Current Issue

ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY?

Here’s a question for office furniture manufacturers: Can tall people sit comfortably at their office workstation with what you have produced?

We all know that, over the past 30 to 40 years, people have been increasingly growing taller.
Taller workers constantly struggle with their legs hitting the underside of the desktop, knees knocking into structural beams, and not being able to stretch their legs without hitting an obstruction, such as modesty panels or under desk CPU mounts.

Meanwhile, the industry standard for desk dimensions has not accommodated this change. The last time a desk size standard was set was way back in the 1970s, meaning that the body sizes of today’s workforce does not match that of their office workstation. Now, a change in office desk dimensions is set to take place. For the past couple of years, Levent and the European office furniture standards committee have been compiling data to drive a revision of the current industry standard for desk dimensions.

Released last year, the newly minted, revised standard means that any desk bought or designed for an office environment offers a new set of height, depth, and legroom dimensions, and a greater range of adjustability.

The new standard involves two key changes: Adjustments in desk heights and in legroom. The recommended for fixed height desks is 740 mm ± 20 mm (increase of 20mm). For height adjustable or height selectable desks, it should adjust between 650 mm and 850 mm for sitting applications and between 650 mm and 1,250 mm for sit/stand desks. It makes sense as the new heights are lower to suit short users and higher to suit tall users.

For legroom, the recommended is, height at the front of the desk and at 500 mm from the front edge should be ncreased. Desktops cannot be thicker than 55 mm at the front and 80 mm at 500 mm from the front edge. Legroom depth on the floor and up to 120mm above the floor will now be 800mm (an increase of 200mm). This should allow tall people to be able to stretch their legs slightly without having to push themselves away from their desks and tap their keyboards with their arms at a stretch.

You get the drift... One more thing, legroom width has also increased to 850 mm for fixed height desks and to 1,200 mm for height adjustable desks. By keeping up to date with the developments in ergonomics, companies will be able to design and manufacture not only a premium product, but a product that will ensure a better fit for today’s office workers—tall or short.

Eileen Chan
Group Editor