Workplace Health and Wellness

As October rolls in, the days get shorter, the sun sets earlier, and we often feel the impact on our energy levels. Whether it’s the darker mornings or the early evenings, it’s not unusual to experience a drop in productivity during this time of year. But despite these seasonal changes, staying energized at work is possible—and one of the best ways to do that is by optimizing your workspace with ergonomic tools designed to support your physical well-being throughout the day. Here’s how ergonomic tools can help you stay energized during the seasonal shift: 1. Start with the Right Posture Slouching in your chair or hunching over your laptop can make you feel sluggish. Poor posture places unnecessary strain on your muscles, leading to discomfort and even headaches—none of which helps you stay productive. To maintain energy, you need to sit upright, with your feet flat on the ground and your back supported. One way to encourage good posture is by using ergonomic stands for your laptop or monitor. The Standivarius Oryx Pro, for instance, raises your laptop to eye level, reducing neck strain and encouraging a healthier posture. When you’re sitting comfortably and your screen is at the right height, you’ll notice an improvement in both your focus and energy. 2. Keep Your Workspace Flexible October’s gloomy days can also tempt you to switch up your working position throughout the day, perhaps shifting from sitting to standing or moving between different rooms. Flexibility in your workspace can help maintain your energy levels by keeping you physically active and mentally refreshed. Portable ergonomic solutions, offered by Standivarius, like the Oryx evo D, offer this flexibility. Lightweight and easy to carry, it lets you adjust your laptop’s height wherever you go, whether you’re sitting at a desk or working from the sofa. This adjustability can help reduce strain on your back, wrists, and shoulders, allowing you to work comfortably for longer stretches of time. 3. Reduce Strain on Your Hands and Wrists With more tasks to complete and less daylight to keep you alert, it’s easy to overwork your hands and wrists during long hours of typing. To prevent strain and maintain focus, ergonomic keyboards and mice are essential. The Solo X compact wireless keyboard offers a sleek design that’s perfect for professionals who need portability. It’s rechargeable, making it both convenient and eco-friendly, and its compact size allows for comfortable typing without cramping your workspace. Pairing the Solo X with an ergonomic mouse like the AVE /’a:vei/ can further reduce strain. The AVE /’a:vei/ mouse is wireless and designed to fit naturally in your hand, reducing the risk of repetitive strain injuries that can slow you down. Together, these tools can help ensure that your hands and wrists are supported, so you can stay productive and comfortable throughout the day. 4. Manage Light and Brightness With less natural light during the autumn months, you might rely more on artificial lighting. However, poor lighting conditions can lead to eye strain, making you feel tired and unmotivated. To avoid this, ensure your workspace is well-lit but not too bright. Soft, natural lighting that doesn’t create glare on your screen will help reduce eye strain. Ergonomic document holders can also come in handy here. Standivarius offers a range of options that keep documents at eye level, so you’re not constantly shifting your focus between paper and screen. This can help you maintain your concentration and reduce the strain on your eyes. 5. Stay Energized with Movement One of the keys to staying energized throughout the workday is movement. Sitting for extended periods can make you feel sluggish, but small changes in your posture or brief stretches can make a big difference. Ergonomic tools such as laptop stands encourage movement by making it easier to adjust your workstation as needed. Small movements, such as adjusting your seat height or your laptop screen, also help keep your body active, reducing the feeling of tiredness that often comes with sitting still for too long. Ergonomics as a Solution for Seasonal Change As we adjust to shorter days in October, it’s important to consider how our working environment can affect our energy levels. Standivarius offers ergonomic solutions in a practical way to stay comfortable and focused, even when the natural daylight starts to fade earlier. By integrating ergonomic tools into your daily routine, you can maintain your energy and stay productive, despite the seasonal changes. With the right setup, you’ll find it easier to focus, stay comfortable, and keep your energy up all day long.

