Your Eyecare and Vision in the Workplace

Spending a long time staring at screens or working in a space that does not have good lighting or natural daylight can be harmful to your eye health. Eyestrain is a very common issue with office workers, especially if adequate breaks are not taken.

Tasks such as working on spreadsheets for hours at a time could be causing eyestrain which can lead to headaches, so it is important that office workers take the appropriate measures to protect their eyes.

As an employer, you have a responsibility to protect the health and safety of your employees, and this includes making sure that adequate measures are being taken to protect employees’ eye health.

These are some of the measures you should consider: 

Optimising natural light

The more natural light you can bring into the office, the better. Poor lighting is not only bad for vision and eye health, but it can also affect employees’ mood. Natural light can boost well-being and productivity, so there are many great reasons to make the most of the natural light by making sure windows are not blocked with any large items or blinds that are covering some of the windows.

If your office has cubicles or walls to separate areas or desks, you should consider switching to glass partitions to optimise natural light.

Educate employees about how to avoid eyestrain

Providing communications and training to employees to explain ways to avoid eyestrain will also help to protect employees’ eye health. Promote the 20:20:20 rule, which involves taking a break at least every 20 minutes to focus your eyes on something at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

You should also advise employees of factors that can negatively affect their eye health, such as smoking. Doing eye yoga, where you move your eyes around to exercise them, can also help to relieve eyestrain.

Anti-glare screens

You can supply anti-glare screens that go over computer monitors and laptops for the employees who would prefer one. They contain an anti-reflective coating, although many newer devices have this coating already integrated.

Paying for eye tests

Encouraging employees to have annual eye tests and covering the expenses of the test will help them to identify any eye health issues that they may have. Regular eye tests will help to diagnose issues as early as possible and get a glasses prescription if necessary. Some companies also pay for employees’ eyewear as well as eye tests.

Harrolds Opticians works with businesses to help protect employee eye health. We provide expert eye tests using the latest optometry technology and we can provide guidance on the best ways to protect vision when at work. Contact us today to talk about corporate eye care.