25.06.2010 - Health

Ergonomics: much cited, often ignored, now re-examined

“Working well in the office” is the name of a new campaign by the German metalworkers union IG Metall aiming to address the problem of long working hours, crammed workspaces, unreasonable workloads and constant pressure in the office. It sees the current trend towards new ways of working, open-plan and mobile offices, hot-desking and cutting costs by cramming more people into smaller spaces, as indicative of a work culture that puts employees under ever more and new pressures, whether physical or, increasingly, psychological. With its new campaign the IG Metall aims to reduce the stress office workers are exposed to and thereby raise the quality of office work.

Wikipedia defines ergonomics as “the science of designing the job, equipment, and workplace to fit the worker“. The word is derived from the Greek ergon (work) and nomos (law, rule). The central aim of ergonomics is the creation of appropriate conditions for humans to carry out their work and for their interaction with technological tools and equipment. In addition to designing the workspace to fit the proportions of the human body, this also means optimising the interface between user (human) and object (machine) in a “human-machine system”. Experienced consultants who have been involved in this subject for years, such as Peter H Feldmann, ergonomics consultant at König + Neurath, now talk about system ergonomics, which goes beyond the usual scope of ergonomics and includes psychological and organisational aspects in a comprehensive ergonomic “system”. Office work is changing rapidly, and Peter H Feldmann makes the following predictions about the future work environment: • Nearly 80% of office workers will be processing information (today: fewer than 60%). • A large proportion of workers will be over 50. • The number of under 30s will be declining. • The majority of employees will be female (more than 55%). • The retirement age will be between 67 and 69. • Wages and the cost and of office space will become the subject of fierce competition between European countries. • Companies will use special measures and retention strategies to hold on to experienced staff and senior management. • Innovative work-life balance concepts will represent an increasingly important economic factor. • Psychological stress symptoms and burnout will continue to increase. • Mistakes of the past and present, i.e. forcing the retirement age down, will show their effects more poignantly. • Healthy working conditions will increasingly give companies a competitive edge over those with poor work environments.

A “healthy office” is only possible if the furniture and equipment fits like a glove, says Feldmann. This is no doubt true, and the basics have been regulated for a long time, in Germany via the Bildschirmarbeitsverordnung, the Workstation Regulations, which specify the positioning of office furniture, monitors, lighting and acoustics – although a controlled and effective implementation is lacking in many places. On the other hand, the fundamentals of jobs and activities are changing so rapidly that the ergonomic framework needs continuous updating. IBM Chief Technologist Prof Dr Gunter Dueck goes even further when, in his new book “Aufbrechen – warum wir eine Exzellenzgesellschaft werden müssen” (“Departure – why we must become a society of excellence”), he stipulates that premium service industries and a knowledge-based society require multi-competent human beings whose education prepares them for the demands of the future workplace. This puts the spotlight on other new aspects of ergonomics: ONE monitor per workstation will no longer be sufficient. Additional equipment, such as smartphone and iPad, will be used for personal AND business purposes. Lifelong learning and continuing professional development are becoming the norm. This calls for office design that is unlike anything we can imagine today. Current concepts will need to be re-examined. One consequence may be that the paperless office, promised to us for more than thirty years, may finally become a reality. We will have e-bills, e-seminars, e-voting, and e-news instead of traditional newspapers. The Internet and its associated infrastructure will constantly improve in performance and convenience. The consequences, however, will be an even lower tolerance for error than today, further accelerated workflows and a much more fine-tuned response to customer requests. The process of innovation will be much faster than it is today, and dependence on global systems will continue to grow. “For knowledge to develop its full potential it has to be structured and shared with others”, writes the futurologist Klaus Burmeister in his new book “Handbuch Zukunft 2010” (“Future Handbook 2010”), written jointly with Holger Glockner. He goes on: “In most businesses only about a fifth of the combined knowledge is available in the form of documents – four fifths is locked inside the heads of individuals.” Everything is constantly moving, nothing stays as it was. For the subject of ergonomics this means that current knowledge has to be constantly checked against the reality. The computer-based office work of the 1990s has very little in common with the way we will be working in years to come. What remains true is the importance of movement (the next position is the best one). However, since “demands at the workplace are pushing employees to breaking point” (IG Metall), new connections have to be explored. The science of ergonomics therefore now moves on from system ergonomics to dynamic ergonomics, which has to respond in real time to rising demands at the office. W.O. Geberzahn More information: http://www.igmetall.de/cps/rde/xchg/internet/style.xsl/view_4590.htm http://www.igmetall.de/cps/rde/xchg/internet/style.xsl/view_4590.htm