As the summer sun brightens our days, many of us find ourselves working from various locations – be it a home office, a garden, or even a beachside café. But how do we maintain comfort and productivity without compromising our health? With the right ergonomic products, staying comfortable and productive during summer is not only possible but also essential for long-term health and well-being. This article will guide you on how to create an ergonomic workspace for summer that ensures both comfort and productivity. The Importance of Ergonomics in Summer During the summer, the heat can significantly affect our posture and productivity. High temperatures can lead to discomfort and fatigue, making it harder to maintain good posture and focus on tasks. Incorporating ergonomic setups is crucial to combat these issues. Additionally, remember to take regular breaks and stay hydrated to avoid heat-related fatigue. Heat and Posture: When it’s hot, our bodies tend to slump, seeking positions that feel cooler but may not be ergonomically sound. This can lead to back pain, neck strain, and other discomforts that reduce productivity. Hydration and Breaks: Make sure to drink plenty of water and take short breaks throughout the day. This helps in maintaining concentration and prevents the heat from overwhelming you. Creating a Summer-Friendly Ergonomic Workspace Optimising your workspace for summer involves making adjustments both indoors and outdoors to ensure comfort and productivity. Outdoor Setup Tips: When working outdoors, position your workspace in the shade to reduce glare on your screen and protect yourself from direct sunlight. Adjust your screen brightness and use a laptop stand to maintain an ergonomic posture. Consider using a portable sunshade or an umbrella to create a comfortable working environment. Indoor Adjustments: Optimise your indoor workspace by positioning fans or using air conditioning to maintain a comfortable temperature. Ensure your desk setup promotes good posture, with your screen at eye level and your keyboard and mouse within easy reach. Travel-Friendly Ergonomics: Maintaining an ergonomic workspace for summer while travelling is essential. Look for lightweight and compact ergonomic products that are easy to carry and set up anywhere. This includes portable laptop stands, compact keyboards, and travel-sized mice. These tools ensure that you can maintain good posture and comfort even on the go. In summary, creating an ergonomic workspace for summer is essential to stay comfortable and productive. Portable ergonomic products, such as laptop stands, keyboards, mice, and document holders, make it easy to maintain a healthy posture regardless of your workspace. Explore our range of ergonomic products to enhance your summer working experience and ensure long-term wellbeing. By focusing on these key aspects, you can ensure a comfortable and productive summer, no matter where your work takes you.    

Ergonomic laptop stands have been a mainstay of various office setups for a long time. And for good reason! It’s an effective tool in mitigating the risks of various musculoskeletal issues that results from prolonged laptop use. Most of us are aware of the immediate effects of laptop stands on our wellbeing and work productivity. But what of its advantages for the future which, we’d argue, is when we can experience and enjoy its full effectivity? There’s also the discussion on the connection between comfort and our interpersonal relationships. With this article, you’ll be able to glean insights on the long-term benefits of ergonomic laptop stands in a holistic way: preventing Musculoskeletal Disorders, its productivity implications, and positive impact on relationships. Based on a true story? Imagine yourself at work. You’re having a hard time keeping focus on that graphics that your manager wanted done yesterday. The clock is literally ticking and all you can think of is that nagging pain in your neck that numbs parts of your shoulders. Imagine yourself playing with your child on a playground. It’s a warm summer day, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping. You’re trying to lift your kid when, suddenly, your back gives out. Or imagine yourself as a copywriter for a small company known for promoting long-term comfort and productivity by offering ergonomic laptop stands. You work daily with chronic neck pain due to a lifetime of bad posture that had developed into spinal issues. Which may or not be an ironic yet true story here at Standivarius! The bad outweighs the good Musculoskeletal problems are a general source of pain and discomfort, and that oftentimes stems from our work lives. Due to hybrid work being the norm, the laptop has been the main tool we use. It’s a lot smaller compared to a desktop computer and is very portable. But for all the conveniences that a laptop brings, it brings along with it a lot of health problems. When working long hours with a laptop, we sit in a posture wherein we’re forced to slouch, and our head bears uneven weight on our necks and backs. There’s no proper spinal and core support. We might as well carry along our desktop computers everywhere! Work is affected There are real life consequences to poor posture that we often overlook. While poor posture seems so mundane of a reason for the consequences, it is a major factor – not because of posture in of itself, but what the constant crooked posture leads to. Work productivity is badly hindered by the persistence of pain and discomfort. Our jobs are at risk because of the sub-par work that, while unintentional, is hindered. Focussing on our tasks is next to impossible when we’re in agony. Deadlines are missed due to sick leaves, and work is left undone because of absenteeism. Relationships are compromised It’s not just work that’s at risk, but our interpersonal relationships as well. Spending precious moments with our loved ones is also severely affected when we suffer from chronic pains brought on by the effects of our bad posture. We’d have a difficulty spending time with them when all that we want to do is rest our body. We also would have a hard time enjoying their company when we’re in pain. Our health is directly connected to our relationships with our loved ones. It’s not enough to be just present in their lives, but we must also be at our best for them. And to be at our best, our health should be given priority. Understanding laptop stands It’s widely known that bad posture caused by long hours of laptop use does agonising damage to our musculoskeletal health over time. Ergonomic laptop stands exist to help reduce strain on the body. These stands encourage users to have, and to also develop, good posture – which then reduces the risk of postural abnormalities. Examples of these are “forward head posture” (nowadays called ‘text neck’), which is the positioning of the head in front of the shoulders, often associated with excessive screen time or poor ergonomic setups; and “rounded shoulders,” which is the drooping of the shoulders, contributing to a slouched posture. By raising the laptop and its screen, a laptop stand prevents you from having to hunch over, reducing future pains to the neck and the back. Stands promotes working with a straight posture, with the head and upper body aligned. This reduces the possible risks of long-term spine issues. With using a laptop stand like the Standivarius Oryx evo D, the long-term effects of better posture at work can be experienced. Shifting the consequences to our favour We can’t stress enough the stresses (pun unintended) of the lifetime effects of bad posture on a body. It is indeed painful and will disrupt the day-to-day quality of life. But we can still lead healthy lives. We can still be productive at work. And we can still give our loved ones the best versions of us. By reflecting on the long-term benefits of using ergonomic laptop stands to our health, work, and personal relationships, we can start living a healthier and more fulfilling life! Those “sit up straight” remarks from your mother when you were young suddenly makes sense, don’t you think?

