resurgence with reopening. It’s actually surprising that Kemp is an idiot for reopening so soon has been a unifying theme among my hometown facebook friends, democrats and republicans.
Anonymous
(they are not, by the way, reopening next week; what happens to unemployment when they choose to remain closed is an open question)
Anonymous
I’m not convinced this would actually work, even if we somehow managed to prevent an influx of people from more urban areas. I work in rural public health, and we see a LOT of transmission of illness that requires close contact because, even though houses are spread out, people are a lot more dependent on their neighbors. No takeout/food delivery, so if someone is sick, everyone is bringing over casseroles. Need help on the farm for something? Everyone pitches in because they know that next week they’ll need a couple extra pairs of hands. All it takes is one person to make a trip to an area where illness is spreading and then come back home and go back to helping out their neighbors. Obviously this is going to vary quite a bit by community, but I think that people often think rural areas are more isolated than they really are.
Anonymous
I hope my state eases up a bit.
I will remaining distancing b/c schools are shut down, so I am staying home b/c I can WFH and have no child care. I’d like for summer not to be cancelled though. I just got a pay cut so not sure how I’ll afford a nanny, but I work better in the office (office is open but most people WFH; we are legally allowed to go into the office).
If schools are shut, distancing will naturally occur so we trickle back not flood back, which will help even if it isn’t ideal.
Anon
It’s great that you *feel* that way but the world really needs to focus on what true subject matter experts say. The US is doing shockingly poor compared to other developed nations and that is no surprise. Combining an individualistic society where people are taught their opinions are as valid as experts in conjunction with a sub par health care system is just asking for trouble.
Anonymous
omg stop watching cnn. https://covidtracking.com/data/us-daily
anon
Please name these countries. I keep seeing people say that we are doing so badly, but I’m not sure that’s true. Italy has great single payer health care and, per capita, we are doing way better both on infections and on deaths.
Anon
+1, plus the US has way more people with obesity and other underlying health conditions than most developed countries, so to the extent we’re doing worse I think that would account for a lot of it.
Anonymous
Italy was also testing way more people per capita. We actually have no idea how many infections per capita there have been in the U.S.
Anon
Here is a source that has so kindly tabulates deaths per million (so you can’t say ‘the US is bigger of course deaths are higher’). As you can see comparing using a per capita data Norway, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Finland etc are all at less than half the deaths that the US is. There are tens more countries exceeding the US by great margins. I get that American exceptionalism is engrained in culture but it’s actively harmful.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
anon
Thank you for sharing this, I’ve found it shockingly difficult to get this type of information (it’s much more headline grabbing to talk about how many more deaths there are in America versus country x with 1/5 of the population than to say we have 2x number of deaths per million, which is still not good but far less scary sounding). However, I was actually pretty surprised by how good the U.S.’s numbers were. I don’t think we are doing a great job, but clearly there are others doing much much worse.
Anon
Half of our deaths come from NYC. So instead of throwing shade at “America,” let’s talk about how much NYC messed up.
Anon
What exactly should New York have done differently? New York shut down earlier than most states and I’m pretty sure Fox and Trump were claiming this was NBD
LaurenB
Well, Taiwan for one. They’ve done an amazing job. And it’s a country with plenty of big, urban cities / areas.
Anonymous
To the poster above, NY did not shut down earlier than most states. They were very late. Please stop spreading misinformation.
Anon
Per New York Times, when New York implemented shelter in place on March 23 only 9 states (including New York) has shelter in place orders, last I checked being one of the first 9 out of 50 states was not later than most. Please stop spreading misinformation yourself.
PleaseJustStop
I don’t think this is correct. There is actually very little evidence that coronavirus spread widely in New York because of general “density” — for example, look at Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, and other extremely dense cities that have fared well. Unfortunately, the density myth seems to be spreading among non-urbanites, and even propped up by Cuomo and Blasio themselves, who certainly wish to absolve themselves of their earlier blunders managing this crises and conveniently blame “density.”
I read somewhere eighty-percent of COVID cases are spread to immediate family members or close friends, and there’s reason to think that rural people may have more close contacts than urbanites, not less! (E.g., multi-generational households). The primary reason why coronavirus spread in NYC so much was because it was seeded there early due to international travel. Thus, opening up a place with a “only” handful of cases will result in exactly the same scenario as New York. That’s how viral spread works.
