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Every boss has complex tasks to master every day, with problems and complex situations rarely lacking. Presumably, many managers and bosses also struggle with one ailment or another, such as back pain, tension in the neck or shoulder area, headaches, blood circulation disorders, or other office illnesses. Therefore, it is understandable that every boss wants an ergonomic executive chair. This is intended to guarantee at least comfortable and healthy sitting during work. But can this effectively be expected from every so-called "executive chair"? Unfortunately, far from it! The two words "ergonomic executive chair" are still far too often exploited by marketing, making the craziest promises palatable, which in reality, during daily sitting on such an office chair, largely vanish into thin air.
To avoid such experiences, in this article I will give 4 fundamental tips that truly characterize an ergonomic executive chair. I will show how poor desk posture can be avoided and how ergonomic setup of the seating in an executive office is possible, so that good ergonomics and design are guaranteed, which is ultimately what every boss wants.
Ergonomic evaluation based on 4 important tips
There are various key points that are crucial for qualifying an ergonomic executive chair and should be paid attention to. Below, I have compiled an ergonomic evaluation that summarizes these 4 criteria as follows:
Tip 1: Ergonomics and design
In an executive office, both should be present: ergonomics and design. Although these two properties are often in conflict with each other, there are still good ways to combine them. Good ergonomics is achieved when you not only sit relaxed in your executive chair, but also when the entire workflow from your office chair is right. An overly unusual design, on the other hand, usually offers a lot for the eye but little for ergonomics and is harmful to health in the vast majority of cases.
Ergonomics means: optimal adaptation between humans and changing working conditions. The basic rules for good ergonomics with an ergonomic executive chair at the workplace are summarized from this mix:
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Correct chair height:
The thighs should be horizontal or slightly raised from the knees towards the hips. The feet should always have contact with the floor. Therefore, make sure that the gas spring of the office chair offers at least 12 cm of stroke, so that the correct chair height for the ergonomic executive chair can be easily adjusted for both short and tall people.
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Adjustment of the backrest and, if possible, the seat tilt:
To ensure dynamic sitting, the backrest must be adjustable in tilt. This enables dynamic sitting. Adjust the counter-pressure of the backrest so that you are comfortably supported when the backrest is not locked, but do not fall backwards or get pushed too far forward.
A moving backrest has many advantages because it constantly moves the spine slightly, even if it is only micro-movements, but this is precisely how rigid sitting can be avoided. The backrest should also be adjustable in height independently, so that optimal support in the lower back area can be achieved for every body size.
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Armrests and arm posture:
The arms should rest flat on the desk, which should create an angle of the forearms to the upper arms of approx. 90-100°. The armrest surface should be at the same height as the work surface of the office desk to create an extended support surface. However, there must be no conflict between the armrests and the desk surface. With height-adjustable armrests, this can usually be avoided, especially if an armrest can be adjusted not only in height, but also in depth and rotation.
If an armrest is still an obstacle to the work surface, it should be adjusted downwards or omitted entirely. What certainly cannot be the solution is that you cannot get close enough to the office desk because of the armrests and thus remain further back, which automatically leads to a slouched posture. Avoid such poor desk posture in any case and work better without armrests.
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Desk height:
An ergonomic executive chair is not only expected to upgrade the working situation, but also to improve ergonomics. Ergonomic setup of an executive office goes beyond the office chair and has a direct influence on sitting posture, whereby poor desk posture should be avoided in any case.
In combination with the correct chair height and the correct resting of the arms on the desk (90-100° angle from forearms to upper arms), as described above, your desk is automatically at the correct ergonomic height and correct desk posture is guaranteed.
The height of the desk should always be adjustable to your needs. Many people make the mistake of adjusting the chair height to the height of the desk, thereby ignoring the needs of the sitting person. If your desk is not height-adjustable, shorter people can use a footrest to ensure their feet have contact with the floor. Taller people could raise the desk with wooden blocks or similar, always ensuring good stability.
If you would like to know more information about desks, you can find out in my blog "Does an ergonomic standing desk really offer me advantages?".
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Monitor, keyboard and mouse:
For a good ergonomic evaluation at the workplace, the monitor should be adjusted in height so that the gaze of the center of the eye goes slightly over the top edge of the screen. With an outstretched arm, you should also be able to easily touch the screen with your fingertips and you should be exactly centered in front of the screen so that it is not too far to the left or too far to the right.
The keyboard should also be centered and lie in front of you about a hand's width away from the edge of the desk. Use a wrist rest when typing so that your wrists are not bent.
For the mouse, you should also use a wrist rest to avoid tendonitis problems. Alternatively, you can also use a vertical mouse. You can find more on the topic of wrist rests for keyboards and mice in my blog "Are ergonomic wrist rests for keyboards and mice really useful?".
