Not having your work desk ergonomically adjusted can cause you injury in the long term.
In fact, one of the most important things you can do is have the correct sitting position at your desk. Sitting correctly will help prevent headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, backaches, and eye strain while working on a computer.
While every workplace should have an ergonomics assessment done by a professional ergonomics company, below are some quick tips to ensure you are sitting properly at your workstation.
Start with the desk.
Before you can set up your monitor, you need to start with your desk. The height of the work desk should be half an inch below your sitting elbow height.
Your height will play a significant role in the exact positioning of your desk and chair.
If you desk is too low or too high, you may need a work around and an ergonomic consultant can help with this.
Learn the correct sitting posture for computer work.
When sitting at your computer desk, ergonomics consultants suggest that you relax your shoulders and keep your forearms parallel to the floor. Your wrist should only have minimal bend.
Your chair should have back support and armrests, as well as be height adjustable. Keep your thighs and feet parallel to the floor and use a footrest if necessary.
Remember to get up from your chair and move around every 25 minutes to give your body a break. Consider using an app to remind yourself to take your breaks, breaks can lead to more productivity in the workplace and keep you safe from injury.
The perfect ergonomic monitor height.
To start, make sure your monitor is centered directly in front of you. This way, you can sit in your chair and look straight forward. Otherwise, you will strain your neck and back as you twist to the right or left to look at the screen.
The general rule is that your monitor should be 18-24 inches away from you. But you can also use your arm to measure this.
Sit back in your chair and reach out towards your monitor. It should be about an arm length away.
Next, position the monitor so that the top of the screen is level with your eyes.
If you have your screen too low, you’ll tilt your head forward and strain your neck. Position the monitor too high, and you’ll find yourself tilting your head back. This can cause neck and shoulder pain.
Lastly, ergonomics experts suggest it may be helpful to tilt the screen back so that the base is slightly closer than the top. This can make viewing the entire screen easier and help reduce glare or digital eye strain. Not all monitors have this capability.
In conclusion, know your office ergonomics basics.
A monitor which is not set up to the correct ergonomic height may not bother you at first. But over time, your muscles will strain, your body will ache, and you may develop a cumulative trauma injury.
You can prevent all of this by making minor adjustments until you have your monitor in the ideal position.
Visit SolutionsNW.com to learn more about the importance of workplace ergonomics or Contact Us to schedule an ergonomics consultation.
Subscribe to our ergonomics blog for more ergonomics tips from Solutions Northwest Inc., ergonomics consultants located in: Seattle, WA, Tacoma, WA, Olympia, WA, Vancouver, WA, Kent, WA Renton, WA, Beaverton, OR, Portland, OR, Salem, OR, San Diego, CA, Carlsbad, CA, La Jolla, CA, Irvine, CA, Costa Mesa, CA, Newport Beach, CA.
