The vast majority of us have to go to work every day and we should be able to go to our offices without worrying about getting injured when going about our day to day working activities. The unfortunate thing however, is that many people experience work injuries on a daily basis and although health and safety practices have been put into place, people always forget about what they have learned. These injuries are not serious in one respect but they are enough to keep us away from the office for a number of days. The injuries generally occur when we are doing simple things like sitting at our desks or stretching to pick something up.
Many people suffer from continuous and ongoing office syndrome and as a direct result, we injure our backs, necks and even our legs. Many businesses still continue to not supply their staff members with ergonomic chairs and desks and so they suffer from neck and back complaints. With that in mind, the following are some of the top ways to avoid injuries when working in an office environment.
- Proper head positioning – Many employees are suffering from bad posture due to many years of slouching and so this is why you should always try to keep your head positioned correctly. Always try to keep the weight of your head above the base of the neck and try not to be always holding your neck forward.
- Support your arms – Many individuals do not realise how important that this actually is but you need to support the weight of your arms because without it, your neck and shoulder muscles will become strained and you will be tense and unable to do your job properly or take part in any kind of fitness activity.
- Stop with the slouching – Many years of bad habits have lead most people to slouch when they sit at their desks and this puts serious pressure on your back. Hopefully, you have been provided with a chair with lumbar support, so make sure that you use it. Make sure that you are close enough to the project so that you don’t have to stretch or lean to reach what you need.
- Monitor always in front – Some people have a habit of placing their monitor off to the right or left and this is not good for your head and neck. Always place the monitor directly in front of you at all times so that you don’t place unnecessary strain on your head and neck area.
- Avoid eye strain – While the monitor does need to be placed directly in front of you, make sure that it is close enough or far way enough so that you can read what is on it clearly even if you are only looking at vacation hotspots in Asia. This helps to avoid eye strain.
If you follow the above five tips then you are on your way to working in a safer and healthier workplace. Ignore the above advice and you will experience the typical symptoms of office syndrome. Talk to your employer about getting the right kind of desk and chair when doing your daily office work.