Being an Executive Assistant is a tough job as it requires one to constantly sit at their workstation and work for long and painful hours. He or she needs to work on computers for long hours, answer phone calls and occasionally perform filing operations. For one to properly and efficiently review the environment of the office setting where the Executive Assistant works, one needs to perform an ergonomic review of the employee’s workstation. This review discusses five of the major conditions that need to be checked in and around the workstation of the Executive Assistant and also makes certain recommendations, further discussing the conditions that will hopefully be prevented by the recommendations.
Chairs
Executive Assistants spends most of their time on their chair. Since chairs are specific to every person, he should choose his own chair. It should have height adjustment options, like pneumatic controls, and the height of his seat must allow him to work at elbow level. The backrest should be vertically and horizontally adjustable and the seats should be such that they can be tilted. Lumber support and padded footrest that are not attached to the chairs should also be provided.
Properly adjusted chairs help in relieving compressive forces applied on lumbar discs. Ergonomic chairs give a healthy posture to the employees so that they do not have to hunch over. Since it supports our neck, arms, legs, feet and the back, an ergonomic chair reduces awkwardness in posture along with stress, fatigue and forceful sitting. The blood circulation throughout our body remains uniform and thus, we do not feel any tingling or numbness in any part of our body.
Footrests
Properly positioned footrests ensure that our feet and lower legs stay in a neutral position. Its height and tilt angle should be adapted as per ones type of footwear. For multiple user workstations variable height footrests are preferred. The footrests should not be manually adjusted as the operator may have to go under the workstation, putting them in awkward positions. Thus, they should be adjustable by our foot since this reduces time consumption in adjusting it. They should also be padded and be wide enough for accommodating both our feet without bending our knees.
Ergonomic footrests prevent varicose veins, blood clots and excessive force on our Achilles tendon due to inactive and prolonged sitting. They also considerably reduce neck, leg and back strains, thus preventing fatigue. Also, ergonomic footrests provide us relief from leg edema which can cause excessive swelling.
Wrist support
The Executive Assistant needs a wrist support which should be firm rather than hard and should easily allow one to perform the gliding movements of the wrist for various tasks. The wrists should not be rested on any working surfaces while working on the computer and the keyboard slope needs to be adjusted in order to keep the wrists straight. Since the height of a wrist support relies on the type of keyboard being used, it should be at the same level with the SPACE BAR of the keyboard. ( Kesler & Law, 1997)
Leveling the wrist support is important or else it will cause extension or flexion of ones wrist. The provision of a wrist support with every mouse helps to reduce incidences of carpal tunnel since it eliminates pressure points from the edge of the working surfaces allowing the wrist to be in a neutral position.
Monitors
The monitor should be placed such that it is at eye level and allows our neck and head to be upright. We should not have to extend or twist our neck while viewing it and its surface should be regularly cleaned. Depending on the size and resolution of the monitor it should be positioned at a preferred distance which is between 18 to 24 inches. The monitor arm should be horizontally, vertically adjustable and we should be able to tilt it. Its color, contrast and brightness should be properly adjusted so that the characters are legible and also viewing is comfortable. (Mathews, 1998)
A properly positioned monitor will prevent irritation of the neck musculature, alterations in the normal curvature of our spine, eyestrains and initiation of migraine headaches. If the images and characters are clearly visible then squinting of the eye will also be prevented.
Mouse
The computer mouse should be placed such that the arm of the operator remains close to the body. To lessen awkward postures, a surface extension must be added to the keyboard trays so that extension or elevation of our hand is also avoided. The mouse should have rounded edges, should be sloped and should easily fit into the hands of the operator. (Lawler & Mohrman, 2003)
Ergonomic mouse helps to reduce hand tension along with the prevention of any long term health problems, like Repetitive Strain Injuries or RSI. Its hand conforming shape should reduce tension from the sensitive and small hand muscles allowing the operator to work for hours. Vertical mouse can also be used as it eliminates twisting of the arm reducing hand tension.
References:
Kesler, G.C., Law, J.A. 1997. Implementing Major Change in the HR Organization: The Lessons of Five Companies. Human Resource Planning, 20(4):26-37.
Lawler, E.E., Mohrman, S.A. (2003). HR as a Strategic Partner: What Does It Take to Make It Happen? Human Resource Planning, 26(3): 15-31.
Mathews, A. (1998). Diversity: A Principle of Human Resource Management. Public Personnel Management. 27(2): 175-183.