Category : office furniture

In the wake of studies pointing to the dangers of sitting at a desk too long during the day, proponents of standing desks have hailed it as the antidote to the sedentary lifestyle that some have deemed, “the new smoking.”

As is often the case in the office world, novel ideas that progressive thinkers latch onto don’t always turn out how you’d expect.

In the first part of our two-part series on the pros and cons of standing desks, we provided four different examples of people who use standing desks in their workplace and love them.

One employee noted that her standing desk helped alleviate back pain and fostered more focus than what she’d have at a sitting desk.

However, not every standing-desk experience is a positive one. When we reached out to companies across the country to get their thoughts on standing desks, we received multiple responses from those who disliked their standing desk experience.

“I personally dislike standing desks.”

The studies on sitting at a desk aren’t knocking traditional desks and praising standing desks. Rather, they call to attention the importance of getting up at least once an hour to move your body and get your blood flowing.

For some employees, taking a brisk walk around the office every hour is better than a standing desk of one simple reason: Standing can wear you out and hinder your ability to zero in on the task at hand.

This is something we heard from Stacy Caprio, founder of Accelerated Growth Marketing.

“As an employee, I personally dislike standing desks, as they make me tired, which takes away my focus and concentration from what I’m working on,” Caprio said.

Caprio said she prefers sitting at a desk because it helps her focus on the moment and task at hand.

“I’m able to be more fully present and focused when sitting, as long as I take ample walking breaks during the day,” she said.

“They are overrated.”

Sometimes an office will find itself in a situation where they’ve committed to a change in their workspaces, only to find out that those changes don’t quite work out as expected.

Jessica Landon, an SEO specialist at an Idaho-based marketing firm, said her company brought in standing desks and now about one-third of them are actually used, she said.

“I think, overall, they are overrated. I’d say roughly that only a quarter to a third of the employees here actually use them,” she said.

She went on to say that the desks they have are great, in theory, because they’re programmable, which means you can set them to adjust to different heights during the day. But most of them aren’t being used to stand.

“I do think they are a genius idea, they are just underutilized, in my opinion, here in our office,” she said.

“It just sits there gathering dust.”

Bernard Meyer, a digital marketer and content creator at Meyer Food Blog, said his office brought in standing desks. Everyone was enthusiastic about them.

“In my previous job, we had standing desks brought in. We were all quite excited about being healthier at work, since we had read about the dangers of sitting too long,” he said.

It only took a week for the novelty to wear off – employees became tired of standing.

“A few weeks later, we’d just stopped even bothering to lie to ourselves that we’d used it. It would just stand there, staring us in the face,” Meyer said. “It’s like a treadmill you buy for your home. You use it for one week, and the rest of the time it just sits there gathering dust.”

“It was nice at first.”

Another complaint we heard is that standing may relieve back pain, but it can affect other joints that aren’t used to being in a standing position all the time.

David Waring, co-founder of FitSmallBusiness.com, said he switched to a standing desk “because of a back injuring that kept flaring up after long hours of sitting.”

He enjoyed the standing desk at first, but, over time, pain started to creep into other parts of his body.

“I found that standing all day in the same place started giving me knee issues and was also pretty exhausting,” he said.

So, he switched from a standing desk to a sit-stand desk that gave him the option of either standing up or sitting down to get his work done.

“I have found this to be much more comfortable and have not had any leg or back issues since,” he said.

Standing desks soared into the spotlight after prominent studies came out noting how dangerous it was for office workers to stay inactive throughout the workday.

Just like open offices, the standing desk movement became a trend that still has momentum in 2018. And, just like open offices, standing desks have proponents and detractors.

We reached out to businesses across the country to find out what they thought about standing desks. In response, we received a lot of responses from managers and employees who offered their opinions about standing desks.

In this post and the next, we’ll reveal those opinions and our insight. This first post will highlight those who said they like standing desks. The next post will provide the perspective of those who tried standing desks and weren’t satisfied with the results.

“For my health and livelihood”

C.J. Comu, founder of water company Earthwater, said that he’s used a vertical desk for the past year. He’s read one too many articles detailing the health problems created by a sedentary work life and the standing desk was a practical solution for him.

“I find that it has not only helped me stay mobile, correct my posture and keep my blood flowing,” Comu said. “I like the liberty of flowing in and out of my office and I also tend to keep my correspondence to a minimum.”

