At school, teachers always preached that you were better getting to get a job in an office rather than on a building site.
With an office job, you never had to worry about the rain or injuries and you would always get a good pension. Who doesn’t want that? Well, as it stands, after working in badly maintained, ill equipped offices for a few years, you will find that quite a few people now don’t.
Sore eyes, achy shoulders, arched backs, fatigue and RSI are just some of the symptoms people pick up when working in an office.
Most of these can be avoided. All it takes is a few simple changes to your behaviours and some simple changes to the equipment you are using.
Office layout
At Systems Integration, we often help new business with the designs and layouts of their new offices. And quite often we do point out that having your printer positioned 10 yards away from peoples desks, is, in the long run, far more beneficial to their employees than having one positioned next to the desk. It is advised that a person should take a break from looking at pc monitors for a long time and that walk to the printer may be the break they need + this also insures your workers staying that little bit fitter.
Chairs
It isn’t just a walk to the printer that can help your employees, desks positioned at the right height will ensure your arms are supported, this then ensures that your neck and shoulder muscles are not being strained.
Are the office chairs you have supplied your workers suitable for the job? A pc user should never be craning their neck to look forward at the screen, so ensuring the chair can get close to their working space is vital. A persons feet should not be dangling when are seated. If your feet don’t comfortably reach the floor or there is pressure on the backs of your legs, use a footrest or lower the keyboard and chair.
Monitors
Is the pc monitor the correct height for the user. Leaning over a desk can lead to all sorts of back and shoulder troubles
Adjustable monitor heights are must, and if you have someone, especially short or tall, you may need to make exceptions and look at options that will ensure they are not straining or slouching their back. The rule of thumb is that a user’s head should always be directly above the base of support i.e. their neck. What may seem like a bit of a shoulder ache now, could play havoc on a person’s health in a few years
Desks
Are the office desks suitable? Can phone, monitor, mouse, keyboard and paperwork all be placed within arm’s reach? Twisted and strained back muscles are a common injury within office environments. These are mostly caused by workers leaning that bit further than they need too.
So if the great company pension is there, you as an employer will want your employees to be in good health so that they can enjoy it. If you’re looking around at your workers whilst reading this and thinking, ‘Well maybe Sandra is stooping a little’ or ‘Paul, does keep complaining about his wrists’, give us a call. We can help you with an office layout that will work and can also provide the hardware that will ensure all aches and pains are relieved.