We Need to Talk About the Strain Computers Are Putting On Our Bodies
I never really thought about ergonomics, until I started feeling pain — by then it was already too late.
As the pandemic forced millions of office workers, including myself, to work from home over the last year, the situation was far from ideal for many of us. Many of us worked from couches, perched on kitchen benches, and hunched over dining tables–the opposite of ergonomic.
I’ve come to enjoy working remote after being a skeptic, but my biggest regret, after more than a year of it? Not paying more attention before now to the importance of ergonomics, taking breaks, stretching, and listening when my body was starting to tell me it was under stress.
The switch to permanent work from home has meant grappling with wrist and shoulder pain resulting from using a computer all day that I hadn’t experienced before. In the office, I was rarely at my desk for more than a few hours because the day was punctuated by meetings, random chatter with colleagues, or a run for a coffee. Now, it’s sitting at my desk in virtual meetings, typing and clicking for eight hours a day, which is hard to avoid.
I’m so entrenched in the tech industry and media that I had sort of…