“They are awesome.”
Dr. Sylvie Stacy, founder of physician career consulting site Look for Zebras, said she uses a convertible desk that allows her to change between sitting, standing and walking.

“I am a physician and I use one myself,” she said of her desk. “I love being able to change positions and get my body moving while I’m working since I spend so much time on the computer. They are awesome”

She said the key is to find a solid setup that will foster comfortability, something that cheap setups won’t offer. She also told us that her desk helps her focus, too, although it has more to do with moving around during the day than it does with actual standing versus sitting.

“I alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day, and I think the impact on my ability to focus is a result of the frequent change in position more so than the actual standing aspect,” she said. “I believe I could alternate between, say, sitting at a desk and sitting on the couch and maintain the same focus.”

We heard the same thing from Olivia Billet, marketing coordinator at Velo IT Group. Her adjustable desk is a catalyst for frequent movement.

“Sitting through the whole workday makes me feel tired and sluggish,” Billet. “I find I’m more active and alert when I’m standing, which is exactly what I need when 3:00 o’clock rolls around!”

“Reduced my back pain…”

If you don’t focus on your posture while sitting at your desk, you’ll find yourself hunching over. Using the wrong office chair can cause back pain, too.

For Tatiana Morand, content marketing and SEO coordinator at Wild Apricot, her standing desk provides a dual benefit. It keeps her fidgety tendencies at bay and, as someone with back problems, standing has strengthened her posture.

“I have a standing desk in my office, and I love it. As someone who’s naturally very fidgety, being able to stand up when I’m working on repetitive tasks helps me focus,” she said. “And, having the ability to alternate standing and sitting whenever I want has helped my posture and has drastically reduced my back pain.”

Customize your standing desks

There are multiple choices for standing desks. In fact, in this one post, there was mention of adjustable desks, standing desks and standing desks that can turn into walking desks.

In each of these situations, you’re dealing with either a stationary standing desk or an adjustable desk that will most likely be placed in a cubicle or an open office next to another co-worker. In these situations, the desk itself may be novel but the need for privacy is as time-honored as offices themselves.

Whether you’re at a standing desk or sitting at a traditional desk, we can provide privacy panels that we fit to your desk’s dimensions, protecting any sensitive information on your desk and reducing noise between your work area and that of your coworker’s.

Contact us to set up a consultation for your workplace or stop by our website to look at our privacy panel offerings.

One of the questions we often get is how cubicle shields and divider panels are different and if one is better than the other.

Our initial response is that they’re different and which one you choose should be based on your office’s needs, what you’re trying to accomplish in your workspace and what your budget is.

But, there are more intricacies involved than just those general ideas. Exploring each of those topics – needs, goals and budget – will help you get a sense of whether a cubicle shield or a divider panel is best.

Cubicle Shield vs. Divider Panels: Your Office Space’s Needs

Take a minute to think about how your office is running right now and what each team member needs. Do you run a call center where space is limited and moderate sound reduction is needed? Are your employees handling sensitive information that requires premium noise reduction between cubicles?

We find that many offices are designed with space in mind but, in some cases, visual and auditory privacy is either forgotten or neglected. This is a mistake we often see and it’s easily remedied with cubicle shields or divider panels.

In situations where you need sound privacy and you have desks with existing low walls around them, cubicle shields are a good choice because you can easily attach them to the existing walls to add height around the cubicle and deaden sound.

If your office has more of an open feel and there aren’t walls around each employee’s tables, then a desk-mounted divider panel can provide a huge privacy boost and, as we’ve pointed out before, increased privacy leads to increased productivity.

Cubicle Shield vs. Divider Panels: What Do You Want to Accomplish With Your Workspace?

Many of our clients want to create a workspace with increased productivity and privacy. These topics go hand-in-hand because, as we mentioned in the previous section, studies are clear that privacy is a human need and that workers thrive when they feel like they have a certain level of autonomy.

We also know that traditional workplaces have a desire to modernize and, in this era of office design, open concepts are easily the most popular trend.

A lot of businesses hear the phrase “open floor plan” and automatically think of bean-bag chairs and free-form work areas with standing desks and community tables.

We believe that an open concept can be achieved with cubicle shields and divider panels because both are designed to offer enough auditory and visual privacy without disrupting workplace community.

