The full‐time VDT operator as a working person: Musculoskeletal work discomfort and life situation

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to explore the situations and activities during which video display terminal (VDT) operators’ musculoskeletal discomforts arose. The study groups were engaged in highly computerized office work, consisting of routine, standardized job tasks. A total of 36 subjects were chosen from two office departments: 25 people from an accounts center where work was dominated by routine data‐entry work, and 12 persons from a telephone exchange where data‐dialogue work predominated. An instrument for in‐depth interview was prepared to explore how the individual was coping with any musculoskeletal discomfort and how this kind of discomfort was related to work and overall life situation. An earlier‐developed method was used for assessing the subjectively perceived position of the interviewees in relation to the entire course of their paid employment, using four variables. The data underwent a predominantly qualitative analysis. Findings based on the assessment of subjective time perspective of current work and its relation to musculoskeletal complaints revealed that people working together, and with very similar tasks, had very different panoramas looking backward and forward at their personal work life and independent of their suffering from musculoskeletal discomfort. Most of the workers had decided to stay in the present job and to not demand more of the job than they had obtained until now. One conclusion is that these orientations should be considered important factors in planning for ergonomie intervention and organizational change.