Office Ergonomics Ever wonder if your workstation could be arranged in away to simplify your job? After watching today’s web cast on Office Ergonomics, you will have tools you can use to assess and modify your workstation, in turn reducing any potential strain or discomfort you may be experiencing. 1

Office Ergonomics What is ergonomics? An applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely. In an office environment, typically it is adapting your computer workstation to fit your individual needs. What exactly do we mean by office ergonomics? Ergonomics is an applied science concerned with designing and arranging workstation components so they, and the people using them, can interact most efficiently and safely. In an office environment, typically it is adapting the computer workstation to fit individual needs. (CLICK) To sum it up, it’s fitting the job to the worker. 2

Office Ergonomics Improper Ergonomics/Bad Body Mechanics Actions Leading to Discomfort: Wrists outside of neutral position Squinted eyes Slumped posture Elbows out Improper ergonomics can lead to pain, discomfort and injury. Bad body mechanics is one cause of ergonomic discomforts. Some examples of bad body mechanics in an office include: Wrists outside of their neutral position, as seen on the left side of the picture above. Your wrists are in a neutral position when you are able to imagine a straight line from your elbows to your knuckles. Some other bad body mechanics causing ergonomic discomfort and injury include: Squinted eyes, Slumped posture, AND Elbows out; not relaxed at the sides. 3

Office Ergonomics Improper Ergonomics/Repetitive Motion Other Causes of Discomfort: Repeating the same motion over and over again In addition to poor body mechanics, repetitive motion can also cause ergonomic pain, discomfort and injury. Computers are as common in the workplace today as telephones. They require our hands and arms to be used more than ever as we write letters, complete forms, create reports, edit, email, search the Internet, and perform other job tasks. (CLICK) Repeating the same motion over and over again with little rest can apply additional force to your muscles, joints, or tendons which may result in more stress on your arms and hands. This is especially true when you are working in an awkward or uncomfortable position. 4

Office Ergonomics Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) Muscular conditions that result from repeated motions formed in the course of normal work or daily activities due to improper ergonomics Examples include: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Tennis Elbow Trigger Finger Muscular conditions can result from repeated motions formed in the course of typical daily work activities. Some examples of Musculoskeletal disorders you may have heard of include: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Tennis Elbow, and Trigger Finger. You can do a lot to help yourself be more comfortable and avoid potential injury while working at your desk. 5

Office Ergonomics Organize your Workstation Avoiding Discomfort and Injury Organize your Workstation Keyboard Mouse Phone Calculator Documents To improve your comfort while working at your computer, move the items you most frequently use to the neutral zone, pictured here in gray. This will reduce any tendency to over-reach. Items that should be in this zone include your keyboard and mouse. Other items you may want to move as close as possible to you, right outside of or in this neutral zone area include your: Telephone, Calculator, and the Documents you’re working currently with. 6 6

Office Ergonomics Avoiding Discomfort and Injury Give your body, including your eyes, time to rest We also recommend that you give your body time to rest. One way to do this is by looking away from your monitor for a few moments and stretching your hands. Another way to avoid potential discomfort is alternating key strokes. For example, if your job requires you to repeatedly use the Tab key for data entry, try to avoid using the same finger over and over again by switching fingers or hands. (CLICK) Also try to rotate your job tasks throughout the day. An example of job task rotation is working with paperwork for an hour, than switching to computer work. It allows your body to utilize alternate body components in order to avoid pain and discomfort. Rotate job tasks 7

Office Ergonomics Avoiding Discomfort and Injury/Office Lighting Inadequate lighting Improper monitor brightness Direct and reflected glare 20/20/20 Rule Ctrl & scroll up to zoom in Eye exam Lens prescription Adequate lighting is also an important element of good office ergonomics. If you tend to squint your eyes while working, you may be experiencing visual fatigue, due to (CLICK) improper monitor brightness or (CLICK) other direct or reflected glare, including sunshine. To help avoid this, do not face or have your back to windows, unshielded lamps or other direct sources of glare while working. (CLICK) Also, follow the 20/20/20 rule: after looking at the screen for 20 minutes, take 20 seconds to relax your eyes by focusing on something 20 feet away. (CLICK) Here’s something else you can try if you have a mouse with a scroll wheel: Hold down your ctrl key, scroll up to zoom in on your monitor display and down to zoom out. This feature works with the internet, Word, Excel, and many other programs and may help eliminate or reduce eye fatigue. (CLICK) In addition, you should have your eyes examined regularly. If you wear glasses or contacts and are experiencing discomfort, (CLICK) make sure your prescription is right for the work you do. (CLICK) Also, don’t forget to blink often as this reduces eye strain. 8

Office Ergonomics Twisting of your neck and/or back Red Flags Twisting of your neck and/or back Here are some red flags to watch for. If you notice yourself constantly tilting your head back and forth to view your monitor due to the use of bifocals, reading glasses or improper lighting, and you are experiencing neck discomfort, lower your monitor. People typically read with their head in a downward, more neutral position so it only makes sense that moving your monitor down a bit would feel better. If you notice yourself twisting your neck or back, like the woman on the right, and are experiencing neck, shoulder or back discomfort, you should troubleshoot by moving your source documents within your immediate view. You may want to consider using a document holder as well. Straining neck to view monitor 9

Office Ergonomics Red Flags Poor lumbar support Here are a couple of other red flags: If you notice that your shoulders are too high or low, as seen here in the picture on the left, OR, if you find yourself reaching across the desk for your keyboard, you could also be experiencing neck, shoulder, back or wrist discomfort. To correct this, consider using a keyboard tray. Your wrists outside of the neutral position could be a result of an inadequate keyboard. You may also want to adjust the height of your chair, either lower or higher. When adjusting the height of your chair, be sure to keep your feet on the floor. If they become elevated, use a footrest. If you tend to have slumped posture at your desk you may not have enough lumbar support. This could be the result on an inadequate chair or you may just need a lumbar pillow for more support. Reaching for keyboard and/or mouse 10

You’ve now seen some of the primary causes of ergonomic pain and discomfort in the office and some of the red flags to watch out for. To help you identify and correct even more potential ergonomic problem areas at your workstation that are easy to miss, we encourage you to take an online, interactive, self-assessment. The self-assessment is easy, very informative and only 20 minutes long and can be found at the web address shown at the bottom of this slide. http://www.doa.state.wi.us/ergonomics 11 11

Thank You Thank you for taking part in this Office Ergonomics training session. If you would like to have a copy of the slides for reference, you can click the links button again and you will find them at that location. We hope you’ll take the next step to your office safety by completing the Office Ergonomics Self-Assessment.