Finally, I cannot stress this enough: the purpose of the shutdowns is to get states to a point where there are virtually no new cases — which will hopefully be in a couple months. No one is saying that we need to be shut down until we get a vaccine — I’ve literally never heard anyone say that. But we *do* need to be shut down until we can be sure that coronavirus circulation is de minimus–at which point, we need to maintain certain aspects of social distancing (no large gatherings, for example) in order to prevent large new outbreaks.
That’s what people–including many people on this board–fail to understand. There is no middle ground. It’s not possible to have a sustainably open society where there is a *small* risk of contracting coronavirus. Either transmission is increasing exponentially–ie, R0>1 — thus soon exposing virtually everyone in society, or there is de minimus transmission that can be stamped out with testing and tracing. It’s not like car accidents, which we all agree to live with a low but constant of risk. Again — that’s not how viruses work.
And for those of you who say you’d be fine getting the virus, you’ve obviously never seen otherwise young, healthy people fighting for their life with it.
Anonymous
We’ve probably already been exposed. Which I think is great news — giant community spread has happened, probably before anyone was even aware, and the world didn’t in fact end. We didn’t become Italy all over the US.
We were worried about something beyond awful and that has not been even NYC’s experience. There are outliers to work on now — nursing homes in particular.
Anon
I think comparing NYC to Hong Kong or Tokyo is way off base. There are so many differences like better contact tracing, better testing, widespread use of masks and universal health care, that could explain why those cities didn’t have spread like NYC.
Cases aren’t going to zero, probably anywhere, but certainly not in the US, until we have herd immunity or a vaccine. Italy has had a far more draconian lockdown than any US state (no going outside except for a few very specific reasons) for two while months now and their daily new cases are still about 50% of what they were at the very peak. And the US has a far, far less compliant population than most Asian or European countries. Depending on the politics of your state, probably 10-20% are already violating stay at home orders and that number will only increase There’s no evidence that R0 is or will ever get below 1 until we reach herd immunity and it happens naturally, or we have a vaccine.
anon
We aren’t going to get to zero cases until there is herd immunity or a vaccine, and there is no way we are staying in lockdown that long. People are already starting to not comply at larger rates.
On the point re: otherwise young, healthy people fighting for their lives, yes of course that scares me but they are statistically still a small portion (see the news coming out of New York today re: 20% of the population possibly already having had it). Yes of course it’s scary to think that I could end up on a vent but a bunch of other crazy scary things could also happen to me. That’s just part of being a human.
anon
+1
PleaseJustStop
But it’s*not* just part of being human. That’s the thing: right now, I *personally* know more people who have gotten coronavirus than I do who have been diagnosed with cancer. Just think about that. I am in DC, and I know a lot of people in New York, where there are lots of cases. But if the south / midwest eases restrictions, you will too. And TRUST ME: you do not want to get this virus. It’s horrific.
Anon
Why do you assume I don’t also know people with this? I live in New York City.
I still think there is some degree of risk we are going to have to live with. I think cold and flu season is going to be cold, flu and coronavirus season. I don’t think this is going away.
I don’t think we should open things tomorrow but we can’t go on forever like this and it is highly likely most of us will get this. I’ve come to terms with that. I just hope there’s better information by the time I get it (if I haven’t already had it seeing as apparently 20% of us in the city may have had it already).
Anon
But Covid is way less deadly than cancer. So just because way more of us will have it than cancer, doesn’t mean it will kill way more of us.
I also think that unless we shelter in place until we have a vaccine – which most experts seem to agree is not the plan, and which the majority of the public does not appear to want – we are almost all going to get the virus eventually. If I could choose between getting the virus and not getting it, sure, I would not get it. But the choice is not that simple. I believe it’s inevitable that I will get it, so why not get it over with sooner and get back to normal life?
anon
Arrggh. No. Cancer *may* be more deadly, but only a small fraction of people get cancer. It’s not a correct analogy. (Also, cancer is not necessarily less deadly. Survival rates for Stage I breast cancer better than survival rates for COVID-19, generally). I, personally, would like to prevent millions and millions of people of dying from this, and it’s really not impossible if (1) people continue to social distance for another few months and (2) during that time we establish robust test-and-test regimes in every state.
I literally cannot believe that there are still people out there who think it’s ok that “everyone will get this virus.” That is insanity.
