Design fascinates me. Companies open new, beautiful hotels, install multi-million dollar production lines, or spend millions on office furniture and accessories, yet do not engage Ergonomists like me in the design phase. Then they wonder why the rooms aren’t properly cleaned, production and maintenance employees are getting hurt, and office employees don’t use the full…
Someone recently asked me what industry I specialize in. I don’t. The principles of ergonomics transcend industries, as while people may look different on the outside, on the inside they are the same, and their bodies experience the same hurt no matter where in the world they may live and work. I have been in…
Google has said its employees can expect to continue working at home until the end of July 2021. Facebook says it expects 50% (if not more) of its employees to work at home on a long-term basis. Apple plans to hold off returning to its offices until January 2021. Twitter has told its employees they…
We hear a lot about our essential workers in healthcare, but there’s another group of essential workers for whom we need to pay close attention. Truck, Trailer and Package Delivery Drivers–Essential workers in the Transportation Industry–are at a higher risk for various ergonomics-related illnesses and injuries. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),…
Do you know what PtD is? A lot of people who should know, don’t know. PtD is “Prevention through Design,” and the hallmark of ISO 45001. A few years ago I attended an Ergonomics conference where one of the presenters showed a picture of a person at a workstation that was not correctly designed, and…
What numbers do you know? What’s the price of gas in your area? Here outside Chicago, it’s about $2.37/gallon. We stopped for fuel in Cleveland over the weekend and it was $1.91/gallon. We know that it costs about $15 for Spencer, the QP3 Ergo Lab, to get his nails done at Petco. That said, for…
A while back I conducted a three-day site visit at a client, where one day was comprised of assessments and two were comprised of Ergonomics Team training. When doing onsite training, I incorporate the client’s processes as examples into the courses, so they are not only relevant, but also get the “Ergonomics Ball of Improvement”…
While the world begins to open up, studies are showing that as many as 30% of “new ” work-from-home office employees are going to remain working from home. Additionally, up to 70% of all office employees may work from home either part- or full-time going forward. But working from home can create new risks to…
Many people know what physical ergonomics stresses are, but there is another kind of stress that can also hurt us. That stress is “Psychosocial Stress.” What is it? Psychosocial Stress is the kind of stress that we “internalize.” Psychosocial stress can come from many directions, including: Too much work (& not enough time…
The pandemic in which we find ourselves has caused many organizations around the world to encourage working-from-home. While millions of people are working-from-home for the first time, many industries with geographically-dispersed employee populations have embraced working-from-home for many years. Working-from-home can seem like “fun” at first. However if a workstation is not set up correctly,…