Doom and gloom seems to be on the menu for most businesses at the moment as even though we are out of the recession, companies are still going into liquidation. Huge household names such as Woolworths, Habitat, etc… have closed down and gone into administration. When you think about this, most people will only see the retail shops close down, however behind every big business there are head offices and offices that also close. You may be wondering then, what happens to all the office furniture when the company shuts down. The answer is that it all gets cleared by companies such as ORS and they keep anything that they can re-use or sell.
ORS are one of the largest removal and second hand office furniture companies in the UK and they are currently over run with second hand furniture collected from companies that have gone bust. To give an example, Barclays recently closed one of their branches in Coventry. The result of this is that ORS removed 450 office desks from the building before even starting on the other office products and office furniture. To cope with this, ORS have been forced to open another warehouse in the West Midlands, that adds to their already 3 full warehouses.
ORS used to only sell about 155 second hand furniture, however now they sell approximately 85% since the recession hit.
People just don’t have the money to buy new anymore. You can pick up a nearly-new desk that would have sold new for £2,200 for just £800. The stuff coming in has barely been used – it’s so different from the old tatty furniture full of cobwebs that we once saw.” claims sales manager Adrian Kowalski.
Adrian admits that this trend will not last forever as he feels that people will switch back to buying new furniture again.

It is now common knowledge that office workers are working longer hours and that this is having a direct impact on our health. There has been a rise in the amount of work related injuries as we choose to stay seated in our office chairs at our office desks while working. The reason for this is that even though you may exercise before and after work, the time that you spend at work is mainly in a sedentary position. There has been a rise in recent years for the purchasing of height adjustable desks that you can actually stand by and work at. For some however they might find this mad.
Retail workers and bank cashiers tend to stand all day whilst at work and this does have negatives effects on the body. Standing all day whilst working can actually lead to problems such as varicose veins and in some very extreme cases, spontaneous miscarriages. With this in mind perhaps the answer is not to get rid of our chairs after all but to make sure that we use them properly.
The main reason for the rise in height adjustable desks, including treadmill desks is that too much sitting can actually lead to higher risk diseases such as cancer and diabetes as well as cardiovascular diseases. The reason for this is that when you remain in a sedentary position for a long period of time the the enzyme that is designed to take the fat out of the blood stream drops in production leaving the fat to flow around your body.
There is no definite answer to whether we should just stand or just sit at work, but a combination of both. The recommended maximum time that you should spend just sitting at your desk before moving is 30 minutes. This does included getting up and walking around.

More and more people nowadays are deciding to work at an office desk and spending long periods of time in an office desk. It is no surprise that the numbers of injuries that are related to work such as back pain, neck strain and shoulder problems are on the rise. The answer is, unless you’re willing to spend less time working in your office chair or at your desk whether it be a home office desk or at work, is to upgrade and get an ergonomic office chair.

There are many ergonomic chairs available to you and they vary in price. You can find yourself spending over £1000 on an ergonomic chair, but if you haven’t got that sort of money available, there are other options, one of them being the Ergohuman office chair.

The Ergohuman is a chair that has been specifically designed for those who spend more than 8 hours a day in their office chair working at their desk. It has a high back design that is constructed from mesh and comes with an optional headrest making it a great designer mesh back chair. The Ergohuman has been designed to provide constant support to the lumbar region and other back regions with multidirectional armrests as well. With a synchro mechanism as standard, the Ergohuman chair does not fail on the aesthetics side of things.

This chair not only has a great design, fully adjustable and ergonomic, but the has an affordable price tag to boot. For more information on this chair and to order click here.

Yes you are reading the title correctly; it does say £15 billion. This was a report released a few days ago by Eric Pickles the Local Government Secretary. The reason for this is that by increasing the number of public sector working from home would reduce the amount spent on office space, cut sickness levels as well as potentially increasing productivity by around 15% according to the study.

Working from home has become more and more favourable in recent years. This is mainly due to the increase in the availability of broadband and smartphones making it easier to access emails and other important digital information that is vital for those who work in the office.

As it stands at the moment, more than a quarter of the current workforce occasionally work from home with only 2.9% deciding to work from home full time. According to the report produced by Leaner and Greener, only a 5% increase in the amount of public sector workers opting to work from home would reach the savings projected in the study. It shouldn’t be too hard to persuade people to work from home, would you prefer to work at an office desk sitting on a regular operator chair crouched behind a screen in a busy office or be able to have the freedom and comfort of working in your own home? I know which one I would choose!

As well as working from home Mr Pickles suggested that perhaps it’s time that public services should share accommodation. This would save space and by designing a more space efficient area save money in the long run.

