Administrative Assistant / Secretary: The Basics of Office Ergonomics

You can think of ergonomics as a way of designing tools and equipment to suit individual needs. For a number of years, there have been efforts to improve ergonomics, primarily in manufacturing and product design. But improvements can also be made for office workers.
Ergonomics addresses three aspects of your workplace: the physical, the environmental, and the personal. An example of a physical aspect is creating a good fit between you and your computer workstation. An example of an environmental aspect is eliminating glare on your monitor screen by improving the lighting in your work area. An example of a personal aspect is the need to take periodic breaks throughout the day to restore your energy and improve comfort.

Recognizing Signs of Discomfort
Early recognition of physical symptoms allows you to make adjustments, seek help, and eliminate further discomfort. So how can you recognize the early signs and symptoms? Well, only you can listen to what your body is telling you. If you feel any fatigue, tension, or discomfort in any part of your body, take immediate action to relieve it. It’s important to pay attention to the early signs and symptoms to avoid conditions that may lead to further discomfort.
Other symptoms include limbs that feel heavy or in which you feel a dull ache. You might also have joint or muscle discomfort. Be aware of problems with your eyes, including dry or itchy eyes, redness, aches, or blurred vision. You can also get headaches from eyestrain.

How can you recognize the advanced signs and symptoms of work-related problems? Consider the following:
- Do you notice tingling, numbness, or coldness in joints and extremities?
- Is there a loss of strength or dexterity in your hands?
- Do you have difficulty turning door knobs, grasping things, or holding onto things?

What should you do if you experience these symptoms? Remember first that these symptoms are likely temporary and might have nothing to do with your work. For example, these symptoms might result from recreational activities, such as sports, hobbies, and home projects, or from medical conditions, such as arthritis, diabetes, pregnancy, or obesity.
Whatever their source, it’s important to address these symptoms early and seek appropriate medical attention. Early intervention is the key to avoiding prolonged discomfort.

Whether at work or play, examine the risk factors in your activities.
- Are you involved in prolonged, intensive activities without breaks?
- Is your desk arranged so that you must extend yourself to reach the phone or reference materials?
- Do you sit in one position and rarely move about? Rarely take rest breaks? Rarely if ever stretch? You should take a break at least once each hour.
- Do you use too much force when gripping a pen or pencil?
- Do you lean or rub against hard surfaces such as the edge of a desk?
- Do you perform visually intensive tasks without breaks?
- Do you work in an area where there are wide temperature shifts, drafts, breezes, poor or irregular lighting, or excessive noise?

Your Desk and Chair
There are three preferred ways to sit at your desk.

First, sitting upright is perhaps the most familiar posture when working at a computer. When seated, the angle between your upper and lower body should be approximately 90 degrees. Your back should be supported and erect. Your feet should be supported by the floor or a footrest. This is a good all-around posture for working at the computer.
A second popular sitting position is called reclining. In this position, you lean back in your chair. Make sure your back is fully supported and your buttocks are not shifted forward, which causes your lower back to not be supported. Your feet should be supported by the floor or a footrest. This is a good posture for viewing information on your monitor or for reading documents.
The third way to sit is called declining. In this posture, your upper body is upright while your thighs are declining slightly and your feet are firmly on the floor or a footrest. The seat back is adjusted almost vertically to provide back support. This is also a good posture for keyboarding work.

Adjustments to Your Chair
To enhance your comfort, you can make four main adjustments to most office chairs. These are adjusting the seat pan height, the backrest height, the backrest tilt, and the armrests. Let’s look at each of these adjustments in more detail.
You should adjust the seat pan height so that your elbows are approximately at keyboard height when your elbows are next to your body. Your thighs should be approximately parallel to the floor with your feet resting firmly on the floor. If your feet are not resting firmly on the floor, you need a footrest. This seat pan height adjustment prevents your thighs from being compressed so blood flow is not restricted. This reduces fatigue in your legs. This adjustment also encourages you to sit more erectly and to use the backrest of your chair, which reduces stress on the lower back.
The backrest height adjustment makes sure that your lower back is supported. For most people, their lower back is at the same height as their elbows when the elbows are next to their body. When adjusted correctly, the lumbar support of the backrest should fit the curvature of your lower spine. This adjustment helps your lower back to maintain its natural curvature and thereby provides even compression on spinal disks and less fatigue of your back muscles.
The backrest tilt adjustment involves the angle between the backrest and the seat pan. It should be no less than 90 degrees. You should avoid adjusting the backrest too far back to where your arms are stretched out to reach the keyboard. You should also avoid adjusting the backrest too far forward where you are too close to the keyboard and cause too much bend in your elbow.
The armrest adjustment involves adjusting the height of the armrests so that the elbows rest naturally on the armrests without slouching or shrugging your shoulders. If possible, you should adjust the width between armrests so that the armrests are directly underneath your elbows. The correct adjustment of the armrests reduces the loading of the arm on the shoulder.

