Ergonomics, the word, may soon suffer the same fate as “natural” if we’re not careful. Have you noticed how much “natural” food there is? It turns out, it doesn’t mean much of anything. That’s because the standards are so vague that a lot of decidedly unnatural seeming foods bear the label. So it’s more of a marketing term than anything else.
Ergonomic furniture, in many cases, is sold like natural food. The word is slapped on ergonomic chairs and desks that are sold in big boxes in big box stores to people with aching backs and necks who seek relief. Instead, they usually get a substandard chair with a confusing array of adjustable knobs and levers plus scant instructions on how to properly use all that intimidating hardware. And nobody tells them that that ergonomic chair in itself is not the panacea – it’s just a small part of a process that adds up to an ergonomic lifestyle in an ergonomic workspace. ...
