Regulations and Ergonomics Guidelines for the PC Monitor at the Workplace: If companies want to make their PC workplaces ergonomic, they have to think about what they need. A look beyond the bounds of legal regulations and professional associations.
The Screening Code
Most employees sit six hours and more on the PC every day. An unhealthy posture over such a long period of time can lead to severe permanent postural and back injury. To avoid this and protect their employees from health damage, employers are obliged to design screen workstations according to specific guidelines. This insight is not new: the origin of the VDU is back to the early 1990s. At that time working with the PC was still relatively new, concerned a smaller percentage of the population and usually lasted for a shorter period of time than today. Nevertheless, it was clear that the PC would completely change the working life.
Relics from the gray prehistory
With the still unknown phenomenon, some fears came to pass. For example, how would working in front of the screen affect vision? A special health and safety should include the necessary precautions. On 29 May 1990, the VDU came into force as an integral part of Directive 90/270 / EEC.
Modern color theory
The rules consist of 17 parts, which measure and define the computer workplace - from the mouse to the carpet floor. The fewest rules apply to the screen. Some of the most important rules refer to the readability and the color representation quality, to reflections and mirroring.
The perspective of users
For example, one point of the OSD prescribes that "the characters (...) displayed on the screen must be sharp, clear, and sufficiently large, as well as an appropriate character and line spacing". A further point defines that the "screen (...) must be free from interfering reflections and glare."
Also topics such as the height adjustability, the angle of inclination and radiation poor play a role. For example, the following is as follows: "The screen must be free and easily rotatable and tiltable."
So far so good. However, in practice neither the compliance with these rules is actually sanctioned nor are they, from today's point of view, meaningful, up-to-date and complete.
The example of the inclination angle is demonstrated by the fact that some rules have long since overtaken: According to the VDU, a monitor must be tiltable by 20 degrees to the rear (plus) and by five degrees to the front (minus). The historical background: The ergonomics directive is based on the typical PC workplace of the early 1990s. The main component of the workplace was a desktop PC standing on the table with a 14-inch (35.6 cm) cathode-ray monitor.
Project management in the middle class
Smaller employees had to be able to tilt the screen forward if they did not want to keep their heads slightly in the neck and risk a neck stiffness. Today, however, the screens used in companies are usually 22 or 24 inches (55.9 or 61 cm) or even larger. Until just a few years ago, the realization that the upper screen edge should close at an eye level is known today, that a sitting position with a slightly tilted forward head is ideal. Therefore, in the normal sitting position, you should look around a handbread over the top of the screen.
In this position a tilt angle is completely irrelevant. This requirement has long since passed. The same applies to the swivel function, that is, the swivel left and right. The heavy systems of that time needed a corresponding mechanism. However, today's lightweight LCD monitors can also be positioned without such a device.
Another example that has become more and more relevant over the years is the color of the monitors: some 20 years ago, when the regulations in the VDU were tightened, smaller screens were used. Most cathode-ray monitors had screen diagonals of 14 or 15 inches (35.6 and 38.1 cm, respectively). However, unlike today, the plastic frames were relatively wide. For the recommended positive presentation - black font on a white background - a dark screen border not to the bright monitor base and to the mostly white wallpaper in stark contrast, black monitors were not allowed. The reason: the permanent adaptation work, which the eyes had to do, affected the ability to concentrate and should be avoided.
"BYOD" requires stable networks
On the pulse of time
Gray was therefore the color that was considered particularly ergonomic. Meanwhile, however, the front frames are so narrow and the screen surfaces so large that the eyes hardly notice the dark frames and no longer have to switch between light and dark. Therefore, black monitors are now allowed and commonplace.
A particular challenge for ergonomics in the workplace are mobile devices such as notebooks and tablets, which conquer professionalism at a rapid pace and are increasingly changing. Although they have their own displays, they are usually much smaller than 22 or 24 inches. In addition, the keyboard and screen are usually hard-wired to notebooks and can not be positioned independently.
Since this has ergonomic disadvantages, the use of mobile equipment is only allowed for a few hours. Without external screens and input devices they are not allowed in the workplace. Tablets, which are not always used only in mobile applications, also contribute to a more comfortable working environment for external monitors and input devices.
There are numerous regulations that are not based on the current situation of modern office workers in companies. Not only the working conditions, but also technical equipment have changed fundamentally since the 1990s. For example, a few years ago, only brokers on the stock market or graphic designers have become commonplace in many offices: several monitors that distribute the numerous windows, applications, and files that need to be kept in view at all times Br>
The increase in efficiency that employees achieve through such a multi-monitor setup is enormous. The Fraunhofer Institute for Labor and Organization already demonstrated this in a laboratory study by a Fraunhofer Institute for Labor and Organization in 2009. A test group equipped with three monitors achieved a 35.5 per cent higher productivity in the solution of the test tasks than the group with only one screen. Apart from that, the employees were also more satisfied with the three-screen workplace.
This shows that there are numerous aspects which have become more important in the field of monitors. Even entry-level models meet the requirements of the VDU in most cases. It is therefore important for companies to be comprehensively informed and to take into account the latest findings that go beyond what is formally prescribed. Finally, an optimal workplace contributes decisively to the well-being and health of the employees.
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