Eventually, as happens to all things, their time comes to an end. Sometimes they tilt too far. Or stop rolling. Or dump their once-loyal masters one too many times.
And then, because no one seems to ever want to take them outside, or thinks that someday they'll have time to fix them, they go to their final, secretive, resting place:
This picture is a rare peek at the mysterious chair graveyard in the back of the Grumpy/Pissy medical compound. Every medical office, however, has one of these rooms. Every law office. Every office in general.
As the years go by they're joined by outdated computers, broken printers, seasonal decorations, telephones, and other aging items. Why we keep them is a mystery. Perhaps because no one wants to take them to the dumpster, or the recycling place. Or we're hoping the Smithsonian will call, needing one for their "Prehistoric Offices" display. Or we're simply afraid to toss them, with a strange belief that someday they'll magically fix or update themselves.
Anyone need a chair?
18 comments:
I see that you have one spare room too many if you can afford your own chair grave. :P
Seriously, the surgical ward I spent four months (during my practical year prior to the state exam, Germany) on had four of those HELL chairs that would either not move, look like being 100 years old *and* not move, or tilt until you fell over. Those that wouldn't move at all pained me the most. Having a chair grave somewhere is understandable. Having to work trying to sit on one of those... infuriating!
freecycle.org
Those chairs are in great shape compared to some of the poor chairs in the radio room of the police department I used to work in! You could actually hear the poor things scream when they saw some of the dispatchers coming their way.
Yes! So true. We had the same in our insurance agency. Old chairs, old desks, old filing cabinets. We set up the room as if it was an office shared by three people, but with old, crappy furniture.
I am in IT. The boneyards of old broken computers in some computer shops would boggle your mind.
I worked for one guy, that had us keep every PC that a customer decided would be too expensive to fix. If I wasn't doing anything else, I was supposed to strip them down to basic components "in case someone every wants something". When that shop moved, it took 6 pickup loads to take all that junk to the dump. In my 3 years there, we never ever did anything with those scrap piles.
I work for a Large Multinational Corporation. Those chairs are given to the engineers who are in the plant to launch new product. I'm sitting in one right now. They just kicked us out of our usual area so they could clean it prior to a Big Vice President review tomorrow. We have to use it dirty and full of obsolete parts. At least I haven't seen the rats at this plant yet.
So much waste! I wish your office would connect with a freecycle/e-cycle/recycle program that could redistribute what is working to another office who could use them, and then break down what's left for recycling.
Oh, I wish you accepted pictures because I have the same thing here in our call center. Horrible, ugly chairs that someone loves beyond reason...expensive chairs that no one loves but I can't bring myself to ditch. We have about five extra in a too-small space.
They are reproducing you know.
I used to work for the school system and we had used chair priority lists. New Chairs started on the top floor and as they aged they got lower floors in the building. Finally when a wheel fell off they were sold at auction. I worked there 20 years and had two chairs, both used. That is one every ten years. I may have kept my first chair but the four leggers were outlawed as too unsafe at any speed. My butt still hurts. Can you give me a script for Vicodin?
I've never seen a chair graveyard any place I worked.
Boneyards of computers are another matter--but unlike Don's experience I have found myself digging into the boneyard at times. When you're in "city" of 50k you can find the widget in the bonepile faster than you can have one shipped. Mostly, though, when I have computer bits around they go in the appropriate box. I perfectly well know 95% of the stuff in the boxes will never be used but there's no way to identify the 5%.
Pixar presents: Office Furniture Story!
Ah ha. Where are the ergodynamic models? I'll bet they get worn to bits so that there's nothing left at the end of the chair-life.
In my pharmacy, there are two pharmacists that share order entry privileges; one tall and lean, and the other short and dumpy, so we just have our own chair whenever we're engaged in that particular function, instead of raising and lowering the seat daily. As the short, dumpy pharmacist, I used to have to give a running hop to the high seat of the rolling chair. Needless to say, I've underestimated the speed of the rolling and the hop distance one too many times in the past, and my knees were bruised constantly from hitting them on the underside of the desk. I think that the reason why there are numerous chairs in our graveyard is because someone used to purchase a set of matching chairs all the same size and not taking into account the different body types that would be employed in the shop over the years.
On the other hand, in some runomill chain drugstores where I worked, the pharmacist was allowed no chair, no one was, and the bathroom was the only place anyone could rest their butt for a few minutes, even if it was clear on the other side of the giant big-box store.
One pharmacy I worked had a ridiculously small office where the pharmacist had to balance the computer on the edge of a cupboard with feet in the lower drawer and the tall stool tipped slightly to accommodate a tired back.
You could sell the chairs at a yard sale, maybe put them up for a silent auction.
I have bought two or three surplus, old, dilapidated office chairs at silent auction from the local Education Service District. I will take the best one I can get for $5.00.
The really sad part is that they're probrably mostly repairable. New castors here, tighten or replace a bolt there, add a wedge cushion or a lumbar support, and they become usable again.
But that's no one's 'job' and it's easier to just replace it at company expense. At least recycle things instead of just sending them to landfill.
An interesting point of knowledge, there is more gold, per tonne, in scrap electronics than in most goldmines.
Oh. Before I downloaded the picture, I thought you were talking about your nurse. TCG
well i guess you always figure if you suddenly need a chair ... but it never works that way
Yep - law offices always have one of those graveyards. Sometimes I've actually found a better chair in the castoffs than the one I was sitting in.....
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