I once had a business owner put forth a similar contract after they had purchased the company where I was employed for a few years. I refused to sign (I was only one out of 60 or so employees that did so). The "accountant" told me I would never work in California again as all companies were moving in this direction. I'm still employed in CA, however, that company no longer exists. :).
Embody + Aeron and alternate between them. Always amazes me people will spend incredible amounts on a car, but will skimp on something they spend 8+ hours a day sitting in.
+1 for alternation. I rotate between an Embody (when I want to lean back a little), a flat wooden chair (when I want to sit up straight and not support my back against anything), and a wobble stool (when I want a bit of forward tilt). The Embody is perfectly comfortable on its own but I tend to start to veg out mentally if I'm leaning back all the time.
Also totally anecdotal: I put my stomach into the uncapped end of a straight bar crashing and got a nice o-shaped bruise for my laziness of not replacing the cap. It isn't just bar ends that'll get you. Fortunately I was going pretty slowly at the time and didn't cause any damage.
Very sad to hear. You are a strong fellow for putting things out there in such a public way, I am sure you have helped many deal with their own struggles.
For any UI that has long running power users, however complicated, the users will over time memorize how the screens look and operate. It doesn't matter how 'intuitive' the redesign is because you will have broken their rote patterns - and the user has to rethink how they use the software, often at every turn. In the high paced environment of a call center this is simply untenable.
