Minutes after posting the entry about Kevin Pieterson in the CONCORDE Presidential Chair (and the Resolute Desk), I found that there has been a lot of Internet chatter about President Obama resting his feet on the Resolute Desk while talking on the phone to Isreal’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Isreali’s apparently find the picture showing the soles of President Obama’s shoes offensive. And some Americans think resting his feet on the Resolute Desk is disrespectful (to the Oval Office or to the Resolute Desk).

Obama is not the first USA President one to rest his feet on the desk in the Oval Office, as a Media Matters blog-entry shows with pictures. The post shows first a picture of George W. Bush, then of President Ford, with their feet on the Oval Office Desk although President Ford did not have the Resolute Desk.

It’s a June 2009 news story, but the debate is still going on.

Pieterson in CONCORDE Presidential Chair

A new print advert for Brylcreem features Kevin Pieterson relaxing in a CONCORDE Presidential Luxury Office Chair supplied by Chellgrove Office Chairs.

USA Presidents George W. Bush and Barak Obama have used CONCORDE Presidential chairs behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

The first official Oval Office photos of President Barak Obama had him sitting in the chair. Some of the pictures drew controversy because they showed the President sitting in the Oval Office without his suit jacket.

Apparently it is not only telly addicts whose lazy lifestyles put them in danger. Sitting at an office desk or in front of a computer for too long poses similar risks, according to the scientists.

The study in Australia monitored 8,800 adults for six years to see what impact watching TV had on their long term health. The findings were published on January 11th in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

“A lot of the normal activities of daily living that involved standing up and moving the muscles in the body have been converted to sitting,” says David Dunstan, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and a professor at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Victoria, Australia. “Many people simply shift from one chair to another – from the chair in the car to the chair in the office to the chair in front of the television.”

The implications are simple, Dunstan said. “Too much sitting is bad for health. In addition to doing regular exercise, avoid sitting for prolonged periods and keep in mind to ‘move more, more often’.”

Other commentary on the study:

• From the Independent: TV addicts risk heart disease
• And Tom Foremski at ZDNet: Your chair is trying to kill you.

President Obama - Testing Chairs in the Oval Office

Photo by Pete de Souza, 30 January 2009.

The following other pictures show the CONCORDE Presidential Chair in use behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office after the President had made his choice. Right Choice, we think!

President Obama talks to a White House Aide while Michelle Obama looks on.

President Obama signing Executive Orders behind the Resolute Desk

President Barak Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in the Oval Office

Click here to see pictures of Oval Office swivel chairs through the years.

One of their writers, Jonathon E. Stewart, recently released 2 brief videos on office chair ergonomics and easy laptop ergonomics. Click on the links to check them out. Jonathon’s videos impart some great ergonomic tips with a touch of good-natured humour.

The President of the United States is a very powerful person. And a lot of perks come with the job.  As Bill Clinton said: “You never stop at a red light, ever, every time you walk into a room they play a song, and your airplane is so cool that they make movies about it.” And you get to work in the most powerful office in the world, full of history.

The swivel chair that President Barak Obama sits on behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is the Concorde Presidential Office Chair manufactured by Global Group. The Concorde Presidential chair was also used by Obama’s predecesor George W. Bush, and follows an array of very comfortable luxury ergonomic chairs in the Oval Office.

The Concorde Presidential chair is available to purchase from Global Group’s distributors in the USA, Canada and the UK. Chellgrove was the first to introduce the chair into the UK in 2008, encouraging Global Group to make the chair generally available over here.

Replica’s of the Resolute Desk are available from The History Company of Ithaca, New York. (Wikipedia confirms that The History Company produced the replica Resolute Desks for the William J Clinton Presidential Center and Park and the George and Barbara Bush Center.) A Canadian company called The Presidents Desk also claims to make replicas.

Photos of the Concorde Presidential Chair in the Oval Office

President Obama meets with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the Oval Office at the White House on his first day at his new office. Image credit: Chicago Tribune (White House photo by Pete Souza / January 21 2009).

President Barak Obama talks on the phone in the Oval Office of the White House on his first complete day as President. Image credit: Chicago Tribune (White House photo by Pete Souza / January 21 2009).

U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden (L) and retired military officers stand behind and watch U.S. President Barak Obama (2nd-L) sign executive orders to close down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay Cuba in the Oval Office at the White House. Obama had promised to close the prison camp throughout his presidential campaign. Image credit: Chicago Tribune (Getty Images by Mark Wilson / January 22 2009).

A photo taken on February 29, 2008 shows the Concorde Presidential Chair inside the Oval Office of President George W. Bush. Image credit: DayLife and Getty Images.

Eric Draper, a White House photographer,  took this photo from behind President George W. Bush and then president-elect Barak Obama to show the Resolute Desk. The Resolute Desk was a present from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. It has been used by every President since Hayes except LBJ, Nixon and Gerald Ford. The full length of the Oval Office, including George W. Bush’s Concorde Presidential Chair behind the Resolute Desk, can be clearly seen in this picture. Image credit: Swamp Politics and Getty Images.