Anon
It’s not that I think “it’s ok” that everyone will get this, just that it’s pretty likely that we end up there. It’s already too widespread to hope for it to stomp itself out which means we either hit heard immunity (which means most everyone gets it) or we get a vaccine, which is at least 18 months away best case and may never happen. So yeah, since no one is going to social distance for 18 months, I suspect we are all going to get this.
Anon
Then let’s Ned you up and stick you on a vent today! No Covid necessary!
Look, even if you’re fine from Covid there’s a non-zero chance you’ll be in a car crash. Or beaten in a bar fight. Because Americans think health care should be run as a capitalist system we have JUST enough capacity to take care of what we normally get. Literally one multi-car collision with 15-20 severely injured can overwhelm a local hospital. People with Covid are on ventilators for 3-4 weeks easily before they recover. You want everyone you know who gets a major injury for the next four months to die because there’s no capacity? This isn’t about Covid19 you simpleton, it’s about babies choking to death, it’s about school shooting victims getting no treatment, it’s about pregnant women who suddenly hemorrhage bleeding to death in hospital parking lots because there are no beds.
If you’re not going to care, please do the rest of us a favor and remove yourself from the situation. A cruise perhaps…
Anonymous
This is incorrect. We did not go on lockdown to get the cases to 0. Going on lock down was simply to give the hospitals time to ramp up. The governor of my state has been perfectly clear with this message. Please stop spreading this nonsense, that cases can or will go to zero before we can move away from lockdown.
Anon
Yep. My governor (Republican, but one who has received a lot of praise from both parties for his response) has laid out the criteria and it includes things like ramped up testing, 14 days of declining cases, and hospitals having higher than normal capacity. There’s nothing about cases going to zero and I don’t think anyone in our state government thinks that’s realistic. Even the countries that have this outbreak totally under control like South Korea still have *some* cases. Getting to zero is basically impossible without widespread vaccination.
fatlawyer
A small town I provided services to before COVID went from zero cases to 150 in three days. When testing comes back it will probably hit 450.
Anonymous
Per the Stanford study, you’re already waaaaay over that and have been for some time. Which means that it’s already spread. Too late.
LaurenB
The cases at our local hospital went like this (each number is a day): 2 to 8 to 24 to 40 to 75 to 160. The rurals who think they are “protected” by not being in a highly dense area are, indeed … dense.
Anonymous
Different rules for different localities would only work if we actually had good data on infections and if travel between localities were restricted.
Anonymous
You had me until ” just because I’m a low risk person doesn’t mean I can go do whatever I want, because I could harm higher risk people”–even if you have no underlying health issues and are young, it’s lower risk for the disease but not a low risk situation. It’s still a personal risk to you. Maybe not death.But I also wouldn’t be so quick to assume a false sense of low risk. Many “healthy” people have developed pneumonia and their lungs aren’t the same afterward. A lot of young people are having strokes. It’s not just about keeping other people safe. It’s also keeping yourself safe.
My assistant just lost her husband–died within one week of testing positive. Just feels really real right now.
Anon
Statistically, a person under 30 (which I am) has a ~0.1% chance of dying, and most experts think it’s a lot lower than that when you factor in all the unconfirmed cases. 50% of people my age don’t even develop symptoms. I am comfortable with calling those odds “low risk.” The fact that a few young people have tragically died doesn’t mean that this is a dangerous disease for this age group. Young people die tragically of all kinds of things including flu, cancer, car accidents, etc. I get to decide my own risk tolerance, and personally I value quality of life over living in fear of 1/1,000 odds of death, and have no fear of getting this disease myself. Like I said, I realize that my own health is not the only factor affected by my decisions, and I am obeying stay at home orders to protect the more vulnerable.
PleaseJustStop
This is faulty reasoning. (1) Your “own risk tolerance” is not “your own” — whether you get the virus affects how many other people get the virus. Shutdowns only work if we all do it. (2) This is not like the risk of car accidents or cancer. I personally know more young people who have been hospitalized from this virus than I know who have been hospitalized for car accidents and cancer combined. And if the virus explodes in your area, you will too. There is no “constant low risk” for a virus like this. It’s either exponentially growing, or it’s not. People just don’t understand this because they’re terrible at thinking logarithmically. (3) It’s not just about dying — it’s about permanent disability. My 25 year old cousin — perfectly in shape — has “recovered” from coronavirus — and likely has permanent lung damage that is making it difficult for him to breathe during normal daily activities.
