OFFICE CHAIR WHEEL TELLS BOSS HOW LONG YOU’VE BEEN SITTING

There is now a product that employers can place on your office chair to determine how long you’ve been sitting. The device, from a company called Tome Inc., is an innocent-looking, weight-sensitive caster that sends data back to a system that tracks movement. The sensor provides sit/stand data, calculates caloric expenditure, and gives users real time feedback on their activity at workstations. The company behind the sensor is Humanscale, an office furniture designer. Humanscale’s Founder and CEO, Robert King, says the data “can generate cost savings and help employers see real returns on their investments in developing healthier and happier places to work.”
* So now we’re supposed to have our butts in the chair to work, but roll around a lot for exercise.
* “Innocent-looking”? So right off the bat I’ve got a bad feeling.
* Sure. “Developing healthier and happier places to work” is right up there at the top of management’s agenda.
* Knowing whether your employees are sitting or standing can take on different meaning, depending on if your worker is, say, a mail carrier or an air traffic controller.
* We’re not too far away from electrodes in the arm rests to shock you if you’re not working hard enough.
* You can measure my sitting and standing til the cows come home, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my internet porn surfing.
* The company’s called Humanscale because The Work Police was a little too harsh.
* How about chairs that make a groaning sound when you sit down?
* You could even program them to insult people: “Hey, lard butt, do you even know where the gym is?”
* Don’t worry: There’s a new app that overrides this.
* No thanks. An electronic sensor turns an office chair into an electric chair and I don’t like the sound of that.