Be Excellent To Each Other

So, the new HOC is straight out of school and into our company. She's clever, pretty, good at what she does and gets on well with everyone.
But it turns out that looking at a monitor (even with breaks) all day gives her headaches.

Fuck.

So, er... What now?

Does she wear glasses? If not, she probably should.

Does she drink loads of water too? That helps.

What kind of lighting? 60hz flicker does that to quite a few people

Failing that, eye tests?

I'm assuming its not a crt.

Turn down the brightness?

Or sponser her with paracetamol

Screen reader and speakers. No need for a monitor!

Tell her to try working naked, I have heard that can help.

Try changing the monitor frequency, or polarized glasses.

Tell her to go the opticians first off. Even if her eyes test fine they'll likely give some useful pointers as to what sort of things might be causing it and what to do next.

Refer her to Occupational Health within your company, as they're the experts.

Ha! The what?

She's at the opticians now.

We're the consultants, Myps.

*prepares invoice*

Almost certainly glasses related, but you can get screen covers that are supposed to help.

Obviously huge expensive monitors for her and a couple more for yourself would all help massively too...

Get her one of those polarised screens that go over the front of the monitor. they help a lot, apparently.

*Dons H&S hat*

Firstly, ensure you are compliant: http://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/dse/guidance.htm

Then, consider the following - where is her desk? Does she sit facing the monitor with a window behind it or sort of behind it? How reflective of light is the surface of her desk? I had a union member on the verge of asking for time off over headaches, did an audit of her workspace and moved her to a less reflective, shiny desk, away from windows and this solved the problem.

Is the monitor LCD? How often does she look away from the monitor at papers, etc, and where are they? If it's reasonably often, said papers need to be at the same height/distance as the monitor, preferably next to it, to reduce eye strain which links strongly to DSE related headachery. As othes have said, brightness, monitor frequency, etc all mattr. Stick her elsewhere in the office for a day, different light, model of monitor - see if the specific location/hardware are particularly complicit.

Finally, is she a lazy, spoiled attention whore? This has also been a major contributor to such work-related injuries as headaches in my considerable experience

Should be about a tenner from your large stationary supplier catalogue.

/edit What's an HOC?

/edit also - Pics pls.

Hot Office Chick

Indeed. Pour the gal some drinks.

What does she need a screen for? Is her job description not "Look pretty and fetch breakfast"?

Same as yours then?

I have been reliably informed that this little beauty helps stop headachs



obviously you would need one for your good self too

What even is that?

Haaaaahahhahahahahaaaa!

Oh, lord. Excuse me.

It's Heston Blumenthal's Hair Ray.

Yeah, you're late to this joke. Well done.

it would be a Ultra Geek 3D Monitor, costs around $20000 (well it did back in 2006, doubt you could get your hands on one now), i am sure Grim needs one

Your company need to do this, even if you have no OH dept you could find a 3rd party to do it for you.

OH help me all the time at work, people saying they want £100 mouse as they have RSI, most of them back down when OC tell them to go and see a doctor.

If your company doesn't do the DSE then she has a case

Which you may have to fill with money.

Hello again!

Is there anything in "the rules" about maximum temperatures?

Yes.

And minimum ones.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/faq.htm

Minimums only, from my limited understanding.

I remember asking this when sitting sweltering in the server room. The answer then (10+ years ago) was "no, only minimum".

You're the IT guy. Just tell them if they don't get decent air-con in your office right now, the servers will all overheat and all their websites will shut down.

That link says 30 degrees.

Yeah - that's fucking hot.

Oh well.

Grim...you should insist they get you a Ice Vest



You will look awesome

I think the Water cooled suit may be a bit of a over kill however.

Low is 16 (or 13 if wearing PPE). There is no maximum temperature when you can walk out. The weasel word 'acceptable' is used. You can down tools at lower than 16 if you like, but you don't have a leg to stand on legally for hot temps.

I guess that's because it's rarely ever an issue in this country.

I always wear my Personal Pecker Enhancer.

Excellent. When can you start?

Sorry, I don't see a future at this company.

Huh. "Naturally ventilated offices Are more than 15% of employees complaining of being too hot or too cold?" Basically, while the minimum is a relatively "hard" limit, a simple percentage of employees can get changes made for highs.

This is relevant to Helen so I've passed it on.

Though I suspect her company would fall back on her mezzanine level's melting occupants not consituting 15% of the total employees, or even just the ones in the same overall room. Or just shrug and ignore it. If they can be arsed shrugging. Let's face it - this is a company where a board member from the Japanese parent (and descendant of founder) took over, and as one of his first actions illegally fired someone, costing the company a ridiculous amount of money. Especially as he was grossly incompetent and negligent so eligible for firing properly.

You can justifiably request changes, but I don't think you can justifiably down tools and walk out, like you can if it's too cold.

That's fucking daft though, you can always wrap up warmer, it's much harder to keep cool.

I manange both. Concurrently.

Do those polarised covers actually do anything on an LCD?

I know that they did on a CRT due to the refresh flicker that you're not supposed to see, but do they make a difference on a LCD monitor?

My screen is polarised, and other than seeing very faint lines going horizontally across it I can't say it's easier to look at than my old one.

It rarely gets above 30 degrees C here though. It's much more likely to be -10. Which is more dangerous? If it regularly got to 40-45 degrees here then you'd have a point, I guess.

You're talking about the weather there. Working conditions can get much hotter depending on the building itself, manufacturing processes, the safety gear you might have to wear etc.

Aye. 30 degrees is annoying, not dangerous.

Same applies to 15 degrees, though.