If you're like me, you spend a lot of time at your desk, and working from home just adds to the struggle of avoiding repetitive stress and poor ergonomics. It pays to take time ensuring your home office set up will help you avoid common workplace injuries. After my first year at Legrand | AV, my hands were twitching even when not at my desk. A simple wrist rest for typing and mousing did wonders, but what would have been better is to set myself up right in the first place.

A recent social survey we held showed a large majority of respondents cited ergonomics as their biggest pain point when working from home.

Now, I can’t do much for your new work companions – pets, kids and otherwise - so let's talk home office ergonomics.

Home workspaces were likely set up in a hurry when many people were required to work off site in March 2020. It’s worth looking into furniture solutions that keep up with the times and keep workers as healthy as possible, especially with health and wellness more front-of-mind than ever! 

User comfort and well-being are important considerations with any desktop set up. The enhanced ergonomics benefits of advanced monitor mounts help workers avoid injury and allow for flexible monitor configurations to meet the differing needs of various users.

The Human Factors and Ergonomic Society notes the following requirements when considering the monitor support surface and viewing angle: 

• Allow users to adjust the tilt and rotation angle of the monitor 
• Allow users to adjust line-of-sight distance to the monitor 
• Locate the screen’s center 15 to 25 degrees below horizontal eye level 

Monitor arms provide superior flexibility for monitor tilt and distance adjustment over standard desk stands. Monitor arms also enable customization per user needs for ease of movement or maximum adjustment. This flexibility is extremely helpful for a variety of user populations, including:

• Individual work injury and ergonomic needs 
• An aging workforce 
• Bifocal and progressive lens wearers  

With office densification driving smaller personal work surfaces with dramatically shallow-depth desktops, Chief responded with the Kontour KX Series Monitor Arms to provide the most complete range of motion available. The mounts use Chief’s exclusive FleXlink design to enable positioning of the monitor as far back from the user as possible for proper ergonomic viewing distance - something many dual-monitor arms fail to achieve when backed up against a wall or furniture panel. The KX Series also provides full range of motion for optimal positioning and screen sharing with colleagues and is available in column and desk configurations.

When it comes to flexibility, monitor arms provide users with a wide range of tilt and swivel options for the side-to-side, front/back, and up/down movement that today’s workforce requires. For instance, Chief’s Kontour K1 and KX Series monitor arms with our patented Centris Extreme Tilt monitor heads allow bifocal and progressive lens wearers to tilt the monitor back dramatically and lower the monitor all the way down to the work surface. This means no more leaning back and tilting the head up or looking down to read the screen. You should also be able to optimize ergonomics for touchscreen displays, and the angle of the monitor to eliminate any glare from lights or sun. Accessories are also available to add extension, laptops and other solutions to fully customize your station. 

Add desktop charging with the Wiremold Desktop Power Center to keep power and device charging in reach without risking a concussion trying to find an outlet under the desk. Likewise, the Kontour Charging Hub integrates with the Kontour arm to provide smart charging capability that recognizes devices and shuts off automatically during peak loads. USB-A and USB-C ports support a shared 3.1A of device charging. The Kontour Charging Hub will be available in the first quarter of 2021.

Also in the first quarter of 2021, Chief is launching the new Koncīs Series Dynamic Monitor Arms to offer a more value-oriented solution ideal for home or workplace office settings on a budget. The elegant design with enhanced ergonomics ensures optimal productivity. Think premium-grade quality at a budget-friendly price point.

In addition, dynamic articulating monitor arms allow for quick, fingertip height adjustments, which are ideal solutions for sit/stand or multi-user environments. Some mounts provide up to 23 inches of height adjustment, so you can even stand while at your fixed-height desk. 

To bring the keyboard and mouse with you when you stand, or to place the keyboard at an optimal ergonomic position while seated, Chief offers a new series of keyboard and mouse support systems to meet most ergonomic preferences across a range of user applications. They optimize tilt angle of the keyboard away from the user for a more natural and ergonomic typing position, and some solutions also provide independent positioning of the mousing surface. 

Kick up the ergonomics with seating options from Middle Atlantic. They have three different operator chairs to provide support that vary by budget and amount of expected use. They also provide several desks that hold popular mixers, editing suites, campus labs and more. Offices can also take advantage of Middle Atlantic’s partnership with LundHalsey to look intoVISIONLINE AIR 24/7 control room consoles featuring class leading industrial design. 

To learn more about desktop monitor solutions and office productivity, check out our whitepaper, and solutions pages "Optimizing a Hybrid Workforce" and  "Workspace Solutions" for more information.