Wellness Tips for Employers
Encourage Employees to Move and Take Breaks
- The 20-20-20 Rule helps reduce eye strain: Look 20 feet away from the computer for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.
- Alternating between sitting and standing or incorporating stretch breaks helps employees be healthy at work.
- Changing positions doesn’t take away from valuable working time, but rather can make for a more healthy and efficient employee.
Wellness Tips for Employees
Move and Take Breaks
- Alternate between sitting and standing or incorporate stretch breaks every half-hour/hour.
- Use the 20-20-20 Rule: Look 20 feet away from your computer for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.
Technology@Work Gives Gordon His “Life Back”
Gordon was involved in a car accident around five years ago, and sustained damage to his back and neck. After that, he experienced two strokes which left him with 20% paralysis on his right side, no vision in his right eye, and 75% vision in his left eye.
After being unemployed on and off for a few years, he started working as a designer for solar power systems for houses, businesses, and farms in 2017. Since he didn’t have an ergonomic setup, he found it painful to work at his desk. “I couldn’t sit for more than 10 minutes. I was in a lot of pain in my back,” Gordon recalls. He contacted the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, who referred him to the Neil Squire Society.
Ergonomic Checklist
Each year, workplace injuries account for billions of dollars in lost revenue, with many of those injuries being preventable. Since practicing good ergonomics can mean the difference between a safe and healthy work environment, and one in which people experience unnecessary strain and injury, it is important to look at and evaluate each of the principles of good ergonomics. The following checklist has been designed for the modern office environment, and it also provides solutions for dealing with situations that are not in keeping with “good ergonomics”. Please feel free to print and share this checklist with your employer and/or fellow employees!
To download the PDF, click here.
Ergotron WorkFit-TL Sit-Stand Desktop Workstation
We recently received the WorkFit-TL Sit-Stand Desktop Workstation from Ergotron. A standout feature is that the keyboard tray can be positioned below the level of the desk. This is great news for shorter users who are constantly reaching up with their arms and shoulders to access their keyboard on the desk surface. The lower keyboard platform encourages proper ergonomic positioning of the upper extremities by reducing the amount of reaching required while keyboarding from a seated position.
A Better Way To Work
Being partially sighted and night blind, the commute home from work used to be a nightmare for Rod Tam.
“Night travel used to be a very stressful adventure,” explains Rod. “Being night blind, I always have to guess what is in front of me and around me when I am walking in the dark.”
Rod is a credit adjudicator at a financial institution. Working in Vancouver, but living in Coquitlam, Rod has to make the trek to and from work every day of the work week via transit. The bus loop on his way home is a wide open space and poorly illuminated.
“Finding the bus stop on my own was an impossible endeavour,” he says.
In August 2015, the assessor conducting a workplace accommodation assessment at his office referred him to the Neil Squire Society’s Technology@Work Program to help him overcome his barrier.
Tips For Stress Free Sitting
This short video by the Neil Squire Society’s Solutions team provides an overview of the best ways to sit in your chair and make adjustments to minimize stress on your body. Created by Brittany Wong and Sean Lee, practicum students for our Solutions program.
Click here to read the PDF summary of the tips shown in the video.
Preventative Tips For Creating A Healthy Workplace Environment
Laura Bergstrom, one of our occupational therapists, wrote a helpful article on creating healthy working environments on the Small Business BC website. Click here to read it.
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