People often sustain musculoskeletal or orthopedic injuries, while at work or away, that compromises their ability to do their job as they were used to doing it.  In some cases, they have to take extended time away from work because of it.  Others have or are diagnosed with chronic disease (e.g. arthritis), disability (e.g. visual impairment, spinal cord injury), or are undergoing special circumstances (e.g. pregnancy).

An ergonomic assessment can identify how their work can be adapted to support on-going rehabilitation therapy, special tools or environmental changes to accommodate more lasting requirements, or job design to adjust to more temporary situations.

Musculoskeletal disorders are frequently not attributed to a single event but are the result of cumulative exposure to awkward postures, and/or highly repetitive sub-maximal forces. There are warning signs that are often overlooked or dismissed as minor inconveniences attributed to aging – especially for office workers who have relatively sedentary jobs.  These include signs include:

• Dull aches, burning sensation, tingling, sharp stabs, or numbness in the neck, shoulders, upper, lower back, hands, wrists, or fingers.
• Discomfort while performing certain movements
• Noticeable loss of range of motion
• Swelling, inflammation, or joint stiffness
• Weakness or loss of muscle function or sensation
• Unusual feeling of cold, or fingers/toes turning white
• Generalized muscle tightness or cramping
• Loss of coordination/clumsiness

Infrequent and bothersome at first, they bely more insidious problems that can often be headed off with proactive ergonomic assessment that identify root causes.

People come in all shapes and sizes. Employers try to purchase furniture and equipment that can accommodate everyone.  However, even when adjustable, the limits of design cover from a minimum of 5th percentile female height of 4’11” up to a maximum 95th percentile male height of 6’2”.

People outside of this range have undoubtedly been forced to accept the incompatibility challenges through the adoption of compensatory postures or forces. Even if you do fall within the designed range, the variability of body extremity (arms and legs) proportions, or body shapes are not adequately accommodated. An ergonomic assessment can quickly identify these issues and often suggest solutions that clients have been unaware of to bridge address them.

So, you’ve been offered a new job or role that you learn has physical demands beyond what you have been used to? Many employers are setting functional capacity requirements for jobs. A special ergonomic assessment called a physical demands analysis coupled with an evaluation of a worker’s physical capacity relative to the job can identify gaps.