Ergonomics: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
At Lincoln, we pride ourselves not only on our superior service to our clients and owners, but most importantly to the amazing tenants in our properties! Because of this commitment, we are starting a new segment on our blog where we will post helpful tips and topics relevant to improving your working environment, as well as some spotlights on some of our interesting tenants and their companies around the region! Enjoy!
At work, how often do you:
• Experience fatigue?
• Endure frequent headaches?
• Suffer from neck/back pain?
• Deal with constant dry eyes?
Although plenty of conditions could contribute to your physical aches and pains at work, it could be that you’re practicing inefficient ergonomics.
So, what exactly is ergonomics?
It sounds like something straight out of the latest Terminator film: it’s “an engineering science concerned with the physical and psychological relationship between machines and people who use them.” In simpler terms of the Legal dictionary’s definition, it just means how you + the stuff in the space around you = seamless productivity.
It’s the alignment of your spine as you sit in your chair for long periods of time, how your technology is positioned around you and even as simple as where your feet are placed, all while you work. But with all the meetings to attend, reports to make, clients to nurture, and your business that has to run around the clock, who has time to think about the angle your knees bend? Not many people.
However, if you spend the majority of your workday sedimentary in the office, and it can have serious effect on your health — you might not know it, but you can certainly feel it. In the case of Ergonomics, what you don’t know can hurt you.
What can you do?
Try these helpful ergonomics tips, and you might be surprised how quickly you feel a difference!
• How are you looking at your screen right now? Your head should be facing forward, with the top of your screen right at eye-level, so you’re not tilting your head up or down.
• Take frequent breaks looking away from your screen so the muscles in your eyes can adjust, and practice the 20-20-20 Rule.
• Keep your posture in check. Avoid slouching and align your spine and natural curve of your back with your hips.
• Keep your knees bent at just over a ninety-degree angle, adjusting your seat if you have to.
• Place your feet flat on the floor, or on a foot cushion.
• Assess your work space with this helpful quiz.
There’s a whole world of ergonomic science out there and how it affects you in the workplace. To learn more, visit this helpful resource and follow @LPCSoutheast on twitter for helpful upcoming ergonomics tips, real estate updates in the Southeast and the occasional good laugh.