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Lighting, temperature, humidity and noise level:
Here, too, an ergonomic setup of the workplace taking these points into account is fundamental. You can achieve good lighting with a combination of indirect and direct lighting, as well as daylight. You should never be blinded and there should be no shadows on your work surface.
The ideal room temperature is 21°C/69°F and humidity between 40-60%.
The noise level should be a maximum of 55 dB(A), which roughly corresponds to a conversation with a normal voice between 2 people. You can find more on this topic in my blog "How can ergonomic and human factors positively influence well-being in today's office?".
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Design of an ergonomic executive chair:
My experience with designer chairs has been negative in the majority of cases, and designer executive chairs are no exception here. Too often I have seen work situations where the source of health complaints was directly triggered by the designer office chair. An elegant design is usually characterized by thin padding, mesh covering, or special shapes. With padding that is too thin or a mesh covering, blood circulation is quickly compromised, especially when sitting on a relatively hard surface for hours or if pressure points form. Many design shapes also achieve a poor ergonomic rating because they do not reflect the natural shape of a spine or promote a healthy sitting posture. Often it is the armrests that have a special design but constantly hit the edge of the desk, are not adjustable, or are at the wrong height.
Nevertheless, there are various manufacturers who have managed to combine ergonomics and design in such a way that there is enough of both, so that an ergonomic executive chair with design can be found in the executive office. Furthermore, design is a matter of taste and difficult to measure, whereas ergonomics can be assessed and measured relatively quickly. So when it comes to design, always pay attention to ergonomics to ensure it is not neglected. But I also know various people who consciously chose design because beauty comes before health for them. This is a personal choice and humans are known to be free to choose what suits them best overall. A main argument of such people is often the statement that thick padding on office chairs does not look elegant. I wrote a special blog on this topic, titled "Why is an ergonomically padded office chair so important for health?".
Tip 2: Lumbar support for a natural S-shape of the spine
Many people, including quite a few bosses, have complaints in their lower back or have already suffered a herniated disc. 90% of herniated discs occur between the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebrae (L4/L5). This is the lower part of the spine, also called lumbar lordosis. Therefore, special care should be taken to provide good support here. Make sure your ergonomic executive chair has a pronounced lumbar support. On very many office chairs, exactly this support is missing, and therefore a large number of people have problems and pain in the lumbar region.
A good lumbar support on an ergonomic executive chair should be adjustable. Both in depth and in height. This allows the most comfortable setting to be found and adjusted individually. It is important that when sitting, the spine remains in its natural double S-shape, so that no incorrect load is placed on the intervertebral discs and poor desk posture can be avoided. Ergonomics and design can certainly be reflected in the elegant S-shape of a spine.
You can find more detailed information on this important topic of lumbar support in my blog "Does an ergonomic office chair with lumbar support really offer benefits for the back?".
Tip 3: Ergonomic accessories
With an ergonomic executive chair, you like to have something special. This can usually be upgraded with ergonomic accessories.
It can start with the ergonomic armrests, which are available as 2D, 3D, 4D or even 5D. Adjustment is guaranteed with different options, such as in height, width, depth, angle or rotating, all of which ultimately lead to more ergonomics.
An absolutely useful ergonomic accessory is the lumbar support, which I already explained above and is certainly not a luxury in an executive office.
A headrest sometimes only has a design function, but can certainly make ergonomic sense if it can be adjusted in height and depth, or in the angle of inclination. The head should be supported in a natural posture and not fall too far back. Unfortunately, this is not guaranteed with many headrests, and therefore, if an ergonomic headrest is desired, special care should be taken to ensure that it effectively "supports" the head. You can find further explanations on headrests in my blog "Does an ergonomic chair with a headrest in the office offer me added value for more efficient work and less neck pain?".
Another welcome ergonomic accessory is a coat hanger on the executive chair. These are available in plastic, although with an ergonomic executive chair, one prefers a chrome-plated coat hanger. When choosing a coat hanger, make sure it is stable and has the necessary width. Many coat hangers are not wide enough, which means that wrinkle-free hanging of a jacket is not always guaranteed.
For me, the castors are standard ergonomic accessories. These should be provided with a softer rubber coating for hard floors and made of hard plastic for soft floors such as carpet. There are also universal castors, although rolling behavior on a carpet is always best with carpet castors. You can find more on the topic of office chair castors in my blog "Pit stop for the office chair".
Some ergonomic executive chairs offer massage functions, which are certainly interesting but do not offer much ergonomic added value.
