Healthy work at your desk

While at work it is ultimately important to pay attention to office ergonomics. Good workstation set up is pictured on the right. If your desk set up or office furniture is inappropriate for you, you may sooner or later get injured. Ask your employer to do a Risk Assessment of your workstation. In the UK , this is required by the HSE 1992 Display Screen Equipment Regulations. A Risk Assessment means that an Ergonomist comes to your desk and checks whether all components of your workstation (chair, desk, monitor etc) are appropriate for your stature and whether the work process and pace is appropriate for you personally. We are all different and so our furniture or at least the set up needs to be adjusted for each individual. If things can be set up so that you can use your workstation in comfort, it ends there. If not, alternative equipment (such as a different chair or a keyboard tray) is ordered for you. If you work in un-ergonomic conditions, your corrective exercise practice would be far less effective. You would realign your body during your exercise and then misalign it again while at work. This would be counterproductive to the time and effort you spend exercising.

Given that you may be working for some 8 hours a day and your Computer User Exercise practice might take only half an hour or an hour a day, the importance of working in healthy conditions becomes very clear. You need an ergonomic workstation and an ergonomic work process to stay healthy working in the office and enjoy your career.

If the work pace is a lot faster than what you are comfortable with, this can be a risk factor too. Work pace should be adjusted to the individual and not imposed on the individual. A Risk Assessment is there to uncover any problems with your working conditions and when they are identified to rectify them.

It is important to change your working position frequently throughout the day to improve your circulation but it is also essential to get back to the correct position as often as you can to remind your body about healthy postural habits.