These are not “freak” accidents. For many of us, this is real life, happening every single day to everyone we know. Countless people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s are dying from this (a framing which I hate, because it devalues the lives of the elderly, but I am trying to speak your language).
The virus seems far away to you right now. It seemed far away to me too. Until it wasn’t. And that will be you, too, if you open open your town or state until there is a sufficiently low number of people with this virus to be able to adequately control it with test-and-test and trace.
Anon
I know several people who’ve had it, actually, fortunately all with mild illness. Believe it or not I’m not a hillbilly and I have friends and family members who live outside my county. Outside my state, even! :)
I’m sorry you had loved ones who got severely ill, but the statistics belie your anecdotal evidence. For people under 40, this disease is less deadly than influenza (and hospitalization rates are only marginally higher than death rates). I am a logical person and I refuse to live my life in fear of a virus that is less likely to kill me and only slightly more likely to make me seriously ill than flu. Of course l worry about older loved ones, but this entire conversion stated because you called me dumb for referring to myself as “low risk.” You are obviously grieving, and I’m sorry, but I am, statistically, low risk, and I stand behind that statement.
I also think you should listen to the experts who are saying that we will all get this virus eventually. The goal of a lockdown is to “flatten the curve” which means stretching out the infections over time, so we don’t overwhelm hospitals. It does not necessarily mean reducing the total number of infections. Unless a vaccine is available sooner, which seems unlikely given how fast this is spreading even with social distancing in place, we will eventually get to herd immunity, which means ~70% of us getting it. The fact that 20% of NYC has already had it in ~ 3 months is further evidence we will get to 70% infected before we get a vaccine. This is a scary virus, but it’s unfortunately a fact of life that most of us will get it at some point in our lives. Possibly many times, as it will likely become a seasonal virus like flu.
LaurenB
Anon at 6:06, you don’t understand math.
Anon
LOLLL that’s the first time in my life I’ve heard that I’m bad at math. I have a master’s degree in applied math. But, sure Jan. You’re a surgeon’s wife so you must be smarter than all us rural hillbillies!
anon
What is wrong about her math? If anything, she is listing the odds of her dying as too high. It’s a 1/1000 chance if she actually gets it and it’s not 100% chance she does get it. Please explain.
LaurenB
You make a fair point, but there’s also the “I”m rural so I’m going to put my head in the sand” contingent. Not saying you’re one of them, but boy are they out there.
Anon
I think I may have just scheduled my lay-off call so that’s exciting for me. Scheduled for 2 and I’m not shocked really but I’m having trouble waiting for twenty minutes
Pure Imagination
Ugh, I’m sorry to hear that. Fingers crossed for you.
Anonymous
I’m hoping there’s sarcasm in your post. Sending good vibes just in case you’re right.
Anonymous
That’s rough. I’m so sorry.
Anon
So sorry. I had that conversation at the end of January and I cried happy tears on my way home. I hated that job! I’m still unemployed, but happy unemployed. I hope it’s true for you if you indeed get laid off. Best wishes to you.
BeenThatGuy
I’m currently sitting in this chair! I spent the first 2 weeks WFH at the dining room table in a hard wooden chair. I could barely move my body by the end of the day. After buying this chair, I feel back to normal. It’s incredibly comfortable, easy to put together and stylish. I have a Herman Miller at the office and now I cringe for my purchasing department at the waste of money! If you’re contemplating getting a new chair, I highly recommend it.
Anon
I just bought it and now I’m glad to read your review. I have an old big pleaether chair like you would see in a conference room. It is not ergonomic and full of holes. I tried to order one from Staples and they were all sold out. I need something better. I’m excited for this to arrive.
Anon
I’m also working from my dining table and the chairs are not kind to me, but I think I would really hate having an office chair at my dining table. I already hate working from home so much and having to see that all the time would make me sad. I already hate having my computer and monitor on the table and I try to put it away in a corner as much as possible at the end of every work day.
Cb
Yes, me too! We have a little IKEA kitchen table and a upholstered kitchen chair, with a monitor and dock set up on it. My husband suggested moving it into our bedroom where it is quieter and I just can’t have my computer staring at me all night. The upholstered chair is much more comfortable than my wooden kitchen chair.
