Chair
A four legged piece of furniture meant to take the weight of your body and provide it much needed rest and support. A chair is a work of art. A good chair definitely is a work of art. Finding a good one these days is next to impossible. A good chair must necessarily fit the contours of your body. The mass produced ones these days just do not. It is a gross attempt at a one-size-fits-all that has gone miserably wrong.
A good chair must be made of wood. Plastic chairs, while cheap, light and easy to move around just do not appeal to my aesthetic sensibilities. Not only do they look ugly, but also you can’t lean back on just the hind legs without slipping and breaking your neck. They are good for concerts and plays, weddings and other public gatherings, provided they are all the same colour. I can’t imagine having plastic chairs as furniture in my house. Plastic chairs used in the living room shows a distinct lack of taste and class.
I had visited the house of a high net worth individual for an ethnographic project. This man started his life as an electrician. After several years of toiling as an electrician, he set up a company doing electrical writing for IT parks and offices. He became very wealthy very soon. I went to his house to interview him. There were plastic chairs in the living room. I thought to myself, “This man has a lot of money but has poor taste. No amount of money will help him acquire good taste. What is the point of having a lot of money if you do not have good taste.”
A good chair must be level. The most annoying chairs are the ones that are not level. The legs are not aligned and the chair is unstable. A stable chair gives you a feeling of secure comfort. With one leg shorter than the others, a rickety chair can shake the confidence out of a man.
Picture this. A fresh wannabe corporate hi-flier attends an interview. He enters confidently and sets himself down on a chair with one short leg. The chair rocks every time he shifts his weight. His mind starts focussing on the chair. He starts to wonder if the chair is going to give way. He starts to think of his posture and his body language. He tries to use his legs to stabilise the chair. He sits at the edge of the seat to prevent the rocking. While his mind is now thinking about the chair and his posture, he has failed to grasp the import of the question he has been asked. He says awkwardly, “Could you repeat the question?” By now a bead of sweat has broken on his fore head, is trickling its way down the side of his face. He wants to reach for the hand kerchief in his trouser pocket. To do this, he must lean back against the chair to reach into his trousers. As he does this, the chair rocks back and he loses his balance along with his composure. He fumbles in his pocket for the kerchief. He yanks it out of his pocket and dabs the sweat bead when he hears the words “Are you listening? What do you think” Our otherwise articulate candidate has not paid any attention to the interviewers and mumbles “ummm! errr!”. He then hears the words “It was very nice talking to you. We will get back to you soon.” He exits the room swearing “Damn that chair!”
I have suffered bad chairs all my life. The worst was in the seventh standard. Our class was given chairs with built-in writing tables. These chairs were designed for right handed individuals. I went through an entire year sitting in an awkward twisted position just because some idiot carpenter assumed that every individual was born right handed.
Chairs also tell you where you are in the corporate hierarchy. I noticed this when the office where I worked was renovated and we were assigned new chairs. The administrative staff and secretary pool were assigned chairs with a hard back and cushioned sear. These chairs did not have arm rests. The support staff was worse off. They received only cushioned stools. I was a junior executive. Hence I was entitled to a chair with cushioned seat and back rest. The chair had wheels and arm rests. You could only sit with a straight back on this chair. This chair did not support the lower back. It was as if the management was telling us that the chairs were there to help us work and not relax. My boss and all those senior executives sitting in glass cabins received chairs upholstered in red. The chair was ergonomically designed to support all the vertebrae. The chair reclined to an almost supine position. It was the company’s way of rewarding deceit, delegation, sucking up, back stabbing, plagiarism and abdication. The company was telling us to work our ass off so that we may one day be able to enjoy the comfort of an ergonomically designed chair. One of the perks of promotion was a more comfortable chair. It is surprising that many intelligent, educated individuals willingly submit to this subtle discrimination and humiliation. Corporate cubicle farms are no better than factories in during the industrial revolution in their treatment of employees. The chair symbolises this appalling fact. I do not wish to end my working life thinking “I wish I had a better chair”
Chairs inside airplanes are another example of class discrimination. Chairs in first class are wider, have more leg room and recline to almost 180 degrees. Those of us travelling in economy are squeezed into seats that barely accommodate your derriere with back rests that recline just enough to remind you that you are not special. I prefer flying low cost airlines. At least there is no discrimination. No one on the plane gets reclining seats or adequate leg room. We are all equally forced into 18 square inches of space. The funny thing about airline service questionnaires is that they never have any questions about the comfort of the chairs. I still do not understand why human beings are denied basic comfort in the pursuit of profits. The uncomfortable chairs inside airplanes fly in the face of their claims of unmatched customer friendliness.