Cubicle shields and divider panels provide a functional, effective middle ground between head-high cubicle walls and wall-less open workspaces.

Cubicle Shields vs. Divider Panels: The Cost Factor

One of the things that’s most appealing about cubicle shields and divider panels is that they’re affordable and effective.

Prices tend to vary most when you’re deciding between panels that provide visual privacy and ones that provide audio privacy.

Our fabric-covered sound-reducing panels are different than our other shields and dividers because they contain STC- and NRC-rated materials that absorb sound and prevent it from moving from one cubicle to another.

While the performance of our cubicle shields and dividers is among the best, our price points remain reasonable, making both options a good choice for your office.

Wrapping It Up: An Overview of Cubicle Shields and Divider Panels

Your office’s cubicles are an important part of how productive your team will be. The thought you put into your shields and dividers will either mesh or clash with your employees’ needs and your own vision for how you want your workplace to function.

Head to our Contact Us page to send us an email or give us a call. We’re happy to talk with you about what you want out of your office and how our products can provide a simple, cost-effective solution.

Take a minute to imagine the ideal office, the one you’d love to work in but just can’t.

What comes to mind? Google? Facebook? Any number of California-based tech giants and startups? And, most likely, those offices that you thought of are huge, open spaces where collaboration seems to be the prevailing theory of workspace design. Couches. Bean bags. Standing desks. Big tables.

The open-office theory of workplace interaction now has a pretty solid grip on the work world and is the undisputed spearhead of modern work innovation. However, people have started to question how effective an open office really is.

If those arguments could be summed up with one question, it would be: Are open offices really as collaborative and idea friendly as we think.

And, believe it or not, more and more experts are saying, “no.”

High-Achievers Don’t Function Well in an Open-Office, Collaborative Atmosphere

One of the things that’s rarely talked about in open-office discussions is the negative effect of the “all-ideas-are-welcome” philosophy.

You see, when high achievers are forced to work in an environment where their excellence is watered down by communal mediocrity, they leave. At least that’s the opinion of a recent Inc. article about why collaborative environments cramp superstars’ personalities.

“The problem is that rather than seeing a top performer as a role model,” contributing editor Geoffrey James wrote, “mediocre employees tend to see them as threats, either to their own position in the company or to their own feelings of self-worth.”

At the same time, these high achievers see collaborative environments as a burden they must carry. Burdens slow people down, and a slow pace, at least to high achievers, is seen as an acceptance of mediocrity.

“The No. 1 reason high performers leave organizations in which they are otherwise happy is because of the tolerance of mediocrity,” Inc.’s Les McKeown wrote in an article picked up by TIME Magazine. “When You’re a Ferrari (or think you are), you don’t want to spend your time idling at the curb.”

Privacy Actually Promotes Mental Acuity

A big emphasis of the open-office movement is that Millennials don’t want to take well to overbearing leaders and value community. Consequently, an open-office environment puts everyone on the same plane since managers and employees are working side by side.

However, research indicates that the mind is wired for privacy. In other words, your brain needs to feel a certain level of autonomy and privacy to focus enough to excel.

The evidence for this is a 1980 study published in The Academy of Management Journal, which noted that employees were more satisfied with their job when the office’s architecture allowed them privacy.

While the study is three decades old, it remains relevant if only because other studies were done in the past few years that have confirmed it.

In fact, a New Yorker article that summarized the research in this area resolutely concluded that open offices were not nearly as beneficial as most of us believe they are.

“Psychologically, the repercussions of open offices are relatively straightforward. Physical barriers have been closely linked to psychological privacy, and a sense of privacy boosts job performance. Open offices also remove an element of control, which can lead to feelings of helplessness.”

Another landmark study came from research firm Steelcase, who revealed that all was not well in the world of open-office workplaces even though the concept has its advantages.

“Throughout the world, too much interaction and not enough privacy has reached crisis proportions, taking a heavy toll on workers’ creativity, productivity, engagement and wellbeing,” Steelcase concluded. “Without question, successful collaboration requires giving coworkers easy access to each other. But it also requires giving each individual the time and places to focus and recharge, and too many workplaces today aren’t delivering on privacy as a necessity.”

Transitioning Out of an Open Office Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult

If you’ve been considering transitioning away from a full-fledged open office to something a little more private, contact us.