Anonymous
My mom inherited some stock in Macy’s from my grandmother, and I’m urging her to get out now. How should I help her assess what would happen in case of bankruptcy or anything like that? (The stock my grandmother had was from a local store chain that was bought by Macy’s 20 years ago or so.)
Anonymous
Why? Rushing to sell at a low point doesn’t make sense
Senior Attorney
I don’t know… I don’t see it coming back even a little. I feel like it’s about to disappear.
Anon
Then your answer is to sell half. If it rebounds, she still has some stock; if it does not, she still got some money out of it.
Anonymous
In a bankruptcy, stock = zero
Anonymous
Help! I feel like I’m always the only person on the team call using video or the only person on the call not using video! How do you know in advance which it is? I feel like a doofus.
Anon
I think it’s just personal preference.
afd s
Personally I think it’s less awkward to be the phone person on the video call – you can always switch. I would log in on your computer and have the video off in the beginning
anon
this. By default, join with camera off (and for the love of god, mic off as well). If you use zoom, you can set this as default for all the time. When you notice that everyone has camera on, you turn on yours.
CHL
I recently got a Cinto chair from Room and Board and it’s a little smaller / low profile than a typical office chair but surprisingly comfortable.
Ellen
I love this chair and will buy it, but for only $143, is it really going to last? I have a softer leather chair which I sink into but this I inherited from Dad when he upgraded his own home office. He has a bigger tuchus then me so it is kind of lumpy for me in places where I need support. I need a new one b/c I am sitting at my MacBook all day billing or drafteing pleadings, so I do not want to have lumps on my legs and tuchus built around Dad’s worn out old chair. If anyone in the hive has a recommendation, I am all ears! YAY!!!
Anon
I have a question about back pain and chairs. I’ve developed pain at the top of my butt, sort if in the tailbone area but not that deep, where it just feels sore and bruised, and sort of like my flesh has been compacted/pressed together in that area.
I sit on a regular wooden chair but the seat is upholstered, and recently so (an antique chair that matches my desk that I had fixed up by a bona-fide upholsterer.) I ordered an ugly microfiber cushion that is supposed to alleviate tailbone pain according to amazon, but boy is it ugly, and I guess until it compresses a bit, it raises me up a bit too much.
My desk and chair are beautiful and have great meaning to me so I’d hate to give up on this. They are also in a very public area of my house. I’ve just never had to work sitting in this chair for 10+ hours at a time before.
I’m wondering if 1) anyone has had this type of pain that I’m trying my best to describe, and 2) if so, is the only solution an ugly ergonomic chair?
PS I assure you, none of this is from any sort of Hank Hill-style shortage of fat/padding on my backside. The opposite is true, frankly.
Pure Imagination
I’ve had that type of pain before and I still have no idea what caused it (I think I even posted about it on here years ago), but sitting on an airplane or in my desk chair for a long time would make it way worse. I think strengthening my glutes helped, but I couldn’t really say for sure. Wish I could be more helpful but it did go away eventually…
Anon
It’s nice to hear it will go away eventually. Now that you mention airplane rides, I think I vaguely remember having this the last time I flew to Europe. However, I didn’t get back on the plane for 10 hours every day so….
anon
I’m experiencing the sort of pain you describe from sitting on my old and probably worn out office chair.
I haven’t heard a single good thing about the effects of sitting on a hard wooden chair all day (and probably hunched over a lap top to boot) from anyone working from home.
I’m going to go with this: this pain may well be from sitting in a beautiful, and sentimental valued chair all day. The chair is not designed for what you are needing it to do. The ugly pad will help (I’m using a towel and it’s providing some relief. I’d imagine that a dedicated pillow designed for you to sit on is SO much better).
It’s OK to choose functional options over the more aesthetically pleasing ones right now as you work from home for long hours.
I’d encourage you to try an ergonomic chair for the duration you work from home. You can resell, donate, or store it after you return to the office and put your prettier chair back in place. It may help to re-frame your decisions point to acknowledge that you may need a different, less attractive chair for long work from home days, than you do for an office set up that isn’t heavily used and is purposefully more decorative.
