Office furniture may be of different types, the usual types are as follows:

1. Executive furniture

High officials have different tastes for furniture. Therefore, executive furniture is purchased according to their tastes. This is mainly to impress the visitors, and it should add to the prestige of the person using it and the prestige of the firm.

The term ‘executive’ is applied to those persons who are responsible for making decisions and policies. Generally, executives included section managers and officers above them. Therefore, different executives will prefer different types of furniture to suit their job and status.

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The following factors which should be considered before acquiring new furniture.

1. Design:

It is related to size of top, height, number of drawers etc.

2. Capital outlay:

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An obvious factor when buying any equipment.

3. Durability:

Metal furniture probably last longer than ordinary wooden furniture.

4. Saving in space:

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Some furniture is specially designed to save office space.

5. Fire risk:

Again metal furniture is a better fire risk than wooden.

6. Weight:

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If furniture has to be moved around, as it often does in a large office, then light weight is preferable.

7. Hygiene:

How easy it is to clean, and to clean the floor underneath it.

8. Appearance:

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Furniture which is not only pleasing to the eye, but appears workman like, is quite an important factor.

9. Comfort of office work:

This means that more work is likely to be performed and with less distraction.

10. Safety:

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Plate glass topped furniture may not be safe in use.

11. Finish:

If there is too high a glass, it can cause glare and distraction from work.

12. Saving in Labor:

Some furniture has built-in file units, which can save movement and walking about the clerks.

13. Supervision:

To work being done in office should not be overlooked due to structure of furniture.

2. Desks:

The desk is the work-bench of the office worker. Most of office work is handled on a desk, over a desk, through a desk or across a desk.

The primary function of any desk is to provide a suitable surface for writing, checking, sorting, examining and conferring; for these purposes a table top is just as good as a desk top; tables also have other advantages over desks.

As far as possible, the desks selected for office should multi-purpose in use. There are different types of desks for different persons depending upon the nature of work and status.

3. Executive Desk:

These are designed to suit individual tastes and quite often they are designed as a show piece of an organisation. Their purpose is also to impress visitors with the prestige and importance of persons using them. Executive desks are generally double pedestal. Sharp edges and corners are eliminated. Table top is covered with a sheet of glass.

Some executives use full top glass while others prefer to cover writing area only. General purpose desk are of less elaborate design being single pedestal with less desk space. Typist desk may be fitted with either a fixed sunken well for the typewritten or a collapsible well into which the typewriter is fixed.

4. Table:

In many government and other offices, tables still serve as clerical desks and this they may be fitted with one or two drawers. Tables are ordinarily needed for sorting of mail, housing of files, file-tray, holding meetings etc. Most of the tables follow the conventional dimensions for their sizes.

5. Chairs:

Chairs are perhaps the most important item of furniture from the point of view of the worker since he sits in them all through the day in office. Comfortable sitting in the office not only reduces fatigue but also maintains the health of the employee, thus benefitting the firm by less absenteeism, few errors and large volume of work.

The back of the chair should be such which gives support to the back and sufficient relaxation. It will be better if the back is adjustable. Seat should be sufficiently large, properly designed and thinly padded. A revolving chair may be ideal in most cases since it allows for movement without getting into ground.