How to reduce repetitive motion injuries in office workers

This article is going to address how you as a manager or employer can reduce repetitive motion injuries in office workers.There are a number of reasons why you as an employer or manager will want to make steps-proactive steps-to reduce repetitive motion injuries in office workers.As a manager or employer, there are a few things that you need to be concerned with.

1. The money lost or gained by employee productivity.
2. The creation of a comfortable workplace that employees like.
3. The reduction of work related injuries, for the above reason, and because you are the one who has to pay for these injuries.

Repetitive Motion injuries can happen in any workplace.They can happen in some labor-intensive industry, such as a factory, a steel factory, laying asphalt, construction, or anything else that is labor-heavy in this way.Using heavy tools in the same way over and over again can lead to obvious injuries, such as misuse of tools and serious bodily harm, but can also cause injury simply by the repetition of movements.But these kinds of injuries are not just found in these kinds of heavy labor jobs.With the rise and take over of the white collar job and office-based job, we have seen the rise of all kinds of physical problems related to this particular kind of work environment.For example, there is now an official medical term for the eye strain that you suffer from looking at a computer all day long.It is Computer Vision Syndrome.There is also a technical name for repetitive motion injuries: Repetitive Motion Disorders, or RMDs, and there are a number of medical studies that are constantly being designed and undertaken to find ways to prevent and treat Repetitive Motion Disorders.
All right.So let's define what exactly a Repetitive Motion Disorder is.Technically, a Repetitive Motion Disorder is actually a muscular condition.This muscular condition is caused when motions are repeated over and over again in every day work or every day activities.Repetitive Motion Disorders is actually the overarching umbrella term for a number of specific disorders, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, ganglion cyst, bursitis, trigger finger, tenosynovitis, and epicondylitis (say that ten times fast).Repetitive Motion Disorders do not just affect those who work on computers-you can also develop these disorders from gardening, if you really like carpentry, or if you often play tennis. What actually causes a Repetitive Motion Disorder is too many repetitions of a motion without interruption, or unnatural motions, overexertion, muscle fatigue, or incorrect posture.The places in the body where you most often see Repetitive Motion Disorders occurring are the shoulders, the hands, the elbows, and the wrists (this is especially common if you type a lot or if you are in training to become a concert pianist).You can also find Repetitive Motion Disorders occurring in the back, knees, legs, ankles, feet, hips, and neck.What are the symptoms of these disorders?Intense pain, swelling, redness, numbness, loss of strength and flexibility, and tingling.These are serious disorders that must be treated as soon as they are suspected, since there is no real cure that will restore the body to its pre-Repetitive Motion Disorder state.Itturns out that if untreated, over time a Repetitive Motion Disorder can cause permanent damage to muscles, nerves, tendons, and ligaments.

As a manager or as an employer there are a number of different things that you can do to prevent Repetitive Motion Disorders.You can require that your employees take a break from whatever repetitive motions they make throughout the day.While you might be a little bit hesitant to do this since it seems like you will lose a lot of money in lost productivity, you will eventually be better off because you will be preventing major injuries.There are a number of ergonomic products out there on the market that you can purchase for your employees that are specifically directed and designed for whatever task they are doing, whether it's typing or meatpacking.You can have training meetings where you have a specialist come in and teach your employees stretches and relaxation exercises.Arrange your office equipment in a way that will minimize problems.Not only will you have a physically safer workplace, but your employees will also appreciate the efforts that you make to preserve their health, and employee morale will be boosted.And we all know how important it is to keep employees happy and healthy.