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Ergonomics For Road Warriors?
madHomer asks: "About three months ago I took at job in a professional services organization. Our standard consulting stints are about one month apiece, so I never really get settled at a work site. Although I enjoy being away from my cubicle 90% of the time, my body is not enjoying the time spent at the client site. It seems like every three days I am shuffled into a new office, server room, conference room or cubicle that have varied chairs and desks. How do the fellow road warriors out there combat sore necks, numb hands, and bad backs from constantly changing conditions on the road? Also, what are some of the regulations out there? Is it my employer's responsibility to make sure that my work area is ergonomic when I am on the road?"
You've probably heard my other suggestion a few thousand times by now: Flex every once in a while, move around. If some part of your body starts to hurt, stop doing that for a while, or change positions.
We get pain feedback for a reason. 8:o)
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Bi-monthly massages and monthly chiropractics visits. Works wonders.
Referring to glorified travelling salesmen as ``road warriors'' is an insult to gun-toting nomadic mercenaries everywhere.
Have you ever worn leather pants?
...but recently, I've come to the realization that I don't type a whole heck of a lot, compared to some others. Maybe because I'm a sysadmin, not a coder, but...I seem to spend most of my time reading/surfing/researching solutions, not actually typing.
On big typing days, however, I do find the wrists getting a little sore, so I try to keep things positioned properly to minimize the damage.
I know what you mean about trying to find decent desks. Most seem to be geared toward the "single-keyboard secretary" user. I have three keyboards (need to get the employer to spring for a KVM switch, I guess) I notice I get a little more distressed when I'm using one of the keyboards on the desktop instead of the little pull-out keyboard tray.
I use a laptop for most of my computing. A few years ago, I came across one of those hard, cork-lined placemats used for dinner placemats. This thing is wonderful. It fits inside my laptop bag. When I am at a client site, or in an airport, or whatever, I put the thing on my lap. This is much closer to the proper keyboard height (26" is about right for me) than most desks (29" plus the height of my laptop--about 30" or 31"). I get much less strain in my wrists. And, since the thing is cork-lined, my lap doesn't get too hot.
Of course, this does nothing for putting the monitor at the right height. After 6 years of using a laptop as my primary machine, my neck and back muscles have started to compensate. Not an optimal solution, but it works for me.
--Be human.