April 2004

Is Your Work Desk Making You Ill?!

Is your desk cluttered? Do you work long hours? Do you sit with poor posture? If the answer is yes, you could be suffering from "Irritable Desk Syndrome"!

Researchers at NEC-Mitsubishi have identified Irritable Desk Syndrome (IDS) as a new affliction to millions of the nation’s office workers. Messy desks, long hours in front of a computer and poor posture are damaging the health of office staff according to the report.

2000 people were questioned in the survey:

67% said they are more tied to their desks now than they were two years ago
40% said they were infuriated by too much clutter and paper on their desks but could not be bothered to do anything about it
35% said they suffered from back or neck pain because they knowingly sit at their desk in an awkward position

Left uncorrected, these problems can rapidly cause chronic pain and have in the past forced people to leave their jobs. The advice to workers is to pay more attention to the way you set up your desk and the way you sit at it.

A simple ‘deskology’ guide has been produced to help people improve their work area:

Set up your desk with a view to reducing stress and health risks
Adjust the way you sit to improve back posture
Take five minutes to stretch and increase circulation
Take regular breaks away from your desk to improve concentration and colleague interaction
Personalise your desk to remind you of life outside work
Keep cool to prevent dehydration and over-heating at work to promote higher energy levels
Make your desk free of clutter

Employers should be doing more to ensure employees are aware of productive desk management according to experts. The law requires employers to carry out risk assessments for employees to make workstations as adjustable as possible.

If you require advice on how to carry out health and safety risk assessments for workstations or any other aspects of your business, please contact Steve Stones. We can offer help within a wide range of sectors and assess your needs in relation to current applicable legislation, providing solutions that reduce risk and cost.