Corporate health management. Ergonomics in the office/

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1 Corporate health management Ergonomics in the office/

2 Dear employers and HR managers Your employees are the basis of your company's success. AXA supports you in helping them stay healthy at work. What is ergonomics in the office? Ergonomic office furniture provides the best possible conditions for maintaining healthy bodily movement. And yet even the best office furniture is of no use if it is not properly set up and the spine gets too little movement during everyday working conditions. Long-term success is only possible with the necessary fundamental knowledge of ergonomics. This includes topics such as body awareness and important alarm signals, the correct setting up of furniture, the management of breaks, and compensating movement. With this brochure, we d like to provide you with the fundamental knowledge needed to set up an ergonomically correct office workplace. This will allow you to deal with the key issues quickly and simply and thereby lay the basis for a healthy working environment in the office. We wish you every success in its implementation! Your AXA 2

3 Table of contents/ How to set up your workplace correctly 5 Healthy behavior for every day 15 Simple tips for feeling good 17 Seminar "Healthy and fit at the PC" 19 3

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5 How to set up your workplace correctly/ 1 3 Setting up your chair Setting up your workplace always starts with setting up your chair. (Office chair model in the illustrations: Stoll Giroflex 64.) 1. Sitting height Place your feet flat on the floor. Knee and hip joint should form an angle of at least 90 degrees. Please note: The height of your shoe heels changes the height of the chair. 2. Sitting depth The distance between the hollow of the knee and the front sitting edge should be approx. five centimeters Height of the backrest The inner curvature of the backrest should be at the height of the iliac crest. 4. Backrest movement The backrest should be unblocked so that you can move it backwards and regularly shift the burden on your spine Resistance of the backrest When the chair is new, and if you have a heavy bodyweight, set up the chair with a higher resistance. Turning it clockwise increases the resistance. 5

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7 Adjust the level of your desk Relax your shoulder and neck muscles. Lay your lower arms on the surface of the desk. Your elbows should form at least a right-angle. Set up the keyboard The keyboard should lie flat and straight in front of your body. The distance to the edge of the desk should be 10 to 15 centimeters. Take care: Don t raise the keyboard using the "keyboard feet." Your arms and hands should form a line so that there is no "kinking" of the wrist. Position the mouse The mouse should be at the same height as the keyboard and not too far away from it. The hand should be in a relaxed position over the mouse. Are you having problems with your wrists? If you are suffering from problems with your wrists, a special ergonomic keyboard and mouse are available. These items can be bought from a specialist provider. Wrong: Distance too great 7

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9 Position the screen Your computer screen should be placed directly in front of your body at about an arm's length from your eyes. It is parallel to the edge of the desk. The upper edge of the screen is the breadth of a hand beneath your eye height. The top of the screen is tilted slightly backwards. Light enters from the side. This prevents reflections from forming on the screen. Working with two screens If you work with two screens, one of them will be your primary screen. This is positioned centrally behind the keyboard. The second screen is placed slightly at an angle. Wrong: Your eyesight is no longer good or you wear glasses? By pressing the CTRL key while scrolling with the mouse, you can enlarge or reduce the size of the screen view. Everyday varifocal glasses are not ideally suited to working on a screen. Their upper section optimizes distance vision, while their lower section assists close vision for reading. The field of view in the transition area is restricted. In order to see the screen through the lower reading section, many wearers of glasses adopt an abnormal posture. This leads to neck strain and headaches (see illustration). Computer glasses with indoor varifocal lenses provide a remedy. They correct an area of 3 meters to 40 centimeters in a continuous transition. This means: You have a sharp view of your office surroundings through the upper section of your glasses, and of the keyboard and your documents through the lower section. This prevents the formation of a malposition of the spinal column. 9

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11 Using the phone correctly Wedging the receiver between your ear and your shoulder places a major burden on your shoulder and neck muscles and should be avoided. A headset relieves the muscles in the neck. An additional benefit is that you have both hands free. Do you work on a laptop for more than four hours daily? Then we recommend that you also use an external monitor. Set up your workplace ergonomically at home too. Do you work on a laptop for more than one hour daily? Use an external keyboard and mouse. If the laptop is raised slightly at the back, for example with a folder, the position of the screen is at a better height for working. 11

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13 Optimal working at a standing desk The ideal desk height is reached as soon as the elbow forms at least a right-angle when you lay your underarm on the desktop. The keyboard, mouse and screens stay in the same position as for sitting. Exploit the possibilities offered by a standing desk and change from sitting to standing frequently. Don t stand in the same position for longer than 15 minutes. Regularly change your position. Otherwise, the veins in your legs will be placed under unnecessarily heavy strain. Sitting for an hour followed by standing for 15 minutes is ideal. There is no need to program the height of the standing desk since the desk height is also dependent, for example, on the height of your shoe heels. If you have extreme backache, it makes sense to acquire a standing stool. This leads to constant change in the group of intervertebral disks being subjected to stress and thereby supports the movement of the spine. A standing stool can easily be used by several people in the office. 13

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15 Healthy behavior for every day/ Include movement in your daily activities Genetically, humans were not made for sitting down for hours at a time without moving. Regular movement is important. Note the following tips: Change your sitting position regularly, for example by sitting upright on the front edge of the chair. Movement essential when working at a desk If you mainly work sitting down, movement on the way to work and in your leisure time is particularly important. Regular movement in the fresh air is supportive following physical strain. Set the chair's backrest so that it can be moved. Stand up regularly when you can for phoning, for examining documents, etc. Use the standing desk several times daily. Take frequent short breaks to move around: Walk to the printer, walk a few strides while drinking your coffee, go out for a walk during lunchtime. Take the stairs rather than the elevator. Go on foot rather than by bus. 15

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17 Simple tips for feeling good/ Relaxation Close your eyes briefly, place your hands in your lap, and breathe in and out deeply three to five times. Repeat this exercise several times daily it relaxes you and raises your powers of concentration. If you press or massage your nasal root (see illustration) for a few seconds, this also helps you relax. Touch the muscles around the base of your skull with your fingertips (see illustration) and massage these using small, circular movements for a minute. Treat yourself to a massage of the shoulders and neck on a regular basis. Nutrition Drink at least 1.5 liters of water or unsweetened drinks daily. Examples of healthy snacks are fresh fruit, vegetables or wholegrain crackers. Be sure to eat a balanced diet. Your lunchtime break should last at least 30 minutes if you are to fuel your body properly for the afternoon. It makes sense to deliberately leave your workplace. 17

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19 Seminar "Healthy and fit at the PC"/ Short 2-hour seminar Working at a computer places one-sided stress on the body and leads to pain and tension in the neck, shoulders and/or back for around half of our employees. Nonetheless, it is possible to work in a way that does not impair our health. In our short 2-hour seminar, you learn what you can do yourself in order to prevent tension and pain and to raise your feeling of wellbeing. Goals The participants know how the back functions how to prevent or reduce posture damage and pain how to set up their workplace ergonomically. Get in touch with us if you are interested! Contact: AXA Corporate Health Management Employee Care / Health Management bgm@axa.ch 19

20 AXA Winterthur General-Guisan-Strasse 40 P.O.Box 357, 8401 Winterthur 24-hour phone: AXA Insurance Ltd EN D (client portal)