Before starting on the practical tips and insights on thriving in a hybrid work environment, we must first define what hybrid work is: a hybrid work setting combines both remote work and in-person work, allowing us to have flexibility in our work locations. We can work both in the office and remotely such as in our homes or, if needed, at cafes. Hybrid work has a lot of advantages, such as an improved work-life balance and reduced commuting time. Hybrid work also provides the convenience of working in the comfort of our own homes. However, hybrid work model is not without its disadvantages. Effectively transitioning from the traditional work model into a hybrid work environment requires adapting to otherwise challenging situations. Productivity can be compromised when working at home where there are many unavoidable distractions, especially when you are not living alone. Without proper work-life boundaries that provides structure, work-life balance is disrupted and can result in burnout. It’s not just productivity that can be affected, but also our health. Our wellbeing, above all, must be given utmost importance by carefully considering the ergonomic solutions for hybrid offices that work for our individual needs. WORK-LIFE BALANCE  In thriving in a hybrid work environment, establishing boundaries for work-life balance is one of the essential first steps to take. It’s also the most nuanced and quite difficult to get accustomed to mainly because there are too many factors to consider placing boundaries on. These factors include, but are not limited to, time boundaries, social boundaries, family and household boundaries, and a host of others. With time boundaries, setting and sticking to the scheduled work hours and not going past them is a must especially when working from home. It’s also important to thoroughly inform our work time with members of the household so disruptions can be minimised. Allocate regular breaks during the workday to recharge, just as you would in an office setting. It’s essential to communicate these time boundaries with colleagues and supervisors to set clear expectations. Additionally, regularly reviewing and adjusting these boundaries as needed can help maintain a healthy work-life balance in a hybrid work environment. COMMUNICATION  Effective communication leads to lessened communication gaps, and these gaps makes it harder to collaborate effectively. To remedy this, we should inform our colleagues when we can respond to work-related emails and messages. Clear communication, both written and verbal, is a skill that can be learned and improved over time. DEDICATED WORKSTATION It’s also important to have a dedicated workstation. Having a specific workstation in our homes provides structure that makes it easier to separate our work from our personal lives. To maintain that separation even further, we can designate certain areas in our homes as “no-work zones.” This aids in focusing on work that would otherwise be difficult when working in spaces in our homes that aren’t conducive to work productivity. With that, it would also be advisable to avoid working on the couch or on the bed where it’s too comfortable and can negatively affect productivity. ERGONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS A lack of proper ergonomic equipment and tools has a negative effect on our wellbeing. The tools that we use for work also has a great impact in success in the hybrid work environment. Tools that are not just designed with ergonomics in mind, but also to boost productivity and efficiency are one of the most important considerations. Ergonomic solutions for hybrid offices, which by nature is rooted on mobility, requires solutions that are highly portable and adaptable to our various needs. These solutions must be thin that it would fit inside a laptop bag without any issues. These must also be light enough for daily carry to the office and our homes, and vice versa. Due to their ergonomic design, these solutions also have the potential to aid in maximizing productivity in hybrid work. WELLWESS Another key to thriving in a hybrid workplace is to prioritize our health and wellbeing. An active lifestyle seems to be a foreign concept in the workplace given that we are mostly sitting down for hours on end in front of a computer. However, having an active lifestyle even when we’re confined to our workstations can have a good impact on our bodies while we’re working. Spending hours sitting on a chair is similar to living an inactive lifestyle, which has proven health risks. By adding regular legs, arms, and neck movements to our daily work routine, the negative consequences of prolonged sitting such as muscle tightness, stiffening of the joints, and reduced blood flow to the body are reduced. Taking 5 – 15 minutes breaks to do full body stretches and light exercises have proven health benefits in the workplace. Even while we’re sitting, doing simple chair exercises and stretches does wonders for our physical health. ADAPTING TO CHANGE Since there still are no fixed best practices for a hybrid work lifestyle, the industry trends change from time to time. There is a need for adaptability and continuous learning in a hybrid work setting. Being comfortable with how our work lifestyle is now should be avoided as we must embrace change and stay updated with industry trends. It’s Not ’One-Size-Fits-All’ It must be stated that the insights mentioned are not one-size fits all. We have to adapt these tips to not just our situation, but with our colleagues’ situations as well. As an example, when communicating with our colleagues, different time zones is a factor in scheduling the hours. Another example is that for some, having a work-specific workstation in their homes is difficult, especially for those who live in a multiple household living situation. While it would be quite difficult in achieving consistency, we can always start with making minor changes to improve our situations. We can start with utilizing innovative tools for hybrid workplaces such as using ergonomic solutions such as the Standivarius Oryx evo D and the Standivarius Solo X compact keyboard. These are made for the hybrid workplace in mind.