What makes it ergonomic?

In this weeks article on home working I wanted to address one question I get asked again and again, "What makes this ... ergonomic?".

Where did this fascination with all things 'ergo' come from?

It is a great question and one I will never tire of hearing. Before I answer the question please indulge me in letting me discuss why this question keeps coming up. One good thing is that people are even talking about ergonomics, even if, sometimes they don't really understand what the term means. I'm not going to give you the definition, I have done that many times before, besides you have Google and with two quick clicks you can look it up for yourself.

Done that? Good, now we can carry on.

As I was saying, before I rudely interrupted my own flow, people are talking "ergo this" and "ergo that", which is great but, why, where does this sudden interest come from?

It actually really kicked off back in the 90's when in January 1992, the first 'DSE Regulations' hit the streets from HSE (Health and Safety Executive). There then followed a multitude of wonderful leaflets showing us the dangers of working for too long at a computer and insisting that we should buy all these fabulous new things which will prevent us breaching the regulations. The word 'ergonomic' or 'ergo' for short suddenly became the word to attach to anything that we wanted to sell which could help users avoid issues such as eye strain, back problems or muscular skeletal issues.

The funny thing about attaching the word 'ergonomic' to an item rather than a personal situation, is that, if we are not careful the label remains even after the particular instance to which it applied has gone. "What on earth are you going on about?", I hear you cry.

Remember radial or curved desks? Some of you might have still have them. These were large desks which had an 'L' shape with a cut out in the corner that you sat into. They were all the rage in the late 90's and early 2000's. I worked for a dealership at the time and my customers were always telling me, "We want those ergonomic desks, you know, the ones where you sit into the curved bit".

Now these desks did sort out a particular issue for a long time. You see, monitors were (smile now if you remember this!) huge. When I say huge I don't mean as in from side to side, I mean from front to back. People worked on CRT monitors, which, like your gran's old TV, required so much space to house it, that if you had a straight desk you were left almost knocked off your chair by the front edge. So someone came along with a curved desk. Genius really. Instead of 80cm from front to back you could now have a glorious 1.2m which meant you could sit in comfort without the monitor right in your face and you even had room for that keyboard!

Where this became interesting was when flatscreen monitors started to appear. Suddenly the monitor was lost at the back of the desk or pulled forward but people started to realise that they were in-fact twisting more often because some of their work was on the straight edge of the desk and the computer was in the corner. What shall we do? Well, the answer was simple. Let's take the word 'ergonomic' off these 'ergonomic' curved desks we have been selling for years and put it on straight desks. Bingo, overnight we have a solution.

Let me just be clear, I am not saying curved desks are bad or that straight desks are the answer, what I am saying is, that somewhere in all this, the word 'ergonomic' did get used as a bit of a sales tool and frankly it has lead to a lot of end users feeling a little confused about what is and isn't ergonomic.

So What is ergonomic?

So here is the truth and for some of you this will come as quite a shock. When it comes to thinking about ergonomics stop thinking about products. "What?", I hear you cry, "but you are always showing us new products on your profile and banging on about what they do." Indeed I am but, if you look at products for the solution without thinking about the people using them, the space they fit into, the work that is being done, the way time is divided, what conditions the person may have..I could go on.. then you will completely miss the point. You may notice I also run a lot of events and webinars which are all about education and thought leadership.

In the same way those curved desks I mentioned earlier were not in themselves the issue. It was just that the other equipment and the way people worked at a desk changed over time and then people needed to think about things differently. So the reason I tell you about all these amazing different pieces of equipment is not to say these are the most ergonomic but so you know what is out there. You can't make informed choices about what to use and what will be right for you unless you are aware of the options.

It is like your listening choices.

For me there are a lot of similarities between music listening habits and ergonomics. I listen to a lot of music and I am very open minded when it comes to music. A lot of people tell me that they too have a very eclectic listening taste but then I ask them what they don't like to listen to and actually they are quite opinionated in what they like. I try and approach 'ergonomic' devices from the same angle. I try not to have a preconceived opinion about whether this mouse or that one is better but rather I just go into deconstruction mode first. Why is someone using this, what is it about this they find comfortable, what don't they like, what type of work are they doing, how do they do it, why do they sit like that? I am looking for truths so that I can then use experience and knowledge to provide solutions. What I know is, everybody is different, both physically and in the way we feel about things and how we approach things. This means one solution doesn't fit all.

So to tell you what is ergonomic and what isn't I need to understand you and how you work. Some experts will argue that clearly some items we call 'ergonomic' are not. Well, I am sure it is the case that some products are not as good as others. What I think we need to do though is focus less on the products and more on the people and the situations and then come back to the products when we have clear understanding of how and why things are being used.

As for anyone reading this who is not an ergonomic expert (and why would you want to be there are enough already), my advice, be open minded to what is out there.

Invest some time looking at different solutions and listen to some of the conversations about different ways of working and see if they resonate with you. Then when you are ready speak to someone that has proper experience in understanding all these nuances of work and health and let them guide you through what will be 'ergonomic' for you.