Anon
This is a nice way to frame it. Thank you!
anon
I had excruciating pain in my tailbone in the first week of shelter-in-place. I had set up my monitor on the dining room table and used a chair that is normally the comfiest of our dining room armchairs. Looking back at how the pain subsided after the first few days of panicking over the uncertainty of things, I think a part of it was psychological. But I also changed some things: for two weeks I did exercise daily, either yoga for the lower back, or crunches/other core workouts, or running. I didn’t want to splurge on a computer chair, but I got an exercise ball at target for $20, which I now alternate with the dining room chair. I also have at least an hour a day with video meetings, which I take at my standing desk (aka my dresser plus a shoebox). Now I’ve been pretty much pain free for a month, although I don’t exercise every day anymore.
get the pillow
I had this same pain from sitting on the same hard wooden chair for the first ~2 weeks of shelter-in-place. I did the following to improve the pain and it’s almost gone if I follow these steps: stole the ugly butt pillow from my husband and use it when I’m on video calls at the kitchen table, go for walks between meetings (literally even 10 minutes around the block makes a difference), go for a long walk in the evening, stretch while I’m reading things (particularly focus on hip-opening stretches like pigeon, runner’s lunge, etc.), switch to the couch or the bed if I’m just watching a meeting. I already exercise daily but I did not realize how much more I move during the day when I’m at the office. Even a day full of meetings means I’m shuffling between conference rooms, walking up and down stairs, walking further to get water/use the bathroom, etc. And I would normally walk over and stand at a colleague’s desk for quick questions or invite them over to my desk and we’d both stand to look at something on the screen. All of those interactions have switched to taking much longer via Slack or email because now we have to go through all the “how are you/your family/WFH” greetings at least once per day.
Newsie
Desk chairs: I am looking for a desk chair where the spread of the arms can be adjusted to fit someone with narrow shoulders, or where the arms are set closed together but still adjustable height-wise. There are soooo many ways that chair fit can go wrong. Any suggestions from other petite readers?
Z
I’m 5’2″ with narrow shoulders. My desk at work is Steelcase, it looks like an older version of the “Think” Adjustable Office Chair. It has adjustable in-out arm rests and is quite comfy, though pricey.
Z
https://store.steelcase.com/seating/office-chairs/think
Newsie
You are exactly my height and identified the problem. I will check out Steelcase. Thanks for the suggestion.
Duckles
Petite ladies, has anyone else had this problem— I’ve had it in every desk I’ve ever worked at: if you raise your chair high enough you’re at the right height for the desk for shoulder/typing purposes, and have your feet in a footrest, your thighs don’t even fit under the desk so you end up sitting way too far back. (FWIW, I wear a size 2-4 in pants, so I figure something weird has to be going on and not just that I have superhuman thighs).
Anonymous
Same problem here; no solutions yet. I also have a hard time finding a spot on the ground for a footrest–putting them where my feet naturally fall interferes with the wheels of my desk chair, and if I arrange the wheels perfectly so the footrest fits, it becomes hard to move the chair around without weird footrest/wheel interaction. Here for solutions anyone has found!
Duckles
This too!
Anon
The Aeron has adjustable arms that swing in and comes in a small size that’s shorter and narrower to begin with. It’s the only chair I’ve ever had where I’ve been able to use the armrests- I honestly hadn’t even realized that you were supposed to be able to put your arms on the armrests of an office chair because every chair I’d ever sat it before that was so much wider than me it wasn’t even slightly possible to put my arms on the armrests and still type. I’m also 5’2″ with short arms and narrow shoulders.
Anon
The Aeron chair comes in sizes and mine has fully adjustable arms.
No Longer Anon
Another desk chair question- I’m working at a VERY low desk (it’s my childhood desk, I’m at my parents’ house). I’m sitting on a really, really uncomfortable wooden chair. The desk has 21 inches of clearance. It’s on carpet, so I don’t care about having it roll. I just want something more comfortable. Any ideas?
Anon
Can you raise the legs of the desk so that a standard height chair works? I don’t think the real solution is a low chair. Unless you are very short, that will make your legs/hips hurt in the long run.
They make furniture risers for this purpose. Maybe look up bed risers.
No Longer Anon
Not really. I may be able to find a card table to replace the desk with….
anon
I am so irritated with my husband. We are working from home with 2 kids, and my perception is that I’m doing a lot more being ‘on’ with the kids. He would probably disagree and say that we’re splitting time equally. So earlier this week, I worked out a family schedule so I could actually have some focused work time without interruptions, which are driving me up a tree. Well — today he decides to go to the landscape supply place for a truckload of mulch during what is supposed to be his work time from 2-3. Shocker, he isn’t home yet, because he had to borrow a truck from his dad. And once again, I am trying to work while kids are wandering around, during what is supposed to be *my* work time. He just does not get it. I do not know how to make him understand that while his borderline ADHD brain is perfectly happy bouncing from task to task, mine is not.
