It’s hard to believe that serious injuries can occur from working in office settings, but they are much more prevalent than we may think. Neck, back, and eye injuries are caused by daily habits and posture that many people don’t realize can cause injuries in the first place.
The good news is that through some simple changes, you can help prevent hidden long-lasting injuries that could occur down the road. Two of the most common forms of injury are upper body injuries from sitting style, or chair type, and eye strain from screen display, but countless other injuries can occur from daily habits and work setting.
Change your Chair, Change your Life
For approximately 8 hours a day, many of us are sitting in the same chair, fixated to the same position. This freezes our muscles, and can lead to heart problems and pain in the neck and back.
Some easy fixes to let your muscles move are:
-Standing desks: raised desks allow you to stand with your laptop or computer still at typing level. This allows better circulation through the legs.
-Yoga balls: Have you ever tried sitting on a yoga ball? It forces near perfect posture and through this, your back, neck, and shoulders stop from slouching, which prevents many long-term upper body muscle pains.
Screen brightness
If you often get headaches or have to constantly rub your eyes throughout the work day, your computer screen could be the problem. A screen that is too bright or dark forces your eyes to constantly adjust back and forth between the screen and anything else you need to look at. Additional light from windows or a bright overhead light can also alter brightness and force your eyes to work overtime all day.
Thankfully, this problem is an easy fix as well:
-If the brightness of the screen seems to be the problem, adjust it so that the brightness of the screen is the same as holding a blank piece of paper next to the screen would appear.
-Turn your screen sideways to any windows or bright lights so that the contrary lighting isn’t hitting from directly behind or directly in front of.
The problems mentioned above are just the tip of the office ergonomics iceberg. If you’d like to know more about office ergonomics and office safety tips, check out the ergonomics section in our course content.
Have any questions or concerns? Let us know in the comments section!