The suggestion of working from home would also help to increase morale among staff. Having the freedom to personalise your home office, pick out your desired workstation, be able to choose your office or executive chair, and not have to think about all the people behind the screens could in turn help increase staff productivity and help to also save money.

It is common knowledge that the amount of musculoskeletal disorders are on the increase and that this is a direct correlation to the increasing amount of time that we spend working in the office sitting on our office chairs. It is no surprise then that more and more chair manufacturers are spending more time and effort into trying to find the most effective ergonomic solution, by that I mean office chairs and desks to these ever increasing problems. It is not to say that these efforts are wasted, in fact quite the opposite, however for those that do suffer from an MSD; physiotherapy might be another option to ease your pain.

Two government departments in Northern Ireland have provided early access to physiotherapy for staff with MSDs (musculoskeletal disorders). The results were quite positive with 80% of those treated said that the treatment had prevented them from going absent with over 80% indicating that there absence had been shortened.

Based on the latest statistics released from the Health and Safety Executive 227,000 people have an MSD of the back, 215,000 of the upper limbs or neck and 96,000 of the lower limbs. These figures are staggering with the number one cause of long term absence at work being lower back pain amongst manual workers with 30% of primary care consultations with GPs being caused by MSDs.

To put this in monetary terms, West Suffolk hospital trust in Bury St Edmunds was commended in the Boorman report for having achieved savings of £170,000 through referring patients to physiotherapy. This not only saved money but also caused a 40% reduction in lost days through sickness absences.

In 2008/09 an estimated 538,000 people in Britain who worked in the last year, believed that they were suffering from an MSD that was made worse by work. This meant that an estimated 9.3 million working days were lost to MSD in Great Britain in 2008/09. This trend will only ever increase if we carry on the way that we are. Perhaps it is time that we introduce physiotherapy into the workplace to help prevent an augmentation in this number and perhaps see if we can reduce it.

Home offices are being increasingly used as a place of work instead of going into an office, however nowadays it seems that there is a shift in the way these home offices are designed. Instead of worrying about whether the desk is going to match the rest of the furniture, we are more concerned with the cable management and whether we use a laptop or desktop PC.

The reason for this is simply the increase in technology we now use in our day to day lives. Instead of designers thinking about the look of the desk, they tend to think about whether space is needed for a printer and where to drill the holes for the cable ports.

Even more interesting is that more and more people are trying to fit home office furniture in places that are not primarily used as an office. For example, in kitchens, lounges and spare bedrooms are some places that you might now expect to find office furniture. This means that the requirements for the desks are to be smaller than usual, with places to store papers and files.

Practicality is the most important issue now; it used to be that you would buy a high quality wooden desk, high back leather executive chair and a pedestal or small cupboard to keep files. That used to be when the more wealthy people would have an office in their home, however now it is safe to say that there is probably a computer in nearly every house in the country and with prices for all in one home office desks the lowest it’s ever been, it is no wonder that everyone seems to want an office.

Having said all of this, it is unfair to suggest that people don’t care what the furniture looks like, as there are people that do care about their workstations aesthetics, it just seems that it’s not as high as it used to be.

There are many ways to save money for your business from finding a cheaper ISP and phone service to buying recycled ink cartridges. However within the realms of office furniture there are ways that you can a lot save money by just reconfiguring your office. Listed are three ways in which you can do so.

Firstly think about the rooms you are using and if you are getting the most out of them. A typical example of this is a boardroom. If you are just using the room to have meetings around a large modular table why not think about replacing the large table with smaller meeting room tables? With meeting room tables you can arrange them in different combinations and to suit the purpose of the room. You can arrange the tables in a U shape for presentations however for board meetings you can push the tables together to create a large table. You can have meeting tables on castors for easy mobility and also they are available in various folding options for easy and efficient storage without compromising the table’s aesthetics.

Unfortunately in many instances you will have to spend money in the short term in order to save money in the long term. Making your office open plan is a great way to save on space. Why not try to incorporate bench systems instead of singular desking. Bench systems are becoming more and more popular, look modern and save much needed space.

Why not plan to buy new office furniture? I know this might sound absolutely absurd, as office desks and office chairs are hardly the cheapest of objects, but if you invest in quality furniture, it will last longer, boost morale among staff and also give a great professional first impression to potential clients.

