10 Tips for an Ergonomic Workstation

Louden’s Ergonomic Guide to Office Furniture:

"Making your ergonomic workstation work for you."

10 Tips for an Ergonomic Workstation:

1. Place the monitor directly in front and centered about the user. Holding your neck to one side or the other for a prolonged period of time can cause neck tension, fatigue, and headaches (as a result of the muscle stress.) Placing the monitor directly before you will help to alleviation those possibilities.

2. Place the monitor at a distance of more than 16" from the user and the viewing angle between 0° to negative 18°. .Similarly, if the monitor angle is inappropriate, the user is going to be straining muscles to see it. These can be muscles in the neck or eye muscles. Being too close to the monitor poses a couple risks. One is eye strain, as the eye muscles struggle to curve the lense sufficiently to focus, and another is the risk of radiation from CRTs when one is closer to the screen.

3. Keep CPU within arm’s reach but off of the work surface. We don’t need to touch the CPU all that often these days. You’ll still want it close enough that you can insert a CD or USB RAM card without overreaching, straining or crawling around on your hands and knees, but the CPU no longer needs to be atop your desk.

4. Place work surface at a height that allows legs to fit comfortably underneath with feet flat on floor. Use a footrest if needed. This encourages an upright posture which is best for a relaxed spine, keeps you comfortable, and promotes good blood flow to your legs

5. Keyboard should be located at a height that allows the worker to key with the upper arms hanging relaxed from shoulders. If it is so high that you have to lift your shoulders to use it, you’re carrying all that weight and tension in them.

6. Elbows should be roughly at right angles to allow the wrists to be fairly straight. This also has to do with being relaxed in your body, typing by your fingers alone, rather than the entire upper torso It also may reduce risk of carpal tunnel, as the wrist remains flat, offering less strain and abrasion to the tendons.

7. Keyboard should have a slight negative tilt.

8. Place the pointing device (mouse) at the same height as the keyboard and as close to the keyboard as possible. The mouse is used frequently throughout the day. Minimizing the amount of reaching you’re doing to operate it will reduce stress, strain and fatigue.

9. Always maintain contact with back rest of chair to minimize back discomfort. The support helps you to relax muscles which would otherwise be working to hold your body up.

10. Take various 20 second – 2 minute rest breaks regularly between regularly scheduled breaks. You’ll find you focus better and stress less, both psychologically and physically. Feeling better, you’ll also be a more productive worker this way.

© 2007 RightNow Communications

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