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Pretty unlikely for two people to share ergonomic settings across the desk hardware. If you've been in this industry long enough you've got to be careful about wrist, neck, leg, and eye strain and that often boils down to setting your chair and monitor just so, and customized ergonomic peripherals.

A policy like this is biased against older and differently abled employees whether that was the intention or not.



I absolutely hate it when someone sits at my desk when I'm out of office and moves my chair, screen, etc. Bonus points for people pulling on cables and leaving a godawful mess behind. My favorite is when they unplug my computer (because no one has a power adapter anymore) and leave it off...

But most people I've seen don't give a crap about their working conditions. They'll put up a family picture or two and call it day. I've seen hardly anyone adjust the height of their chairs, let alone the desk (ours are adjustable, but it's more involved than the chair). Many will work hunched over their laptops when they have a perfectly usable screen right in front of them. Yes, there are cables, and yes, they're compatible with the PCs.

My company thinks a keyboard is a keyboard, so they figure the crappy basic HP with mushy keys you need to press exactly right and that have your wrists bent up are just fine, so I brought my own peripherals. I have also insisted on having an adequate screen, trading two crappy nonadjustable ones for an OK one that sits at the right height and has decent contrast. It also provides my laptop with power and cuts down on random cables hanging around. It's also cheaper than the standard two crappy screens + docking station, so it's clearly not an issue of spending money. Comfort is simply not a consideration. But no one else complains.

But the point is that, in my company, I'm pretty sure no one would bring up ergonomic considerations as an issue with hot desks. And I doubt it's any different in your average corp.




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