George W. Bush and his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, in front of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office at the White House.

President George W. Bush in front of the Concorde Presidential Chair in the Oval Office at the White House.

President George W. Bush in front of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office at the White House, 28 February, 2007.

President Bill Clinton’s Oval Office. (Photo of replica at the William J Clinton Presidential Center and Park.)

President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office at the White House.

Doug Band and President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office at the White House.

President Ronald Reagan’s Oval Office. (Photo of replica taken in 2006.)

President Ronald Reagan’s chair behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office at the White House.

An aide removes President Richard Nixon’s chair from the Oval Office after the president resigned. Picture taken August 9, 1974. Image credit: Corbis.

President Ford in President Kennedy’s famous Gunlocke ergonomic chair.

President Ford in the Gunlocke chair again.

President Ford in the Gunlocke chair.

John Kennedy Jnr peering through the knee hole panel of the Resolute Desk while his daddy worked. The central panel, carved with the presidential seal, was added to the Resolute Desk by President FDR to conceal his leg braces from view. This picture of John Jnr playing at President John F Kennedy’s feet brought the Resolute table to the attention of the masses.

John Kennedy Jnr playing at his father’s feet as John F Kennedy sits in the Gunlocke Chair in front of the Resolute desk in the Oval Office at the White House. Apparently, John Jnr so liked the hidding place in his father’s desk that he had to be removed occasionally by an aide before business could be done. Image credit: CBS PHOTO ESSAY Presidential Progeny.

John Kennedy Jnr playing at the feet of his father in the Oval Office at the White House.

Executive Priviledge: As President-elect Kennedy planned to move into the White House in 1961, engineers worked with his personal physician, Dr. Janet Travell. She had treated Kennedy for chronic back pain, and insisted that his working chair have the maximum comfort and support. The result was the Gunlocke Chair. At the time, it was considered to be the most stylish and comfortable chair of its kind in the world. The exclusive Gunlocke Oval Office Chair has served 9 American Presidents in the inner sanctum of the White House.

Fit for a President. This remarkable chair is still produced one at a time at the ancestral Gunlocke workshop, according to the exact historic specifications of JFK’s chair. 

The Gunlocke Chair. Shown here in Brown leather and Burgundy leather.

Before the Gunlocke. Here’s President FDR in his Oval Office chair.

President Calvin Coolidge’s Oval Office chair.

President Abraham Lincoln poses in his chair here with his son Tad. Image credits: Presidential Progeny Photo Essay from CBS.

Most of the office seating imported into the UK and sold on the Internet today is brought in from the Far East, typically China. There is also a small proportion brought from the EU (e.g Italy) and North America.

Here are some of the benefits you derive from buying office chairs made in the UK:

FLEXIBILITY:

UK-manufactured office chairs can be custom-made to your order. This is true whether you are buying just one chair or whether you are furnishing an entire office suite. Because the office chairs are custom-made, you can have them upholstered in just about any leather or fabric type and colour that you desire. Furthermore, for swivel office chairs, you can often choose the types of arms, recline mechanism, base and castors. At Chellgrove Office Chairs, all of our Performance Office Chairs are based around this simple principle.

HIGH QUALITY:

UK-manufactured chairs are backed by good old British values and conform to stringent British and EU standards. When your chair is upholstered in leather, it is soft top-quality leather. And it is leather all over (not leather-faced with PVC sides and rear) unless specifically stated. In addition, UK-manufactured seating and furniture is backed by generous manufacturer warranties.

• Are designed to fit you the intended user
• Promote your personal comfort, and
• Enhance your performance while minimising the risks to your health & safety.

In addition, we provide you with practical ergonomics information to enable you remain healthy and safe in the workplace. 

Office Ergonomics
Is the study of the interactions between you and your work environment.

The Goal of Office Ergonomics
Is to Fit your work environment to you and the way that you work.

The Benefits of Office Ergonomics
1.  Reduces the risks of injury
2.  Increases your safety
3.  Increases your comfort
4.  Increases your productivity.

What Does Fit Mean?

The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of the word Fit is physically fitting into your office chair and your workstation. But there is more to Fit than accomodating your physical size and shape. The concept of Fit also means that your office chair allows you to move in and out of preferred postures and allows you to perform your job effectively.

What are the Ergonomic Requirements of Your Office Chair?

The desirable conditions that should be met by your office chair to ensure a good Fit include the following:

1. Your office chair should allow you to move both rhythmically and from one fixed posture to another
2. Your office chair should match your body physically
3. Your office chair should support you and your work tasks properly.

Fit Conditions = Move + Match + Support

[This is an excerpt from an article published by GGI Global, one of our manufacturing partners. Click here to see the full article on office chair ergonomics.]