True Facts About Ergonomics

With the hours that employees spend seated in their office chair in this computer age, it is important to remember to practice good ergonomics and keep the correct positioning throughout the day. Ergonomics are the key to a healthy body, back and neck when working long hours in the task chair. When people sit in their office chair, they should adjust it to the proper position first, remembering a simple checklist of setup motions.

First people need to be educated in the proper ergonomic posture in order to get an idea of what position their spine should take. This will help people to keep the proper position throughout the day and varying tasks. People need to start by checking their elbow placement. They also need to rest comfortably at or above the working surface. People can get the proper height or the placement by varying their keyboard tray height or using seat height adjustment to get the proper placement for their elbows. This is a very important feature in proper ergonomics for those people working at a computer, typing or using the mouse for long periods of time. The wrist needs to stay in a relaxed position and the elbow height to desk height should help this motion become easier.

Next people need to check the backrest involving checking their torso and upper legs. The desired ergonomic position is not an upright position as most of the people may think. The correct ergonomic position of the seat back is at a slight angle. A true ergonomic task office chair would feature a tilt mechanism with locking positions allowing the person to keep the chair in the perfect posture at all times. If a particular chair does not feature this mechanism, people simply need to remember to sit back and keep their chairs tilt tension control perfect in order to allow reclining motion.

The feet should always be on the floor. If people have adjusted their seat to accommodate their elbow to desk heights but now their feet are not Flat on the floor, they will need to get a small footrest in order to keep their feet flat. The upper arms and lower arms should be at 90 degree to 120 degree and people can accomplish this by moving their chair closer or farther away from their workstation, again helping with the wrist positioning.

After people have adjusted their chair and desk, they next need to work on their computer monitor. The top of the monitor should be at or below the normal vision line. Most of the people make the mistake of placing their monitor up higher or on a platform to save space. However, this is very damaging, not only to the eyes but especially to muscles in the neck. Saving their neck from constantly being put in the wrong position will save people from many back problems later on.

Also people should know that when they are performing different tasks, their chair might require adjustment with each job to adequately stay in the ergonomic positioning needed. When they are typing at their computer their body is in a completely different form than when stapling, using the mouse or taking notes. Their chair may need to adjust to these tasks at different workstations and some tweaking of the chair is required.

• John Palsson
• 02/12/2008, 4:59 AM
• 0 Comments