5 Ways to Prevent Injuries and Discomfort at Your Workplace

Workplace injuries are common. People often think that workplace injuries can only happen if you do some heavy lifting at work, but that is not necessarily true. You can suffer from workplace injuries even if you do not have a physically demanding job.

Working all day sitting at a desk can also become the cause of injuries. You may think that working with a keyboard and mouse is harmless, but it can cause chronic injuries as well.

Here are some of precautions that can help avoid serious injuries at the workplace.

1. Try to avoid excessive repetition

If your work requires any physical activity, then it is important that you do not repeat the tasks too much. There are several tasks that are repetitive in nature, but your job may require you to complete certain number of repetitions per day or per hour

The combination of repetition of tasks and risk factors like difficult postures or high force can cause some serious injuries. If the cycle time of a task is 30 seconds or less, then it is considered excessive repetition.

You can avoid injuries by timing the tasks carefully. If the cycle of the task is too small, then you need to incorporate breaks between the tasks or take shifts.

If your work requires interaction with electricity, you may further be exposed to more risks of injuries. If you are an employee, ask your employer to either provide you multimeters or check the voltage and electricity leakages on regular basis. If you have multimeters in your office, you can easily avoid electrocution risk by regularly checking for any electric short-circuit.

2. Being careful of awkward postures

If you want to avoid workplace injuries, then it is important that you become highly careful about the posture that you work in. If you want to work efficiently, then it is important to be comfortable.

Whether you are doing something that is physically demanding or a desk job, make sure that the body is comfortable. You should not overwork the muscles or joints because it can lead to chronic injuries. It is important to give your muscles time to recover.

While working a desk job you need to be careful if you wish to stay healthy and avoid any chronic diseases. You need to make sure that the furniture is comfortable. You have to make sure that your sitting posture does not strain any muscles.

You should not need to change the posture while reaching the keyboard. The table should be of the perfect height so that you do not have to strain your neck to see the computer screen.

3. Avoid inactivity

Do not forget to stay active while in office. Inactivity is the leading cause of back pain. If you do not pay attention to it from the beginning, it can become a chronic disease.

First, you have to make sure that you focus on developing the right sitting posture. Even if you make a habit of sitting right, being inactive can still cause back injury.

You should also focus on choosing the right chair because you are more likely to suffer from back pain if there is inadequate support for the back. You should follow an office chair guide to choose the most comfortable chairs.

4. Importance of breaks

Working for long hours without any rest is a terrible idea. Taking even a five-minute break after an hour of working can help in relaxing the muscles. You should do some stretch after at least an hour.

Get up to get a glass of water or just stretch your legs by walking around. It will help in the prevention of injury and it will also keep you active. You should take mini breaks to rest your hands and eyes as well.

5. Encouraging employees to get rid of poor work practices

You can prevent a lot of injuries by spreading awareness. There are many people who have work practices that are not good for the health. You should spread awareness about the dangers of such practices so that you can decrease the risk factor.

You should train your body to sit straight and do not hunch over. Poor practices will help in relieving your body of unnecessary stress and fatigue.

If you are an employer, you can also display banners in your office space to keep employees motivated for taking short breaks and do some exercises.

It is also great to have a pre-funded health spending account for your employees so that in the case of any health-related injury, their overall health expenses are shared.

If you focus on these simple tips then you can successfully avoid any serious injury because of your workplace.

Featured photo credit: igerontologico via igerontologico.com

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