We’ll help you determine what you need to do to make your changes with the least amount of impact on your employees’ performance.

Adding privacy to your office doesn’t have to be an ordeal.

In many cases, companies default to cubicle overhauls that require a lot of moving parts: rewiring cables, moving employees to temporary workstations and an install crew that comes in after hours to do the installation.

Our desk and table mount privacy panels give you a seamless solution that reduces work interruptions and, in many cases, can be installed by your team with only minor inconveniences.

In theory, this sounds great, but you should take a moment to think about all the aspects of an installation, no matter how easy it may seem.

Are the new mounts adjustable and will they damage existing furniture? How easy are adjustments? What size options are there? Are there color options? What’s the warranty?

We’ll cover each of these topics in the next few minutes.

Simple, Fluid Privacy Panel Installation

Our mounts work with desks between ¾-of-an-inch thick to 2.5 inches thick, which means there’s a good chance we can find a solution for your existing furniture.

The clamps we use to secure our privacy panels are designed well and don’t damage your furniture. It takes about five minutes to install them with an Allen wrench we provide.

Our mounts also feature channels that can work side-to-side or front-to-back.

Versatile Panel Sizes and Colors

Our panels for desks and tables come in three different heights and eight different widths. We can also create custom sizes for you.

We also offer 12 different frame colors so you can stick with the office color-palate or add variation.

If you want to cut down on sound transfer between workspaces, acoustical panels are a good choice. They come in 20 different types of fabrics. And, just like our ability to customize panel sizes, we can also customize panel colors.

Sound Transmission Class

This last concept is an indication of how effective our panels are. A product’s STC rating is a measurement of how much sound is lost when it passes through a wall or a panel.

A reduction of 10 decibels is actually heard as a 50% reduction in noise levels.

Our acoustical tile panels have an STC rating of 26, which means your employees will note a significant reduction in ambient noise as soon as your panels are installed.

A First-Hand Look at a Panel Installation

As we mentioned earlier, our panels are a simple, elegant solution for increasing the privacy of your office’s workspaces.

Our website includes a series of videos that show just how easy installation is. Here is one of those videos:

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This video highlights the greatest advantage to using OBEX to increase your office’s audio and visual privacy. It’s a fantastic alternative to tearing down and rebuilding a cubicle, which costs hundreds of dollars in labor costs.

And that cost doesn’t factor in the down time for rerouting cables and moving computers, cables and keyboards.

All of this creates stress and reduced productivity. It’s labor-intensive, it’s disruptive and there aren’t many companies who can do installations during normal working hours.

Some Final Thoughts About Table and Desk Privacy Panels

If you’re new to privacy panels, the solutions may seem unbelievably simple – and they are.

We’ve put a lot of time into finding solutions for our clients that help them keep the ship running smoothly as we install their panels.

The result is a line of desk and table privacy panels with a wide range of sizes, colors and customizable options that easily integrate our products into your office’s existing design themes.

If you have any questions about our panels, customizations or the installation process contact us by email or give us a call at (888)323-6986.

A calendar year can take a toll on an office.

Just think about the walk from your desk to the break room. The floor has new stains, cubicles are marked with dents and scrapes. Fabric dividers start to fray at the edges. Chairs squeak a little more and the fluorescent glow of recessed lighting just seems a little more yellow.

There are ways to combat this inevitable decline. We learned this over the past year by studying trends in office design and equipment, employee perks, dress codes and other areas of office life. During the next few months we’re going share what we’ve learned with ideas for sprucing up your office as we head into 2017.

It’s Time to Upgrade Your Office Chair

Over the past few years, we’ve read a ton of information about office chairs. Some of that research has been history based, while other bouts of fact-finding focused on the ever-timeless Herman Miller line of chairs.

Simply put, what you’re sitting in at work matters; it matters to your back and to the rest of your body. If your spine is aching or your wrists and hands are sore, you aren’t going to perform at the highest possible level.

If you’re going to splurge on a gift for yourself or work with your procurement department to upgrade, we suggest the Herman Miller SAYL. While it’s not at the level of Herman Miller’s legendary Aeron, the chair is a fantastic buy for someone looking for solid support, style and a reliable brand name.

We talked about the SAYL this past year, noting that one furniture site said the chair is better suited for the conference room than it is for the desk. However, between then and now, the SAYL has become somewhat of a unicorn in the tech world.