A good chair must be made of wood. Plastic chairs, while cheap, light and easy to move around just do not appeal to my aesthetic sensibilities. Not only do they look ugly, but also you can’t lean back on just the hind legs without slipping and breaking your neck. They are good for concerts and plays, weddings and other public gatherings, provided they are all the same colour. I can’t imagine having plastic chairs as furniture in my house. Plastic chairs used in the living room shows a distinct lack of taste and class.
I had visited the house of a high net worth individual for an ethnographic project. This man started his life as an electrician. After several years of toiling as an electrician, he set up a company doing electrical writing for IT parks and offices. He became very wealthy very soon. I went to his house to interview him. There were plastic chairs in the living room. I thought to myself, “This man has a lot of money but has poor taste. No amount of money will help him acquire good taste. What is the point of having a lot of money if you do not have good taste.”
A good chair must be level. The most annoying chairs are the ones that are not level. The legs are not aligned and the chair is unstable. A stable chair gives you a feeling of secure comfort. With one leg shorter than the others, a rickety chair can shake the confidence out of a man.
Picture this. A fresh wannabe corporate hi-flier attends an interview. He enters confidently and sets himself down on a chair with one short leg. The chair rocks every time he shifts his weight. His mind starts focussing on the chair. He starts to wonder if the chair is going to give way. He starts to think of his posture and his body language. He tries to use his legs to stabilise the chair. He sits at the edge of the seat to prevent the rocking. While his mind is now thinking about the chair and his posture, he has failed to grasp the import of the question he has been asked. He says awkwardly, “Could you repeat the question?” By now a bead of sweat has broken on his fore head, is trickling its way down the side of his face. He wants to reach for the hand kerchief in his trouser pocket. To do this, he must lean back against the chair to reach into his trousers. As he does this, the chair rocks back and he loses his balance along with his composure. He fumbles in his pocket for the kerchief. He yanks it out of his pocket and dabs the sweat bead when he hears the words “Are you listening? What do you think” Our otherwise articulate candidate has not paid any attention to the interviewers and mumbles “ummm! errr!”. He then hears the words “It was very nice talking to you. We will get back to you soon.” He exits the room swearing “Damn that chair!”
I have suffered bad chairs all my life. The worst was in the seventh standard. Our class was given chairs with built-in writing tables. These chairs were designed for right handed individuals. I went through an entire year sitting in an awkward twisted position just because some idiot carpenter assumed that every individual was born right handed.
Chairs also tell you where you are in the corporate hierarchy. I noticed this when the office where I worked was renovated and we were assigned new chairs. The administrative staff and secretary pool were assigned chairs with a hard back and cushioned sear. These chairs did not have arm rests. The support staff was worse off. They received only cushioned stools. I was a junior executive. Hence I was entitled to a chair with cushioned seat and back rest. The chair had wheels and arm rests. You could only sit with a straight back on this chair. This chair did not support the lower back. It was as if the management was telling us that the chairs were there to help us work and not relax. My boss and all those senior executives sitting in glass cabins received chairs upholstered in red. The chair was ergonomically designed to support all the vertebrae. The chair reclined to an almost supine position. It was the company’s way of rewarding deceit, delegation, sucking up, back stabbing, plagiarism and abdication. The company was telling us to work our ass off so that we may one day be able to enjoy the comfort of an ergonomically designed chair. One of the perks of promotion was a more comfortable chair. It is surprising that many intelligent, educated individuals willingly submit to this subtle discrimination and humiliation. Corporate cubicle farms are no better than factories in during the industrial revolution in their treatment of employees. The chair symbolises this appalling fact. I do not wish to end my working life thinking “I wish I had a better chair”
Chairs inside airplanes are another example of class discrimination. Chairs in first class are wider, have more leg room and recline to almost 180 degrees. Those of us travelling in economy are squeezed into seats that barely accommodate your derriere with back rests that recline just enough to remind you that you are not special. I prefer flying low cost airlines. At least there is no discrimination. No one on the plane gets reclining seats or adequate leg room. We are all equally forced into 18 square inches of space. The funny thing about airline service questionnaires is that they never have any questions about the comfort of the chairs. I still do not understand why human beings are denied basic comfort in the pursuit of profits. The uncomfortable chairs inside airplanes fly in the face of their claims of unmatched customer friendliness.
posted by Chaani at 9:55 AM
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