Back that back up.

Miss Lemberger probably shouldn't have to be introduced because she has written nearly as much on this blog as either Mess-ager and moi have. In the form of comments, but still. But I'll introduce her anyways. Jen single-handedly dispels the myth that athleticism has to come at any price of intelligence. But leaving aside that fact that she'll kick your ass in a foot race and afterward complete your shame by solving the world's immunological issues, she is most importantly impassioned , interested, active, alive. While this might mean less coming from myself, a bastion of ennui & cynical detachment, it shouldn't. It really shouldn't. I might be a bastard, but my eyes are open and I can see good & great people when they cross my path. But on to the lady herself.

This summer I’ve been working in a cubicle, as much of the world seems to do. I am not particularly fond of this arrangement. I also don’t like how cubicles completely limit the options of how the ‘office’ can be set up. Since I’ve been working in my own personal cube I’ve found that my back, neck, shoulders, butt and other various parts of my body have become slightly to very irritated with the arrangement within my three walls. Now some workplaces, mine included (they better be, they are the Department of Health), are pretty adamant about making sure employees have ergonomically correct chairs and all the fun little dofanlges that you can use with the computer to be more comfortable. Which is a nice thing, but doesn’t eliminate all the aches.

But now, to add to our problems, they* say that the best position for our backs is no longer the sit-up straight 90 degree angle your mom is always bugging you about. Apparently 135 degrees is the best for taking pressure of our backs. Most of us probably intuitively already knew this, that’s why we’re always rocking back in our chairs. That’s why lounge chairs are where people relax. So obviously we need new chairs in offices to enable this, but that’s not the idea here. The idea is complimentary computer screens for this position.

So once we all get the new awesome back-pain-free-lounge-office-chairs everything else in the cubicle is no longer placed anywhere convenient. At a 135 degree angle everyone’s pretty much looking at the ceiling, so why not put computer screens up there. Not on the ceiling exactly, but above us. Pretty much I’m envisioning that light at the dentist’s office that can be moved any which way so that the dentist can see in your mouth. Now, instead of a light, put a flat screen computer there. We’ve already got some great desktop screens that allow for adjusting, this just puts it on an arm and track coming out of the ceiling. And since cubicles tend to be arranged the same everywhere all there needs to be is a ‘tree’ in the corner where four cubes meet with the computers emanating from a ‘trunk’ where all the hookups and wires and such will run. This would then also eliminate some of the wires and stuff that are usually hanging out everywhere and allow for more desk space.

Picture it, reclining at 135 with the computer screen placed at the perfect distance and angle for you with the keyboard pretty much at lap level. Way better. Now if we could only get a window in each cube, sigh.

*not the same ‘they’ as in a previous post, here it is researchers at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen, Scotland