Sitting Comfortably

Modern work patterns are dominated by the increasing presence of technology. In the office, employees spend much of their time answering emails, writing reports and participating in web conferences — all of which require prolonged periods of computer use.

For many workers, this has led to an increase in musculoskeletal complaints such as eyestrain, lower back pain and wrist discomfort. In 2009, 5.1 million working days were lost due to workplace injury in the UK, a statistic that should alert us to the growing number of work-related issues stemming from prolonged computer use.

More and more organisations are beginning to see the link between worker discomfort, lost productivity and cost. Combine this with the fact that an anticipated one third of the UK population will be over the age of 50 by 2020, with a likely further 20 years of working ahead of them, and we begin to see the scale of the problem.

There are several key physiological changes associated with ageing that affect work performance. For example, strength peaks between the ages of 25-35 and levels off between 35-50. Between the ages of 50-60, strength can dip to 75-85 per cent of peak. So proactively addressing discomfort levels, therefore becomes increasingly important for business strategy.

For many of us, working is no longer something associated with an office — we work where and when we can, often on the move. It is a 21st-century phenomenon to see employees tapping away on Blackberrys or iPads in cafés, or while travelling on buses and trains.

We don’t have much control of our environment when on the road — we work in places that make us hunch our backs to conform to whatever seating we’re in, flex our necks to see the screen, bend our wrists to reach the trackpad, and shrug our shoulders to reach the keyboard.

You can’t position a laptop’s display and keyboard separately to reduce your risk of neck or wrist injury. However, you can be aware of how to prepare for poor ergonomic environments.

Ergonomics defined

Ergonomics is the applied science of fitting the physical environment to the worker. When ergonomic design principles are applied to a space, employee comfort improves, risk of injury decreases and worker efficiency is enhanced.

Workstation design has evolved rapidly as computer use has increased drastically across all job functions. Research on lower back pain has taught us about the importance of movement and dynamic sitting. Developments in the area of lighting technology, combined with an improved understanding of the visual system, have had dramatic implications with respect to lighting design.

Without guidance, proper work tools and training, however, employees tend to self-diagnose their discomforts and reconfigure their workstations themselves, often yielding poor results. This practice not only negatively impacts the aesthetics of the space, but ultimately results in costly retrofits per workstation.

Design challenges

A population’s height usually ranges from less than 1.5m tall to more than 2m, yet the standard work surface height is fixed at 0.75m. A 0.75m work surface height correlates to the seated elbow height of a 1.95m male, who account for less than five per cent of the population. Simply stated, most work surface heights in modern offices are too high. As a result, employees are forced to contort their bodies to an inappropriate fixed height by shrugging their shoulders, raising their chairs, and leaning forward to type and mouse. Awkward postures such as these require excessive muscle effort and lead to discomfort and fatigue.

Standard desk height, however, is just one area of ergonomic concern. The need to accommodate individual differences with respect to monitor positioning, lighting requirements and chair design is just as critical. Workers should have control over their environments, including their hand and wrist position, monitor position, and individual light level. Individual control combined with high quality ergonomics training will consistently yield safe and productive workers.

Hands and wrists

While the postural problems and associated injury mechanisms are fairly complex, design solutions aimed at improving hand and wrist posture are relatively simple to implement. Applied ergonomics research has shown us that a ‘hands-in-lap’ posture is the ideal keyboard and mouse position for those who are able to type proficiently. Lowering the keys and angling them slightly away from the body reduces shoulder shrugging and helps to straighten the wrists. Bringing the tools closer to the body affords the user the ability to properly use their chair backrest.

Installing adjustable keyboard support is the most cost-effective means of achieving postural improvement. Employees may respond negatively to this solution at first, either because they have had a bad experience with a poorly designed keyboard support that interfered with their knees or because they were never shown how to use the device properly. With training, organisations can expect a 90 per cent acceptance rate of ergonomic devices like this. Rejection rates among users without training typically exceed 50 per cent, which shows that people need to be trained to use even simple devices in order for them to feel at home using them regularly.

Taking a seat

Selecting a chair that is easy to adjust, provides support and promotes movement is critical for maintaining healthy body posture. The typical office worker will likely spend more time sitting in their chair than they’ll spend anywhere else, with the exception of perhaps their bed. Frequent postural shifts are recommended to minimise static muscle contractions and fatigue.

Today’s newest chairs feature self-adjusting recline mechanisms, which automatically tension the backrest based on the user’s body weight. These designs drastically simplify the operation of the chair and have been shown to promote movement critical for maintaining spinal health. Look for a chair that also has an adjustable seat pan, backrest and adjustable armrests.

Monitor positioning

Providing computer users with flexibility over monitor positioning is another important strategy for maintaining high levels of operator comfort. Because we tend to look downward naturally — at 15 degrees — the top line of text on the monitor height should be placed no higher than eye level and at about arm’s reach from the body.

Multiple monitor setups are challenging from an ergonomics perspective because they impact body alignment. Adjustable flat-panel monitor arms can be used, with proper positioning and alignment, and can also help to free up previously used desk space for writing or referencing tasks.

Task lighting

Most office environments are drastically over-lit from an ambient perspective at tremendous energy waste and yet are also under-lit from a task perspective. Monitors are best viewed in dimly lit settings because they emit light. Documents, however, reflect light and require light in order to be viewed. Herein lies an obvious conflict. Single source lighting schemes are not appropriate for computer workstations.

Age is a factor as well: as we get older, the corneal lens hardens and the process of accommodation becomes increasingly difficult. Focusing on near-field objects becomes increasingly challenging. By the time an individual reaches the age of 61, they require at least 250 per cent more contrast to view the same documents as they did in their 20s.

To solve this dilemma, many organisations are employing a dual component lighting scheme by lowering ambient light levels and providing users with controllable task lights. This approach has been shown to significantly reduce visual problems and cut energy requirements by up to 40 per cent.

Widespread benefits

Workstation design changes are often met with opposition because it is human nature to resist change. Improvements should therefore be accompanied by sound ergonomics training. Involving employees in the change process has been shown to significantly reduce injury rates and associated lost productivity time.

Challenging your firm to design high performance work environments that accommodate 95 per cent of the population will not only improve worker comfort and reduce costs, but will also preserve the original design vision of the space. Enhancing the human experience will quickly differentiate your firm from the competition while attracting higher quality candidates and resulting in higher levels of employee retention.