WHAT’S your desk like? Is it an ergonomic haven of order and creativity next to a window with views over a park? Or is it a paper-strewn, wall-facing mess with a broken chair, wonky keyboard and flickering striplight overhead? Even if you are slumped in a poky corner of an open-plan super-office, there are ways to make the most of your work environment.

1. Sit up straight. Well, don’t, actually. Ergonomically, the best angle to sit at is 110 degrees to your desk, not 90 degrees, says Tim Hutchful, a chiropractor in Leicester. He adds: “The ideal desk position is that of a draftsman, because it supports the body’s normal curves.”

2. Know your furniture. “Your equipment might do more than you think,” Hutchful says. Even if the stuffing is falling out of them, office chairs are designed to be adaptable. Try tilting the seat forward about four degrees and the back of the chair back a little bit, although if it causes discomfort try a different position. And it’s not just about the chair. “The chair and the desk need to marry up,” he says. Check your desk – it might have feet that allow you to adjust the height.

3. Prioritise your desk space. Why is your phone to the right of your computer when you always hold it with your left hand? “Put the bits that you use regularly quite close,” Hutchful says. Try not to stretch to reach heavy files – put them closer to you. You’ll save time, too.

4. Don’t hotdesk. OK, you don’t get a choice in this, so investigate how flexible the furniture is at each new workstation. And if you have a fairly regular desk, Hutchful suggests marking the chair with Tippex so that you can set it to the right height and tilt every time you use it.

5. Make contact with other human beings. Get up, walk about, talk to colleagues – try not to sit stationary for the whole day. “Connectivity is the key to creativity,” says Mark Spragg, the UK managing director of Steelcase, the furniture designers. “If you are blocking yourself in, if you have your back to your colleagues, that will block creativity.”

6. Know your health and safety. “The overwhelming burden for health and safety is with the employer, but the employee has to cooperate,” says Roger Bibbins, an adviser at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. You can make your work environment safer by reporting near-misses, such as trips that didn’t cause injury, so that management knows where accidents might happen. Trips and falls are the biggest cause of injury in workplaces, he says.

7. Volunteer to be safety rep. “Asking sensible questions about health and safety is one of the key things employees can do,” Bibbins says. So be the one to get that hole in the carpet sorted.

8. Take control. Easier to say than to do, but “stress isn’t just to do with long working hours; it’s about lack of control”, Bibbins says. Finding out about flexible working is one way of gaining control over the way that you work.

9. Homeworkers beware. All the points above apply as much to your home office as they do to the traditional workplace.

10. Work for an amazing company. In our dreams we would work in an office with coffee areas, sofas and desk space designed in consultation with us. That really does happen for some employees. Don’t forget to ask about a company’s working practices in your interview.

FIND OUT MORE

Get fit while you work. Starting on Monday, watch our series of fitness-at-your-desk videos and get a daily workout with Sharron Davies, the Olympic swimmer: timesonline.co.uk/creme

All you could ever need to know about health and safety in the workplace is on the Health and Safety Executive’s website: hse.gov.uk/office

Get the employee’s perspective on health and safety from the TUC: www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/index.cfm

Read up on how design affects the way we work in Workplace Ergonomics: A Practical Guide, by Céline McKeown and Michael Twiss (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, £15)

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