Ergonomics is the science of how people work. It helps people stay comfortable and healthy in the workplace. It calls for breaks, moments of inspiration and physical micromovements while sitting.
Even as far back as Ancient Greece, people knew that ergonomics is about more than just sitting and comfort. And nothing at all to do with that excruciating shoulder and neck pain you get when you’ve been staring at the same point for hours again. They knew that it starts much, much earlier than that, with anchoring it in laws about the responsibilities employers have towards their staff. Take a look at an etymological dictionary and you’ll see that the term originates from the Greek words ergon (work) and nomos (law). You’ll also find it cropping up in various Austrian legal texts including the Health and Safety at Work Act (ASchG) and the Workplace Ordinance (AStV).
“These days, we see ergonomics as the science behind how people work. It looks at equipment, workspaces and the working environment, and how they can be adapted to suit the physical and psychological needs of the people using them”, says Vienna-based biologist and behavioural researcher Elisabeth Oberzaucher, a regular contributor to the ORF show Science Busters.
“It sounds good, but in reality, it’s an enormously ambitious undertaking – if you look at it from an evolutionary perspective, office work is nothing short of a nightmare. People aren’t designed to sit down for eight hours non-stop in a single position. Let alone on a single piece of furniture that in itself is a very new concept, anthropologically speaking.”
Which makes it all the more important, says Oberzaucher, who is pacing her garden during the half-hour Zoom call, to get your body moving and give yourself a bit of kinaesthetic shake-up. “For many activities we do on a typical working day, sitting really is unavoidable – but for talking, thinking and brainstorming together, sitting at a desk is by far the most nonsensical way to work.” There are plenty of alternatives. Changing location or position is the bare minimum. Ideally, you should get outside in the fresh air if the weather allows.
Oberzaucher takes her own advice to heart, often having meetings with a research colleague while swimming outside in nature during the summer.
For Gabriele Kastner, a holistic doctor specialising in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), a lot revolves around what we do in the in-between moments, creating variety and consciously planning our breaks. “My patients often say that office design has come a long way – depending on the corporate culture and the company’s attitude towards it, that is. Ergonomic office chairs and sit-stand desks have been standard for some companies for a long time already.” Ideally, she says, the chair’s mechanism should be designed to give the body a small, barely perceivable amount of instability so that the user has to make constant micromovements to balance. Just like if you were to sit on an exercise ball. This keeps the muscles strong, even through a long workday.
“The most important thing, however, is still how you spend your breaks”, says Kastner. “When we work from home, we’re constantly getting up to make a coffee, get the post, or to put the washing in the machine. But if we’re in the office, we sit for hours like we’ve taken root. Regardless of how ergonomic that chair might be, after eight hours at the computer, you’re going to see some problems.” To counter this, the physician recommends taking a short break every hour, taking a few steps around the room, or doing a few simple exercises to relax the back and neck. “In theory, we know that already, but vanishingly few of us really do it in practice. People feel embarrassed and find it odd to exercise in front of colleagues – they just don’t do it.”
And what does ergonomics mean for design and architecture? “The office furniture market is one of the most dynamic segments in the industry”, says Erich Bernard, Managing Partner at BWM Designers & Architects. “A huge amount of work has been done in research, development and health in this area in recent years. Many companies have understood that ergonomics is a win-win situation for everyone. The employees benefit from physical and mental wellbeing, while the business sees gains in terms of output, efficiency and productivity.” The most innovative companies, according to Bernard, are those in the tech and financial industries. Other sectors are lagging far behind. There’s an urgent need for change.
“For me, the most important thing is to incorporate sustainable materials. You might give your staff the best, highest-quality ergonomic swivel chair, but it’s not going to be much use if the same room is filled with cheap carpet tiles, synthetic paints and poor-quality roller blinds that suddenly start to leach their chemicals and fill the entire room with a plasticky odour when they’re exposed to intense sunlight – as we saw during the last record-breaking summer. You have to have the whole package.” In terms of trends, the architect is seeing things like cradle to cradle and authentic, haptically comfortable materials such as wood, linoleum and natural textile fibres come to the fore.
Designer Harald Gründl, Partner at the international design studio EOOS in Vienna, on the other hand, calls for companies to be more careful in how they deal with light. For example with windows that don’t reflect in the monitor, and artificial lighting that can be expanded at any time depending on the floorplan, furnishings and people’s personal preferences. “A few years ago we developed a modular floor lamp that has a docking station in the head area and can be retrofitted with a simple plug system if needed.” For basic lighting, the designer recommends an equally flexible, adaptable system with track fittings, dimming, adjustable light temperatures, artificial daylight as well as automatic and custom controls.
And for Fidel Peugeot, Partner at the Viennese design studio Walking Chair, a balanced use of colour is equally important. “In areas people don’t spend a lot of time in like the lobby, staff kitchen and bathrooms, strong colours help to stimulate the body. But in workspaces, you need it much calmer. Although bland is just as bad. Just like how you have to stimulate the body to make micromovements when you’re sitting, we need visual stimulation too, and even a touch of chaos – with pinboards, different colours and materials, individual, personalised design. Even if that’s just a photo of your family or your cat. Above all – no boring, white cubicles! That’s just Kafkaesque.”
And this is where we close the circle. “From seating to movement to the visual environment”, says Science Buster Elisabeth Oberzaucher, “we urgently need to rethink office work. We’ve become accustomed to accepting that work has to cause us pain, that we have to sit uncomfortably, that we can’t move, that we just have to deal with noise, poor lighting and a lack of visual stimulation. It’s such a shame! Working can be a pleasurable experience. And this pleasure is then reflected in achieving greater physical and cognitive success.”
Wojciech Czaja