Not only that, but the chair made several appearances in the Hunger Games series and was a regular at the Hooli offices in HBO’s Silicon Valley, Business Insider contributor Melia Robinson wrote.

The sticker price on the SAYL is around $530 and the chair is worth every dime.

Kiss that Keyboard Goodbye

Anyone who’s worked in a traditional office has probably laid their hands on a standard issue HP or Dell keyboard with sky-high keys and that familiar muted thump-thump-thump.

In this new year, make the switch to a chiclet keyboard. These low-profile keys allow you to type quicker by using less pressure to push down each individual key.

One of the most popular (and affordable) chiclet keyboards at Best Buy is the HP K3500. It has the full keyboard with number pad and is wireless. For $29.99, you’ll have a hard time finding a better value.

Bid Farewell to That Ailing Mouse

Owning a mouse that isn’t quite perfect is like driving a car with a squeaky serpentine belt. Most of the time it works fine, but once it starts acting up, the annoyance is nearly unbearable.

In some cases, a mouse that doesn’t track or a scroll wheel that doesn’t spin is a matter of a quick clean. But, if you’ve given the old chap a good run and he’s near the end of his electronic life, it makes no sense to hobble into the new year with him.

Unlike a new office chair, a quality mouse will cost you less than $50. In fact, we found a pair of mice you can use for the office and travel than will cost you less than $40.

The Logitech M320 has been likened to the Honda Accord of the mouse world. It’s reliable, lasts a long time and comes from a reputable company.

The M320 has a two-button setup with a scroll wheel. It’s simple, but not shoddy; it was a PC Mag Editor’s Choice.

If you travel often for work, then consider the  Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Mouse 3600. This workhorse is small enough to fit in your pocket but provides the hand support you need when you’re clicking through reports for hours on a cross-country flight.

One thing we hear over and over again is that our panel extenders are so easy to install.

Companies who feel intimidated by a complete overhaul of their cubicles cower at the thought of throwing the office into upheaval. Extenders, on the other hand, help you avoid the chaos and provide privacy in about as long as it takes you to walk across the office to get a cup of coffee.

So, you can see why “easy” is a word that often comes up in discussions about our panel extenders. But ease of use is only part of the equation. Even low-quality solutions can be easy to set up. The key is to find a sensible, smooth solution that will last.

Over the next few minutes, we’re going to walk you through how to install our panel extenders and what it is about their construction that makes them work so well.

The Installation Process: One Tool Does It All

If you want to know how simple a project will be, tally up how many tools you need and how many pieces of hardware are involved.

Our panel extenders come with three things: universal adjustable brackets, the panels themselves and an Allen wrench. Whether you’re doing a panel-mount or desk-mount installation, the hardware and tools are the same.

Once you have your extenders in hand, installing them takes about 5 minutes. And that’s a true 5 minutes, whether you’re a handyman or you’ve never laid a finger on a wrench in your life.

To show you what we mean, we’ll walk you through the process via photos:

This photo is a great shot of our adjustable brackets. Our brackets come in two sizes: standard and large. The standards fit panels from 1.5-inches to 3-inches thick, while the large brackets fit panels ranging in width from 3 inches to 3.75 inches.

Once these brackets are fixed to the existing panel, drop in the new panel tile and use the Allen wrench to tighten up the brackets and anchor the panel into place.

Our desk-mount panels are installed the same way, except the brackets are fixed to the ends of the desk. And that’s it; that’s how you install our panel extenders.

How they Work: The Magic Behind Blocking Out the Noise

Once your panel extenders are in place, you’re going to notice a difference in how much sound is able to penetrate your workspace.

The reason why our panel tiles are so effective at blocking noise from reaching your desk is because they’re made out of a pair of quality materials specifically designed to deaden sound waves.

Each panel is made of an outer fabric cover and an inner sheet of fiberboard. For our outer fabric we’ve chosen a fireproof, recycled product that provides the first barrier of defense.

Once sound passes through the fabric layer, it encounters a thick layer of fiberboard. We use a type of fiberboard called Soundboard, known for its ability to deaden sound without adding too much bulk.

Soundboard, as well as other materials, are rated on two different scales to determine how good they are at blocking sound. Those two scales are called the Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) and Sound Transmission Class (STC).

