Making your office an ergonomic workplace
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): Four members of the administrative support staff share a room on the 11th floor at the office where I work. One of them has just been relocated from his former room downstairs into this room. Perhaps because he was the last person to come in, he didn't have any chance to choose where he would like to sit.
He ended up sitting next to the wide window, with his face in front of it, because that was the only space left after the other three had claimed theirs. He placed his PC on that desk. I was shocked when I saw it. I went straight to his supervisor and insisted that he trade places with another staff member who didn't use a computer.
Having a bright background, such as a large window, behind your computer monitor is one of the best methods of wrecking your vision. Unfortunately, a walk around Jakarta office buildings reveals a lot of office workers working in such a harmful setting. The sad thing is that since these staff workers -- like this guy in my office -- are so low in the corporate hierarchy, nobody really cares about their plight. And, because of their own limited education and knowledge, they themselves may not be aware of the hazards they are exposed to at work.
In more developed countries, the authority usually intervenes with regulations that make sure that employers pay due attention to the safety and health of their workers. In the European Union, for instance, two directives have been issued to make sure this happens. These are Directive 89/391/EEC that introduces measures to encourage improvements in safety and health of workers at work, and Directive 90/270/EEC that specifies minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment.
Ergonomics
When we talk about safety and health at the workplace, we usually talk about ergonomics. It is an interdisciplinary study on the interaction between a worker and his environment. His work environment includes the physical environment, the equipment and the processes in which the worker carries out his tasks.
Ergonomics is concerned with two related objectives. First, it tries to minimize the strain and the burden imposed on the workers by their work environment -- the room where they work, the tools that they use, and so on. The other objective is to find technical solutions that may help workers to work more effectively and efficiently.
Why is ergonomics important? First, as the case of the guy in my office could have demonstrated, neglect of ergonomic factors in the workplace could lead to work-related injuries and health hazards. Had he continued working with the PC with the glaring window behind it, he would have had to replace his already thick glasses in no time.
Secondly, heeding ergonomic recommendations can in fact result in increased output because ergonomics also explores ways in which the human-machine interface can be made more comfortable and productivity improved.
When it comes to computers and peripherals, the foci of ergonomics are naturally the monitor and the keyboard. These are the two main means by which a worker interacts with his computer. Other similarly important issues include the ambient lighting of the room, the height of the desk and the design of the chair he sits on. Other things, such as the mouse and the footrest may not be as important.
Monitor
As I have repeatedly emphasized in this column, one of the most important ergonomic features you should pay attention to when choosing and installing a monitor is the refresh rate of the display.
A computer doesn't paint the image on the screen once and leave it there until the time it has to be changed. In fact, the computer repeatedly paints the image at the rate we normally call "refresh rate". A refresh rate of 60 Hz -- which the standard VGA display has -- means that the computer redraws the screen 60 times in a second. This results in a flickering display, and this can quickly cause eye fatigue. The minimum acceptable refresh rate is 70 Hz. The higher the rate, the better. At 85 Hz, for example, the monitor will look like a piece of white page.
High refresh rates are actually the function of the graphics card inside the CPU casing. As I explained in my recent review of WinFast 3D S600DX, this card is responsible for handling the video signals that the CPU sends to the monitor. In order to be able to adjust the refresh rate, you need to install the right software driver for the card and adjust the setting.
Of course, your display monitor should be capable of handling the refresh rate as well. If your monitor can only display screen images at the maximum refresh rate of 85 Hz, you risk damaging it if you set your graphics card to redraw the screen at 100 Hz.
Most monitors on the market today is capable of handling fairly high refresh rates. They also come with anti-glare coating, so that your workers will no longer be able to see the reflection of their own faces on the monitor instead of the text. Almost all monitors also come with a tilt-and-swivel base so that workers can adjust the position to get the most comfortable viewing angle.
Another concern is the electrostatic, electromagnetic and the so-called "soft" X-ray emission that a monitor may radiate. The current standard for these radiation today are the Swedish MPR II and TCO '92. These standards specify the maximum amount of allowable emission. When buying a new monitor, just make sure they meet these standards.
Keyboards
A few of the older keyboards used in the office where I work are very hard to use. You have to hit the keys really hard to make sure that the keypress is registered. Keyboards such as these ones are especially bad for fast typists. A good keyboard should provide the right amount of tactile response and feedback for fast typing.
If you walk around the computer stores today, you'll see a keyboard with a split design. Microsoft has one and they call it Natural Keyboard. Siemens Nixdorf also has one called KBPC-E.
Acer also makes a good ergonomic keyboard that has a touchpad between the two parts. Some of these split keyboards are adjustable and some are not.
These keyboards have been so designed to allow us to place our hands and arms on the same plane as our elbow. This is supposed to make typing more comfortable and safer.
The bottom line is, don't be too stingy and buy the cheapest keyboard for your workers. Good keyboards are no longer expensive. I just bought an IBM Option keyboard, which is a decent one, for just Rp 80,000.
One thing that is very often neglected is the lighting condition of the room where the staff work. Remember that the room where your employees work should have sufficient ambient light, the recommended being 500 lux. If a reading lamp is used, care should be taken so that the light doesn't fall on the surface of the monitor screen and gets reflected straight into their eyes.
Copy holders are also another thing that I have introduced to the people at my office. They cost only about Rp 30,000 a piece, but they can increase the comfort of office workers as well as their productivity. Chairs with sufficient support for their back is also essential, although the problem of backaches is usually caused by the way they sit rather than by the design of the chair they sit on. You usually can spot secretaries with proper training by the way they sit in front of their computer.
Finally, remember that your workers are your assets. They may not know about ergonomics, but you do. Therefore, you have the moral obligation to ensure they never become the victims of poor working conditions in your office.