Buried In Work? ‘Last Shift Office Chair’ Posits To Lay Grind Culture To Rest
While many companies invest in costly, ergonomic office chairs to ensure employees’ comfort, at the end of the day, who honestly likes spending hours stuck at their desk?
As such, UK-based designer Chairbox reimagined what the usual office chair may feel like with a humorous twist.
Enter ‘The Last Shift’ Office Chair, an atypical box seat in the shape of a coffin, highlighting the ill effects on one’s health from staying seated for most of the day and how working long hours feels akin to death.
“By design, humans weren’t created to sit on chairs for eight hours a day. The whole behavioral shift happened recently and our bodies haven’t adapted yet. Even if you exercise it’s still not enough,” the artist wrote.
The Mayo Clinic backs this up, reporting that sitting for long periods could be linked to myriad health concerns, including obesity, increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, and other illnesses.
Apart from the toll long days at the office take on our bodies, Chairbox’s design takes a tongue-in-cheek hit at the prevalence of “grind culture,” pointing to the growing gap between the rich and poor in society as “exploitation.”
“It became a norm that we spend our lives at work slowly killing ourselves and getting almost nothing out of it. The whole grind culture is just wrong, it feels to me like voluntary slavery,” the designer mused.
“We’ve been gaslit into thinking that this is life as it supposes to be. We sit in those coffins and generate value for the stakeholders, but once the time has come they nail the lid and roll us to the corporate cemetery.”
Chairbox created the concept of these coffin chairs in various wood finishes, filled with plush interiors that, frankly, look pretty comfortable. If given a choice, which shade would you pick for your desk?
Head here to take a closer look at the designs and other projects created by Chairbox.
[via My Modern Met and Chairbox, images via Chairbox and featured with permission]