Noise Reduction Coefficient

The NRC scale goes from 0 to 1 and judges how well a material can absorb sound. Sound is divided into its own categories called frequencies. The frequencies we’re most concerned about are mid-range frequencies, which is the range in which you’ll find the human voice.

Our panels have an NRC rating of 0.35, which represents a significant reduction in noise, including mid-range frequencies.

Sound Transmission Class

STC ratings are scores that represent how many decibels are lost when a sound passes through the material. An STC rating of 20 means the material blocks out 20 decibels. To give you a reference point, the human ear perceives a loss of 10 decibels as a 50% reduction in hearing ability.

The panel extenders we offer have an STC rating of 26; that’s a pretty big drop in noise.

Overall, our acoustical tile panels are 50% better at deadening noise than non-acoustic extenders, and while they’ll cost you a little more than a basic plastic panel, you’ll get more than your money’s worth with a quiet, calm workspace that increases productivity and privacy.

We literally want you to sit back and relax as you read this post.

Hopefully, you’re sitting in the kind of office chair that allows you to do that. If not, then you’re going to like the suggestions we’ve gathered for you.

You see, office chairs have a rich history in the United States and abroad. Some say the ancient Egyptians invented it, while others point to the 19^th century. Either way, I think we can all agree that your chair is what dictates your level of comfortability.

We’ve all sat in one of those rickety old “chairs” that can tie our back muscles into nasty little knots. And hopefully we’ve all felt the relief when we finally sit in a solid, well-constructed chair that supports our alignment and keeps us happy for eight hours (or more) a day.

Which chair is right for you? Only you can decide that, but we’ve put together a few suggestions we think you’ll enjoy.

Herman Miller Aeron:  The King of the Workplace Castle

The good news? The Aeron occasionally goes on sale on Amazon. In fact, right now it’s 15 percent off. The bad news? The sale price is $798.15 (it’s regularly $939).

There’s a reason why this chair is so expensive: It’s arguably the best office chair on the market… ever. The Aeron was originally designed by two ergonomic geniuses, Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf. Herman Miller loved the chair and it soon became a favorite among discerning customers.

Gear Patrol calls the Aeron “the chair against which all chairs are measured.”

Aeron is everything an office chair should be: stylish, unique and an absolute champion of good posture. Take a moment to watch this promotional video. You’ll get a pretty good idea of the mechanics and design behind this treasure:

Sitting in this beauty of a throne all day doesn’t seem so bad, does it? If your bottom line can bear it, you might want to invest in the Aeron. The chair, according to Omincore, comes in three different sizes: A, B and C.

Sayl Away with Me: The Herman Miller Sayl

If you can’t pony up nearly $1,000 for the Aeron, consider the ever-modern Sayl. This chair, according to Herman Miller, contains the most complex part the company has ever created.

“Most chairs tend to be overwhelming,” designer Yves Behar said in the video below. “Everything was done for (the Sayl) to be really simple.”

You know the chair is going to be good when the designer says the back support is the most complex part ever created in the 80-year history of the company.

The chair can be had on Amazon for about $510, around half the cost of its more famous big brother, the Aeron. Plus, the Sayl has a 97.22% customer satisfaction rating on Smart Furniture’s Top-10 office chair list.

“The Sayl earns its reputation as one of the most beautiful office chairs in Herman Miller’s stable,” Smart Furniture wrote.

Word to the wise: This chair is better used as a conference-room piece. Task chair it is not, Smart Furniture says.

A Modest Choice: The Office Star Air Grid

This suggestion comes from the reviewers at Gear Patrol. The Air Grid is workmanlike in its design. It’s not flashy and it’s not fancy. It’s a simple, efficient piece of furniture.

But don’t take Gear Patrol’s word for it, or even ours. Head to the chair’s Amazon page, where 952 people have given the Air Grid 4.7 out of 5 stars.

Like the Sayl, this chair has a breathable back that provides enough support to keep you feeling cool and strong as you slave away at your keyboard. Here’s a video of the product:

While the Air Grid doesn’t give you that same legendary feeling that you’ll get from the Herman Millers we mentioned above, it does its job well. And for $144, it’s a steal for the level of quality it offers.

To find out more, head to the chair’s Office Star product page.

