Many employees have jobs where sitting for long periods every day is simply unavoidable. Thankfully, there are some things they can do. For starters, employees want to make sure they are sitting properly at desks.
- An employee’s seat should be adjusted so that they’re in the correct position – feet flat on the floor, with knees and elbows bent at 90 degree angles.
- The hip to knee angle should be a wider than 90 degrees, recent studies have shown that 135 degrees is the ideal position.
- The lower spine should rest flat against the back of your chair to maintain proper curvature.
The computer monitor should be positioned so that an employee doesn’t need to tilt their neck up or down in order to read the screen – with the top one-third of the monitor above eye level. This will decrease eye strain and prevent hunching forward and craning of the neck.
One thing that cannot be stressed enough is that everyone must get up from time to time! No amount of strenuous exercise can offset the harmful effects of long periods of sitting, unless one breaks-up those periods every so often. Simply getting up from one’s chair for a few minutes every hour will make a huge difference, so get employee’s to set an Outlook reminder to get up to organize their desk, stretch, march in place or just take a walk down to the water cooler. Every body needs this regular interruption from the office chair.