Introduction
This newsletter supports leaders who want to Go Beyond the Ergo and shows their support for staff health, safety, and wellness when working with computers. It includes knowledge but focuses on sharing free or low-cost tactics, based on research and interaction with clients, to increase comfort and productivity and decrease pain and labour costs.
One of the major issues experienced by computer users is sore, scratchy, and irritated eyes. This condition is so common that new products are constantly being developed to manage it and the often associated headaches, even migraines.
How would your team members feel if you took a holistic approach and provided a range of easy-to-implement, no-cost actions and adjustments to eliminate eye discomfort and headaches?
What would it mean to your team’s productivity and engagement?
This month’s newsletter focuses on eye care with elements from The Three Pillars of Self-care for Computer Work. These actions, adjustments, and strategies go beyond generic advice to add ideas you have never seen before. They are the discoveries of practical solutions developed through ongoing research and collaboration with clients, WHOs, and managers.
Let’s start …..
Ergonomic Adjustments to Avoid Eye Strain & Headaches:
Ergonomic Objective
Fit the task to the worker and not vice versa. Your equipment design and positioning should be based on your tasks, specific body measurements, and personal factors (e.g. wearing glasses, limited neck mobility).
Positioning a Single-Screen
The suggestions below aim to keep your neck in a neutral posture, reducing eye strain and maintaining good visibility.
Screen Placement, Distance & Screen Angle:
- Place the screen directly in front of you.
- Checking and adjusting screen height.
- Position the top useable line of the screen at a height where your neck is straight (referenced in line with the bridge of your notes).
- The centre of the screen should be at shoulder height to ensure a slight downward viewing angle.
- Click here for the post describing how to check screen height.
- Checking and adjusting screen distance and angle
- For the greatest comfort, the screen is ideally around 82cm away from the bridge of your nose. This represents “a reasonable compromise” between the visual and musculoskeletal demands of computer work for optimal operator comfort.
- The screen viewing angle recommends horizontal eye level to screen centre angles of 15° to 20° (i.e. the top of the screen is tilted away from the view).
Computer Screen Brightness
Screens are often set at 100% brightness, which is tiring for the eyes.
- Adjusting screen brightness to 60% and avoiding vivid colours will help reduce eye strain and headaches.
Laptops
Encourage the use of laptop stands to keep your neck in a neutral posture, reduce eye strain, and maintain good visibility.
Use of Reference material and notes
It is recommended that any reference material or other screens in constant use be placed at the same visual distance as the primary screen.
Room Lighting:
Avoid glare on screens by managing overhead lights and natural light from windows.
Positive Work Habits:
These represent the work actions, tactics and strategies that should become everyday WHS and wellness self-care habits to improve comfort and productivity.
Working with Screens
Eye strain and headaches are often caused by holding a single focal length for extended periods. To avoid this:
- Look away from your screen every 20 minutes.
- Focus on something at least 20 feet away.
- Do this for at least 20 seconds.
Our blink rate drops when looking at screens. This means our eyes dry out before the next blink replenishes the moisture, making our eyes feel scratchy, sore, or burning. To manage this:
- Staying hydrated is important for eye care, brain function and overall health
- Use eye drops specifically designed for computer work to prevent dryness. Avoid drops that aim to restrict blood flow. This is very important.
Movement Breaks To Check Work Posture and Muscle Tension
Good posture is important to avoid stress, strain, headaches and eyestrain. By regularly checking work posture and consciously releasing the muscle tension associated with computer work, you avoid the trap of working in awkward and prolonged postures. The trick is to:
- Reinforce regular mini and micro-breaks to relax muscles and avoid fatigue.
- Stretch at your desk | Click here to download your Free Strech Guide
- Get up and jiggle on the spot to release muscle tension and increase metabolism.
- Add your Roll-Reset-Relax action into the routine when you take a mini or micro-break.
- Click here for the May Newsletter that introduces the Roll-Reset-Relax.
CX Case Study: Lights, Hats, Action:
We know ceiling lights set at the recommended levels can be too bright, especially when the screens are set too high. This means the viewer is looking up at the ceiling and gathers in all that extra light, leading to headaches and even migraines. We solve this by:
- The ergonomic solution is to set screens to the right height, have soft room lighting and use desk laps for paperwork.
But these are not always possible and don’t necessarily solve all the problems caused by overhead lights. Self-Care Actions you can take to relieve eye strain and headaches are to:
- Wear a soft cap or visor that is not tight on the head but shelters your eyes from overhead lights.
- We know flashbacks from light-coloured (especially shiny) desktops can cause headaches. We solve this by adding an A3 sheet of light grey, green, etc., cardboard in front of the computer and under the keyboard.
For more details | Click here to read the full Lights, Hats, Action post.
Last Thought
These are all easy-to-share ideas with proven benefits for eye comfort and reducing headaches and migraines. Why not discover how easy it is to share, coach, and reinforce these new Self-Care Competencies by introducing your team to the Beyond Ergo Programs?
Join the leaders in booking a Lunch and Learn to ensure your team discover the new holistic, practical, no-cost actions, tactics, and strategies that can be easily implemented to increase comfort and productivity while working on computers.
Make a conscious effort today to prioritise your team’s health and well-being.
What We Do | We help businesses improve productivity and labour costs by decreasing work-related pain and risk of injury claims. We do this by training the Personal Protective Behaviours (PPBs) individuals need for modern computer-intensive work and play.
These new multidiscipline programs go Beyond Ergonomics to build Self-Care Competencies for today’s mobile, computer-intensive and increasingly sedentary workforce.
Additional resources
For more tips and support, [click here](https://www.ehstoday.com/health/article/21917545/single-and-dual-screen-computer-setup-ergonomic-tips).
#cx, #leadership, #wellbeing, #beyondergo #training, #wellness, #productivity