Creating the Complete Office

In the overall masterpiece that is your office’s layout and organization, chairs are just one part of an intricate orchestra of furniture elements.

Stop by our website and take a look at our gallery, where you can see photos of our products at work in an office space.

While the definition of poor work performance changes, the causes of the performance gap seem to be universal no matter the industry, company, job description, or typical group of people. Some causal factors of low or high performance are employee – centric issues and others are organization issues. These tend to overlap. Most issues are influenced by both the employee and the organization. For example, if Employee A’s manager asks him why he has only been averaging seventy – five phone calls per hour, he could hear one or both of the following reasons:

Example #1: “I am distracted because my wife is due to have a baby. Every time I hear a phone ring I think it is her calling to tell me that she is going to the hospital.”

Example #2: “My coworkers are bothering me. The one on my left keeps laughing really loud and the one on my right asks me a question every few minutes. I can’t concentrate on my own calls with all of these interruptions.”

The first example is an employee issue. His life at home is leaking into his life at work. In other words his work / life balance is off. The organization can do little to help him. He is in control of how distracted he is or is not. Example #2 is an organization issue. Because of the way the office set up its employees right next to each other, and because of the managers’ ineffectiveness to keep his coworkers quiet and train the rookies, he is distracted by factors he can’t control. Because companies have little to no influence on what is happening in the employees’ life that might cause disruptions, they have to focus on the organization’s factors. Below are the top five causes of poor work performance, specifically ones that companies can cause or allow to happen, and therefore they are the ones that can be fixed.

1. Lack of sound privacy. Every worker is unique. Employee A might be productive when there is loud music in the background. That same music might be distracting and annoying to Employee B. Employee A could train himself to hear his coworkers conversations as simple white noise in the background while Employee B can’t help but listen intently to whatever is being said. Additional noises such as tapping on computer keyboards and squeaking chairs are also big distractions. This cause can be fixed with additional partitions and noise-cancelling headphones.

2. Lack of visual privacy. No employees have reported that they like it when someone is looking over their shoulder. Those who have their desks set up right in their manager’s line of sight say that adds additional, unnecessary stress. Managers typically think that their presence makes employees more productive but the result is the exact opposite. Workers are less likely to play online games and surf social media sites when someone can easily see them, but studies show that does not improve work performance.

3. Lack of personal space / Overcrowding. Open office models typically put four to ten people around one table. They each have their own chair, their own computer, and their own basic office supplies like pens, but nothing else belongs to them. They are literally bumping elbows and they do not have the opportunity to make the space their own. No pictures of their kids and their pets, no calendar with quotes from their favorite comedian or politicians, and no jar of their favorite candy. When an employee feels “at home” at work, he works better. Companies need to give employees the opportunity to personalize their space.

4. Inability to control the environment. An employee who is shivering because he is cold, or sweating because he is hot, is an ineffective worker. The same employees need to be able to adjust the curtains or shades on the windows when the sun is getting in their eyes. He needs a chair that can be adjusted up and down, left and right, and is not different the next day because someone else sat in it after he did.

5. Second – guessing, or excessive mistakes due to poor training. A company’s first priority should be making sure that their employees are well trained. That way they will not be interrupting each other with questions, or doing their own work slowly because they are struggling to remember what to do next or how to do it.

In order to get ideal work from their employees, businesses must create the ideal work environments. This goes beyond ensuring occupational health and safety. It goes beyond making sure that the workplace is clean, beyond having water fountains and bathrooms that work, and beyond managerial accountability. With so little influence over an employee’s ability to balance work and life, work must be the focus. Recently big name companies like Google, Facebook, and Square have been praising the open office model. In order to improve managerial accessibility, transparency, and employees’ opportunities to collaborate, their workspaces have done away with enclosed offices and individual cubicles. They have literally taken the walls down between their employees.

Those same employees agree across the board that the open office model does get them more face – time with their coworkers. However, they also report the following negative consequences of it: lack of sound privacy, lack of visual privacy, overcrowded workspaces and an inability to control their personal space / environment. Only twenty five percent, that is one in four workers in the United States, say that they work in the ideal environment for peak job performance. The causes of poor work performance are not a problem for that twenty percent because they have sound privacy, visual privacy, and their workspaces are not overcrowded. Companies must prioritize and invest in creating these ideal environments not only for their employees but for the business at large.