3 Reasons why you should see an OT for an Ergonomic Assessment
Individual seated at desk hunched over while working on a laptop
Occupational Therapists & Ergonomic Assessments
What is Ergonomics?
You arrive at the office bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to conquer the world. By about 11 am you are starting to fidget and a hotness is pulsing in your lower back. At 2pm you can’t sit in the chair anymore. You start to find reasons to walk about, chat and get a coffee. Yes, it may be the sugary donut that you had for lunch OR it could be the workstation that hasn’t been set up to fit your body.
Ergonomics focuses on designing and arranging objects so that people interact more efficiently and safely with the objects.
Reason 1: You’re working from home on a laptop
Post pandemic hybrid work continues to hold in popularity. At the end of 2023, 12% of employees were splitting their days between the office and home, compared to 4% in January 2022.
If you are a hybrid employee, I am almost certain that you were given little or no guidance on how to set up your home office. I’ll even go further to say that it’s likely that you’re working primarily from a laptop in your home office.
Studies have shown that using a laptop increases:
upper back strain
neck strain
shoulder strain
eye strain
work errors
and limits productivity because you’re not in the best ergonomic position.
Reason 2: You don’t know how to adjust your office chair
Office chairs are fairly standard in the workplace. As a new hire you are assigned a workstation your first day with a chair or you are part of this “hoteling” set up where you never know which chair you will be sitting in from day to day. What a nightmare!
“Show me what your chair does?”
This is the first question that I ask my clients when I’m conducting an ergonomic assessment. We begin by flipping the chair over and checking out the adjustability. If it’s an “ergonomic chair” it should have adjustability and form to your body. This is usually not the case, especially for very short or very tall people. Ergonomic chairs are designed to meet the needs of 90% of the population which means that 10% of people have a chair that will not fit their shape.
open office setting with a row of standard workstations
Reason 3: You’re finishing off your workday in pain
Proactively we should all have our workstation assessed and adjusted to our unique shapes, BEFORE an injury happens. I am certain that there are some of you already experiencing aching and fatigue when at work. You return home at the end of the day, rest and feel better, only to repeat the cycle the next day. I would classify you in the “early stage: of a repetitive strain injury”. Making some changes to your workstation will end the cycle.
The science behind this type of injury is that you are being forced to hold a certain posture. Then your muscles get tired. Tired muscles means blood flow is reduced and the muscle gets weak. Injuries result from weak muscles.
How soon can I book an Ergonomic Assessment?
There are many reasons to schedule an ergonomic assessment. I’ve highlighted 3 issues that I most commonly see.
It’s a new year and it’s time to improve your workplace well-being.
Occupational Therapy is covered by most employee health benefit programs. Check with your insurance provider and determine the annual amount of money that you have access to each year for OT.
Speak to your manager about whether Ergonomic Assessments are available within the organization. Some larger companies have a professional on staff that can do these assessments.
If you would like to find out more about what is involved in an Ergonomic Assessment at Davis OT please head to this page on the website!
