I second the vote for a doctor’s note. I’ve gone that route myself, and it’s almost always successful.
The one time it wasn’t (because I was a new employee and the witch of an office manager insisted I couldn’t bring in my own chair because of liability issue-- yeah, right – and wanted me to be there for six months before she’d buy me a decent chair), I got around it by bringing in the ugliest, nastiest old back cushion I could find, and then liberally wrapped it with ugly duct tape to make sure its hideousness was unavoidable, and then used giant rubber bands to strap it to the back of my uncomfortable chair, making her lovely neat office look totally cheap and crappy. Especially to the clients who were always coming in.
Amazingly, within a week she’d managed to find me a terrific ergonomic chair from the company down the hall that had gone out of business and they’d bought a bunch of furniture from. And that chair was so comfortable that when I left the company to go back to working at home, I asked if I could buy it, and when she asked for $15 (!!) for it I think I ran back to my desk and plunked the cash down on her desk on the spot. That was several years ago and I’m sitting in that chair as I type this.
Don’t give in. There’s always a way around it. Use whatever tools you can come up with. And since you have your own chair there now, just make sure it’s well marked as your personal property so it can’t magically “disappear” one night!
Here’s the ADA legalese on that: The term ``employer’’ means a person engaged in an industry affecting commerce who has 15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or
preceding calendar year …
If the boss is an employee of the owner, the boss would count in the 15. If the boss is the owner, I’m not sure if she would count or not.
OSHA seems to cover all workplaces, at least with respect to things like requiring fire extinguishers and unlocked doors. The issue with that is not number of employees but rather bigger fish to fry. Also, I didn’t see any clear standards about chairs and desks like there are for things like ventilation and exits.
Good ergonomics is good business. It helps productivity and reduces lost time. Hopefully the OP can get her boss to see this. As much as it may seem stupid to you, I recommend expressing your understanding for her concerns about the look of the office. And having all employees bring in their own chairs really isn’t a good option. But I do realize there are chairs that are just not suitable for typing all day.
Best of luck getting this negotiated successfully.
Thank you for this, gardentraveler. This is the latest in a long line of incidents which show that she doesn’t value us… I have been thinking about starting to look for something new for a while… and I plan to get started on it soon. You’re right, no one deserves to be treated like this!