Tuesday January 10, 2006

Back in 2001 an ergometric analysis of my office workspace resulted in adjustments to my table height and to my office chair. My chair is a Steelcase Criterion model and one of the adjustments was to properly set the armrest heights for my geometry--an adjustment easily accomplished with the push-levers on each arm of the Criterion.

My seating situation was much improved, except that every time I pulled my chair in towards the now-lowered table, the push-levers on each arm, which faced forward, would hit the edge of the desk and then the armrests would fall out of adjustment and have to be carefully reset.

On a whim really, I sent an email to Steelcase to let them know of this problem, which didn't seem particular to my situation. Imagine my surprise when I received a very large box containing a modified arm assembly with the push-levers mounted backwards and the following letter:

Dear Joshua

Enclosed is a set of Criterion arms with the height adjustment mechanism installed backwards. We've also included the drill bit necessary to change the arm assembly on your chair. I hope this addresses your concern about the arms and thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Sincerely,

(name omitted)

Seating Product Marketing

How cool is that? I'm a Steelcase customer for life now.

Postscript: Why am I posting now if this all happened back in 2001? Well, because (real embarrassment here), I didn't actually get around to installing the new arm on my chair until last week. I guess the dot com implosion distracted me. In any case, I asked a worker on my hallway with a power screwdriver to make the switch and the new arm is working quite well.

I did check the Steelcase Criterion page to see if perhaps I'd left a lasting legacy in the office seating realm, but, alas, the photos indicate that the height adjustment levers are still on the forward face of the arms.