Ergonomics - classic or dud?

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Today I had to sit through a boring sales pitch about office furniture and lower back problems. It's amazing how terribly interesting some of my co-workers found it. Some people want a new chair every damn year. I have another co-worker who always wears special gloves when he types.

I have never had any problems with carpal tunnel or sore backs and such. Are these people just whiners, or am I extraordinarily resilient? Is this all a bunch of hype to sell more 'ergonomic' crap?

― Kerry (dymaxia), Thursday, 6 May 2004 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Depends on how old you are. Every year ergonomics seem more urgent & key to me. Hey hey what can I do, etc.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 6 May 2004 14:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Women develop back problems later in life than men, don't they? Or was that just an old wives' tale to sell milk? ("Sure, your back's fine now, but wait till you're 40! Buy the milk!")

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 6 May 2004 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Its extremely important. Though I'm not a big fan of those funky keyboards or those little wrist things, a good chair and properly placed keyboard are urgent and key.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 6 May 2004 14:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't disagree with that - I don't want to sit on a wood chair or anything, but some people take the whole thing too far. I mean, the chairs we have now are JUST FINE, but people still complain.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Thursday, 6 May 2004 14:12 (twenty-one years ago)

God help the HR troll that tries to steal my chair with anything less then the spinemelter2000.
But it really does start to kick in as you get older, or after you've thrown your back out once or twice.

oh and Kate to thread.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 6 May 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Typing this with wrist braces, I can say that I wish I had started taking care of ergonomics before now. Carpal tunnel be damned, I am feeling hesitant about going back to the doctor for my upcoming "is wrist surgery right for you?" talk.

― Silas Beauford (Silas Beauford), Thursday, 6 May 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm also typing with wrist bands that stabilize my hands. It's not carpal tunnel, it's chronic tendinitis. As a result, split keyboards are ever so U&K.

I also have a bad back.

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Thursday, 6 May 2004 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Computers have been hurting me since I was 14 or so, but its become debilitating just in the last year or so. Still, I'm only 23...all my friends I graduated with from school (Computer Science people at least) have considered wacky plans to avoid using actual computers lest our hands/wrists/shoulders/backs explode before we're 30.

When my hands have given out completely in a few years I'll spend the rest of my days shaking my stubby swollen fists at Alan Turing and his ilk, laughing down from heaven.

― Silas Beauford (Silas Beauford), Thursday, 6 May 2004 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha. Oh my Lord. This thread could not have come at a more opportune time. *waves around bound hand* Might ergonomics have prevented this from happening to me? Maybe. Who knows for sure? All I know is that it only took me eleven years to reach this point, which seems like a rather short period of time.

I can, however, confidently say that the Kajagoogoo song is classic. :)

― Those Beautiful Lines (Dee the Lurker), Friday, 7 May 2004 05:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Damn, why didn't I see myself being summoned to this thread earlier?

Ergonomics is rubbish, eh? Just tell that to the "non-tumour swelling" (or whatever the agreed funny medical terminology was) which I am going to have surgically removed from my wrist next month. Sigh.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

No Ergonomics, No Design, No Engineering, No Art.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 7 May 2004 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

eight years pass...

I think I have temporarily destroyed my lower spine and shoulder blades with my poor posture, principally in front of the laptop at home. (again, thx for getting me into film criticism, Sotosyn.) I am physiologically incapable of running.

Can't afford a decent chair, at least not til I return from vacation. This will go away soon if I start sitting ramrod straight, right?

― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 21 June 2012 14:14 (thirteen years ago)

Don't know about yr back Dr M, but I just got a wireless trackball for work computing, having used a wired mouse all my life and it's been a revelation in terms of comfort and ease of use. Wish I'd got one years ago.

― that mustardless plate (Bill A), Thursday, 21 June 2012 15:06 (thirteen years ago)

ergonomics killing me ergonomics killing you

― am0n, Thursday, 21 June 2012 15:08 (thirteen years ago)

every time i sneeze -- or suppress one -- the pain is a bastard.

― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Friday, 22 June 2012 18:44 (thirteen years ago)

This will go away soon if I start sitting ramrod straight, right?

Probably not. You need the assistance of someone who can figure out the residual effects of the abuse your bad posture and repetitive motion stress have inflicted upon your back muscles, bones and nerves, then tell you how to fix it. By now, just sitting up straight might make the pain worse.

― Aimless, Friday, 22 June 2012 18:50 (thirteen years ago)

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