Other Ways to Adjust Your Seating
What if you must use a nonadjustable chair? Just because the chair is “nonadjustable” doesn’t mean you can’t still make adjustments. You can make an existing chair more ergonomically sound by physically adjusting the height and adding lumbar support. You can adjust the height by adding a cushion on top of the seat pan. Finally, you can add a back support cushion, pillow, or even a rolled up towel to give yourself lumbar support.
You can lower the height of your work surface by obtaining a lower-height work surface, or, as a last resort, have the Facilities staff cut down the height of the legs. You might also consider adding an adjustable-height or lower fixed-height keyboard tray to your work surface.
You can raise the height of a work surface by obtaining a higher-height work surface or by adding blocks under the workstation’s legs.

Positioning Your Computer Keyboard and Mouse
The keyboard and mouse are typically the main interface between a user and a computer system. Therefore, if you work with a computer system, you probably use your keyboard and mouse extensively.
How can you set up your keyboard and pointing device to maximize comfort? There are several things you can do. You can place them properly and, if necessary, you can acquire keyboard and mouse accessories.
To set up your keyboard properly, start by placing it directly in front of the monitor with the home position keys, G and H, centered to the screen. Sit so that your elbow angle is approximately 90 degrees. Maintain a straight line across the hand and forearm. This might require you to lower the keyboard off the rear legs. Placing your keyboard properly helps you maintain a neutral posture, thereby improving comfort (Figure 18-1).
Pointing devices such as a mouse, trackball, or glidepoint should be positioned to maximize comfort. You should place the device at the same height as the keyboard and as close to the keyboard as possible. For right-handed people who don’t use the ten-key numeric keypad, you might want to consider using a keyboard without this keypad. Positioning your pointing device correctly helps you maintain a neutral posture, thereby improving comfort.

Positioning your keyboard.


Several keyboard and mouse accessories are available that can assist you with your comfort. Adjustable keyboard trays and platforms are designed to position the keyboard at various heights to help keep your wrists and arms in a neutral, relaxed position. Adjustable keyboard trays can slide in and out from underneath a work surface. Some models have a separate height and tilt adjustment.
Palm rests can be helpful in the use of both the keyboard and the mouse. These soft foam or gel strips are designed to raise your palms and keep your wrists straight. If you use a palm rest, it should not be used while keying but only to rest your palms between periods of keying.

Positioning Your Computer Display
The location and orientation of your display depends on the lighting characteristics in your work area, the viewing distance and angle, and glare control.
Glare control is key to avoiding eyestrain and the accompanying discomfort it can cause. You should keep in mind that the best way to correct screen reflections is to remove their source. The need for antiglare screens suggests that the workplace is not arranged or lit properly.
Many sources that can cause glare reflections on a properly positioned display will likely cause distracting glare in a person’s normal field of vision. Screen glare can result from too much light falling on the screen (for example, light from windows or lamps), or bright areas of the environment that reflect onto the screen (such as a white shirt or blouse).
Proper lighting is really a relative term. Lighting that is good for one task may be inappropriate for another. The general attitude in most offices is that more is better, but this is not necessarily true for working at your computer. If you are reading paper documents, you need bright light, but if you are viewing a display, you need less light. The best solution for most offices is to reduce the overhead lighting so that the computer screen is more easily read, then supplement with task lamps.
If possible, choose a workplace setup location where the screen is perpendicular to any windows and away from any bright light sources such as task lamps. You should consider using an antiglare screen if it is impossible to control the source of the glare. You should also adjust the monitor’s contrast, brightness, and color controls to suit your individual comfort level. This may require changing these controls during the day as room light varies.
Special screen cleaners are available to clean dust, dirt, and fingerprints from the display or antiglare screen. You can also try a damp cloth.
After you’ve located your display properly in your work area to avoid glare, you need to fine-tune the position in relationship to your body. Your display should be centered behind your keyboard. The height of your display depends on your eye height while seated. The top of the display, not the top of the screen, should be even with or a little lower than your horizontal line of sight.
For people of shorter stature, you should avoid placing the display on top of your desktop computer system. This makes it nearly impossible to position the keyboard and display properly. Either the monitor will be too high or the keyboard will be too low. If, in your work, you look primarily at source documents, place the source documents directly in front of you and the display slightly off to the side.
If you need to raise the display, stands are available that can provide a comfortable viewing height in order to reduce eye and neck discomfort. If you wear glasses with bifocals, trifocals, or progressive lenses, and you find yourself looking through the bottom or top of your glasses to view the screen, you should adjust the display until you don’t have to tilt your head up or down to see the screen.
What if you have a laptop instead of a monitor? In a fixed office setting, you might consider getting a “Y” connector and using an external keyboard and mouse. You can then set the laptop on a raised platform behind the keyboard to raise the screen to the proper height. Another option is to obtain a separate display for office use.
The distance between your eye and the display should be whatever is comfortable for you. You should be able to easily read the characters on the screen. You should not have to lean forward or back to read the screen. One good rule of thumb is to sit at an arm’s length from the display with your hand in a fist position.
You can tilt the display up or down as necessary. Try to maintain a 90-degree angle with your line of site. Also be careful not to pick up glare from overhead lighting. By following these simple placement guidelines for displays, you can avoid possible eye-strain, awkward neck positions, and neck and back discomfort.

