Posted on 17th Nov 2011 @ 6:00 AM

It's the office equipment of a centaur: A person who is so at one with his ergonomic chair that he seems to actually, you know, be at one with his ergonomic chair. A half-chair, half-man, if you will.

The most extreme incarnation of this modern mythical beastie is Mike Williams. The proud owner of a Steelcase "Think" Chair, Mr. Williams is a product-management executive at a Grand Rapids, Mich., food-service company. He convinced his wife to let him buy the $500 chair by bringing brown bag lunches and doing more yard work on the weekend.

It was a worthwhile investment. Office furniture retailer Staples says that 86 percent of office workers say their chairs make them uncomfortable, and half say that if they could make one change, it would be to buy a better chair.

Companies shell out big bucks for chairs. Bryant Rice, an analyst at DEGW, a workplace strategy consulting firm, says that companies generally spend about 10% to 15% of the office-furniture budget on chairs. For most organizations, this will mean about $300 to $600 a chair, but some fancier models can run up to $900.

It might seem strange, then, that folks like Mike Williams would dig into their own pockets and shell out their hard earned cash for their very own ergonomic chair. But consider this: poorly designed or adjusted ergonomic chairs can cause a host of ailments, including carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis, as well as other repetitive stress injuries.

Then there's the prestige of having a fancy chair. Mike Williams's coworkers fight over his chair the way kids fight for the shotgun seat. One of us coworkers borrows his chair whenever he goes on vacations. Others wait until he stands up to speak at a meeting, and then grab it out from under him.

So if you do purchase your own ergonomic chair, you could turn out to be the coolest kid in your cubicle farm.

Image credit: Workified.com