The fabric cover also has an ergonomic character, as it influences the general sense of well-being and can thus lead to more or less ergonomics. For an ergonomic executive chair, a majority of people expect a real leather cover to be appropriate. This is indeed absolutely noble and has the great advantage of durability, good hygiene, and design appeal. Although leather also needs care, it is a rather indestructible material. However, since leather is not breathable, high-quality office chair manufacturers use slightly perforated leather, i.e. a kind of perforated leather, in combination with non-perforated leather for the leather cover. Similar to what the automotive industry does with leather covers for car seats.
Imitation leather, on the other hand, is unsuitable for an executive chair because you end up sitting in your own sweat in warm temperatures. Imitation leather is only used in low-priced models, but these should no longer be declared as executive chairs. As an alternative to real leather, a microfiber cover is available, similar to Alcantara. Fabric covers made of a wool blend mixed with polyamide or classic Trevira fabrics are also represented in the executive suite. All well-known manufacturers offer a large selection of options here.
Tip 4: Good value
Almost everyone likes to buy at a good value and get the best price-performance ratio. With a super cheap ergonomic executive chair, the advantage of such a bargain is usually only in one point: the price. You can be really happy about a low price, but after that there is usually a rude awakening because the ergonomics are not right and the quality leaves a lot to be desired. With many of these executive chairs, the screws loosen over time, noises become audible, and the cheap workmanship is noticeable throughout the entire chair. The health complaints usually continue in exactly the same way, and finally, disposal costs have to be paid to get rid of such an executive chair.
Cheap executive chairs, for example, have a gas spring with a stroke of only 10 cm, which already considerably limits the height adjustment. Only from a gas spring stroke of 12 cm can we speak of an ergonomic height adjustment for the correct chair height, for different body sizes.
The backrest on some cheap executive chairs is sometimes not adjustable in tilt independently of the seat surface. So the backrest is firmly connected to the seat surface, just like on a normal kitchen chair. This destroys dynamic sitting, even if some manufacturers pretend otherwise with the "rocking chair option". The purpose of dynamic sitting is the movement of the spine and pelvis, which can only be achieved with a different movement of the seat and back surfaces.
With inexpensive executive chairs, the castors can lead to surprises, which are often offered as universal castors. The disadvantage of cheap castors can be that they start to squeak over time or leave streaks on the floor.
Massage functions are also sometimes offered on cheap executive chairs. Here it is advisable to keep the warranty certificate safe, as such elements contain sensitive electronics that can quickly break.
Cheap executive chairs can often be recognized by the warranty, as this rarely exceeds 2 years.
With cheap executive chairs, the manufacturer has to make savings everywhere. For example, on many cheap executive chairs, the diameters of the star bases are often smaller than normal, which can quickly lead to a risk of tipping. Also, due to the cheap workmanship, there can be sharp edges on the underside of such star bases, which can damage or even slash shoes.
Good value also often has the characteristic that you have to assemble the entire executive chair yourself, which does not always go smoothly and makes any subsequent return all the more difficult. This is especially true when the gas spring is inserted into the mechanism and the executive chair is then loaded with weight. The gas spring can now only be removed from the mechanism with a special tool or with pipe wrench. Whereby the second option leaves clear scratch marks on the gas spring.
With inexpensive executive chairs, you will certainly not find real leather, but imitation leather. Imitation leather is unsuitable for an office chair because it is not breathable and promotes sweating while sitting. This can become unpleasant, especially in warmer temperatures. Imitation leather is plastic, so you sit directly on a plastic cover. Depending on the cleaning agents used, you strip the plasticizer from the imitation leather, which can also escape over time without cleaning agents. As a result, small cracks can appear in the imitation leather after a few years, which over time can cause the imitation leather to crumble in various places. Direct sunlight on imitation leather promotes this phenomenon.
They certainly exist, affordable ergonomic executive chairs. But at dumping prices, you generally shouldn't expect too much. If you really want to get the most out of your investment at a low price, you should look around for a used, high-quality ergonomic executive chair from a well-known manufacturer. There are various providers of refurbished, used office chairs and genuine ergonomic executive chairs.
Concluding thoughts
Basically, an ergonomic executive chair is about your health when sitting. From this perspective, a prior serious analysis makes sense. In the search for a solution for good ergonomics and design in an executive chair, one should not be too thrifty. After all, you don't change your executive chair as often as a piece of clothing, and it generates more of a year-long working tool that should bring joy, ergonomics, and health. Often, however, too much attention is paid to the price in such investments, and you regret it afterwards or pay for it many times over because of poor desk posture, through visits to the physiotherapist, chiropractor, or orthopedist. And in the end, you still have to look for another ergonomic executive chair.
If the topic of ergonomics in the office or home office appeals to you and you are interested in it more deeply, I can recommend my book "Wellness in the Office". Combined with humorous drawings, I share 50+1 tips to turn your office into a small paradise.
50+1 tips that turn the office into a small paradise