Arranging Your Workstation
The way you organize the elements of your workplace to fit your individual needs is an important consideration in working comfortably. Make sure you have sufficient desk area to allow you to position your keyboard, pointing device, display, and other items in a way that works best for you.
Organize your desk to reflect the way you use work materials and equipment. Place the equipment you use most often, such as your telephone, within the easiest reach. Avoid placing objects where they reduce your freedom of movement. For example, don’t place a computer tower or boxes under your desk too close to your legs. The key here is to maintain an orderly desktop to reduce unnecessary movements or awkward postures. This will help to improve your comfort.
Task lamps can be used to provide lighting for reading documentation or to illuminate specific work areas. You should be careful when placing task-specific lighting to avoid glare on your computer screen and to avoid getting direct light in your eyes. Having the proper lighting will help you reduce eyestrain and its accompanying discomforts.
If your job involves working with documents, you should place the source documents properly to avoid eyestrain and awkward neck positions. One useful accessory is a document holder. When positioned properly, a document holder reduces the amount of movement required when looking back and forth between the screen and the document. Some document holders sit on your desk and are adjustable. Other models attach to the side of the display. You should position the source document at the same distance as your display and next to your display. The main thing is for the document to be on the same plane and angle as the display. If you spend most of your time transcribing, you should position your source documents directly in front of you and place your display off to the side.
How many times a day do you pick up a telephone? It’s probably a lot, right? The main thing here is to avoid cradling the handset between your ear and shoulder, which can lead to neck discomfort. If you use a telephone for the majority of your day, you should consider obtaining a telephone headset. A variety of sizes and types of telephone headsets are available. You should find one that fits you comfortably and is compatible with your telephone. If you are unsure of compatibility, consult the telephone manufacturer’s literature.

Sustained Work
No matter how well your workstation is set up, you should take frequent breaks. These breaks in your work are important as they help you to avoid fatigue. Frequent ergo-b reaks are important when you perform sustained, intensive, or highly repetitive work. Even if you just change positions or stand up and stretch at your workstation, it will help.
When working at your computer, it is recommended that you take a short break at least once each hour. These breaks can be from thirty seconds to five minutes long and can go a long way toward reducing fatigue. If you do take a short break from your workstation, don’t just go somewhere else to sit. It is more beneficial to get up and move around. For example, stand while taking a phone call. Stand while having a face- to-face conversation with a colleague. Go make copies at the copy machine. Or just take a break from the keyboard and change your position in your chair and read mail or other documentation.
It is also a good idea to rest your eyes occasionally throughout the day. Your eyes can become fatigued; however, this is a temporary condition and is not harmful to your eyes. The muscles in your eyes that work to focus on near and far objects become fatigued when they focus for extended periods of time on near objects. Your eyes experience the least stress when they are focused on objects twenty feet away or farther.
Computer display users tend not to blink as frequently as people performing other reading tasks. Eye dryness from this staring effect is increased by low humidity in the office.
If you have difficulty reading your screen, consider increasing the default font size or improving the screen resolution.
If you wear glasses, keep the lenses clean and keep your prescription current. In fact, even if you don’t wear glasses, you should have periodic eye exams. Most people’s vision changes over time.

Keyboarding Techniques
The ergonomic principles behind proper keyboarding technique start with your body position relative to the keyboard. Maintain a relaxed and neutral hand and arm posture to improve comfort. Your shoulders should not be hunched up. Your arms should be comfortably at your side with your elbows bent at approximately 90 degrees. The keyboard should be approximately at elbow height, which allows the forearm and hand to be in a straight line and parallel to the floor.

The proper keyboarding technique involves a few guidelines you should keep in mind while you are working. If you notice that you are doing something incorrectly, you should stop and make adjustments.
Keep a soft touch on the keyboard. Use as little pressure as possible. Your hands should glide over the keys. If your hands remain in a fixed position, your fingers tend to overreach for the keys. Keep your fingers in a relaxed posture similar to when you rest your hand gently and naturally on a table. Try not to extend your pinky fingers and thumbs while typing. Avoid resting your hands on the palm rest while typing. Use the palm rest only when you are not typing. To reach the keys that are farthest away, such as the function keys, move your entire hand instead of reaching with your fingers.