Cb
Argh, we have a 4 hour split with a 15 minute family break rather than bouncing back and forth which really helps. My husband can work with loads of interruptions but I can’t, so we’ve settled into the following:
8-12 – Husband works, with a 10:15 coffee break where he may help me get my son dressed
12-1 – Family lunch
1-5:30 – Me work, time includes kiddo’s nap during which my husband preps dinner, laundry, or cycles to the shop
5:30 – I make dinner, we eat, and then alternate on bedtime.
anon
That would be preference, too, but we both have standing meetings throughout the week that make that sort of split shift unworkable. And I truly don’t think he’s trying to do this on purpose; he just really doesn’t relate to feeling like his attention is completely divided and unproductive. Then *I* feel like the inflexible, cantankerous B. At least my garden is getting mulched today?
Anonymous
If he has ADHD, shouldn’t he be keenly aware of the problems of not being able to pay attention to the right thing?
Anonymous
He’s an inconsiderate jerk and you know it.
Walnut
Can each of you timebox your meeting availability? Several of us on my team aligned schedules to be available for meetings from 7-12 and block out our afternoons as out of office. We’re all more or less available by IM in the afternoons, but everyone has been shockingly respective of the condensed meeting availability. I’m hoping to make it permanent after we’re back in the office.
Anon
I mean, I’d be on the phone saying get your ass home right now, I have to work. If he can’t get the landscaping task done within his “off” hours, too f-n bad, he has to try again tomorrow.
I’ve been married 20+ years. One key is being firm about things you have already agreed to.
Ants_go_marching
There was a (depressing) article in the New York Times yesterday about the fact that in many dual income currently working from home families the woman is doing more of the child care tasks.
TrixieRuby
Well, this calls for bringing the kids along to the nursery for the mulch. That’s how it goes when you are responsible for the kids. Maybe it is adhd, but maybe it is ‘my wife is at home, so I will just go.” He is taking advantage of you, and does not get the rules.
Anonymous
Ah!! You can not take the kids to get mulch right now. Do you not understand what we are doing? Only go out for essentials with the least number of people possible, which means that dad doesn’t bring the kids to get mulch even if mom is annoyed.
AnonMom
To be fair, it also means the dad doesn’t go out for nonessential mulch.
Anonymous
The gardening stores are open so I am fine with dad going on for non Essential mulch. But he can’t drag an extra person along with him.
Anonymous
Have you ever bought mulch? I am
In a hotspot and I would 100% take my kids on that trip. The kids don’t leave the car! Either the mulch is scooped/dumped into your car for you, or you shovel it in (alone).
Or you load palates from home depot.
I wouldn’t bring the kids in the store of course but you can 100% do this adventure with kids. Prepay.
annienomous
My office is an essential business and still open (though not to the public). We’re trying to implement some ideas to help us get through the day-to-day, including starting an hourly exercise minute (the office manager will send out the day’s exercise in the morning, and everyone who wants will take a one minute break on the hour, every hour, to do that exercise.)
We’ve been catering in lunches from local restaurants since the shutdown started. We’re also talking about doing a “Spirit Week” with dress up days (I’m less excited about this.)
Anyone’s office done any good morale boosters that you’d like to share?
Anonymous
money, recognition for real achievements, and regular break that are truly free time
Anonymous
Money
Anon
Do not make people dress up.
Give people a real bonus.
MJ
The catering is interesting. I see the morale point, but when my tech company office that catered lunch in daily moved to our own version of Level 2 (early March, SF), we did away with communal catered meals, and only were permitted individual boxed lunches for health reasons. And I felt like our communal kitchen was definitely the vector area, even though everyone was watching one another like hawks re hand washing.
And, in the eeeeeew category–our office building ran out of soap in 3 days. 3 days! Because a much larger contingent of people began washing hands far more often. EEEEEW.
Belle Boyd
For the love of puppies, PLEASE do not make people dress up!!!! Please. I am begging you to stay far, far away from that nonsense.
$$$ boosts morale, not Halloween in April.