Whether you are an internet company, medical centre or hotel, the first thing that your visitors see as they walk through the door is your reception area. As the name suggests, this area should be inviting, warm and create an ambience so that the person in question will feel comfortable in waiting. As well as this, this space is the first impression that your potential clients will get of your organization.
There is a huge range of furniture styles that can be used to create a welcoming environment for your reception. This can range from tub chairs to unit sofas, from leather sofas to coffee tables. The key is to find which style of seating is best for you.
For example, if your reception area consists of a waiting room, it might be best to look at some unit sofas. These are modular sofas that fit side be side and can be placed along the walls as well as creating a bank in the middle of the room where they can be placed back to back. This can optimize the space in your room as well as giving the visitor a comfortable place to sit.
On the other hand if you have a business that does not require your guests to spend to much time in the reception area, you may want to look at the sofa and tub chair options. Leather options are the most popular, but you don’t have to just think of black and white, there is a huge range of colours to choose from. By getting the style right, it can provide an elegant area for visitors to relax.
So in essence what better way to show how valuable your customers are by giving them the finest quality reception chairs for them to enjoy.

Office furniture happens to be of great importance when designing your working environment. Not only can it create an environment that employees will want to work in, it can create a professional and modern look, that can have an effect on potential clients, even before you have begun a meeting. It is for this reason that it is imperative that you make the right decision when choosing your furniture, from office storage to executive desks.
When entering the business world, it is important to think about what path you are going to take. You need to think about the location of your office as well as the furniture you put in it. For example if you are an organisation that requires large numbers of employees, the space and efficiency of your layout are of upmost importance. On the other hand, if you are a small organisation, you need to think about, above all else, how best to create a relaxed and cosy environment to work in.
The first step in both cases is to find out about suppliers that offer the best quality (as well as affordability) of office furniture. One of the greatest resources available to you is the internet. Having said this it is important that you find out what your specific requirements are. For example how many office desks am I going to need? How much storage am I going to need? Will everyone need a pedestal with their desk?
Secondly it is important for the smooth running and efficiency of your company to consider the needs of your employees. For example, storage facilities and even the layout out of your office as this along with the interior design, will create the optimum working environment.
Office furniture has never been so easy to purchase with websites offering huge amounts of furniture that can suit any requirement. The advantage of this is that within a few clicks you are able to compare prices and save time when purchasing.
It is also worth noting that some websites (such as Office Reality) offer free design services that can help you make the most of the space you have and can speak to someone who can offer professional advice as to what type/style of furniture will work best for you, ensuring that you don’t make the wrong decision when purchasing

In this day and age, it seems that more and more people are opting to stay at home and work as opposed to working in the office. With this being the case, it is not uncommon for people to spend more time in their home office instead of the usual amount of time that they would spend at their work office.
The trend for companies to focus on ergonomic conditions for their employees is on the increase, as this has been proven to increase efficiency and productivity in the workplace as well as ensuring good health among staff. This being the case, these conditions should be replicated within a home office to ensure that employees remain comfortable and productive. These simple ergonomic changes should help any home office to be a more comfortable and pleasurable place to work. The following information has been quoted from Giuli Krug, a professor with the Department of Occupational Therapy at the School of Health Professions.
As you can imagine the first and obvious point is to ensure that the environment that you work in is tidy and aesthetically pleasing. This can mean posters of some of your favourite films or pictures of your loved ones. The idea behind this is that you create an environment that you enjoy being in. Secondly and just as important is to make sure that your workplace is well lit. Natural light is preferable, however not essential.
To avoid a glare from your computer screen which can strain your eyes, make sure that the monitor is not directly under any light. This includes desk lamps that should be placed to the side of your desk.
Another important factor that should be considered when working in your home office is the temperature. When an environment is to cold, the muscles in our body become tense and vice versa, so it is important to keep your workspace away from any air conditioning vents that might expose your body to bursts of cold air.
With regards to office furniture, It is of upmost importance to have the right chair, preferably one that has an ergonomic design. Ergonomically designed chairs will come with a lumbar support, with the majority being adjustable to fit the contours of your back to ensure that you maintain a good posture. As well as this, it is important that there is between 2 and 4 inches of space between the back of your knees and the front of the seat, so make sure that the chair has independent seat tilt and seat slide function to create the optimum position for your body. 
When sitting down, the bottom of your back should be adjacent to the back of your chair and with as much contact between the two as possible. Your feet should also be placed flat on the floor to alleviate pressure on the back of your legs. A seat that has a rounded edge can help wit this. It may not seem important but as well as the position of your body on the chair, it is preferable to have a five star base as this distributes your body weight evenly.
To include arms on the chair is purely a matter of preference, but if you do prefer them, it is advised that they should be padded and height adjustable so that your arms rest on them. This is because if they are to high, your shoulders will hunch together, ruining your posture.
As well as the positioning of your chair, the positioning of you in relation to your desk is of significance. The top of your monitor should be at eye level and make sure that the objects you use most are within arms reach. If you use a laptop, it can be beneficial for you to purchase a laptop stand to ensure that the keyboard is slightly elevated to reduce strain on your wrists.
Finally it is important that you make sure that there is enough room for your chair to swivel, so when reaching into your pedestal drawer or cupboard you do not have to twist your body.