Julie Taylor: Minimise stresses of workplace

Progress and technological advancements have revolutionalised our work environment - predominantly for the better - but this comes with a few negative side effects.
For many of us, our working day is largely spent sitting in front of a computer. Our eyes are fixed at a focal length equal to the distance from our chair to our screen and our posture collapses as we allow our stresses and concentration to twist our necks and backs in ways that make physiotherapists shriek in alarm.
Not that long ago, occupational health and safety was about preventing back strain and avoiding injuries associated with repetitive movements or regular physical labour. Today, a significant proportion of our physical, work-related problems are a result of too little movement - spending too much time in the same position, with our respective body parts stuck in the same activity for eight to 10 hours a day. It is not what we were built to do and, although we may eventually adapt and evolve, it creates all sorts of irritations, aches and strains. Anything we can do or use to mitigate these effects has to be good, so thanks to our experts on page 9 for their advice on reducing the impact of our work on our health.
And hats off to Big Print Keyboard's Dennis Gray for using his technical nous to come up with an affordable solution for people whose optical lenses are not coping with the constant adjustment between screen and keyboard.
Many of us have learned to touch type and do not need to look at the keyboard, but for others, this is an issue and being able to pick out letters and numerals at a glance will make their computer time more visually comfortable and their typing faster.
When I did typing at school - there was no such thing as IT in those dim, dark days - we learned on heavy-duty, manual typewriters and draconian teachers made us wear "aprons" that were tied to the machine at one end and around our necks at the other. These stopped us peeking at the keys and forced us to learn the QWERTY keyboard layout. Miss Franklin and Ms Delieu - my eyes, neck and shoulders thank you. Today the focus is on learning how to apply the technology, rather than the manual process of manhandling a keyboard. Maybe progress could learn a thing or two from the past.
- Julie Taylor is the business editor at The Daily Post