bright light

NaeNae55

An employee came in today wearing a ball cap. She told her supervisor that the new lights (I hadn't realized we got any) were too bright on her computer screen and were causing her eyes to hurt. The ball cap helped. She also said she will be having a vision exam soon to update her glasses.

The supervisor suggested we might want to get some sort of screen cover to reduce the glare. I am fine with that, but are we sure this will fix the problem? Any of you have experience with this? Should we be looking at the light bulbs instead?

Don't you just love dumb questions?

Sharon McKnight SPHR

I have dealt with this in the past and when we set up a new office space installed parabolic lens to combat the problem. They force light directly down rather than spread out across the ceiling. For folks with light sensitive vision, working on a computer can become a real problem, and eventually a workers' comp claim.

To combat the problem in the past, I've asked employees to tilt the top of their computer screen forward a slight bit so that it reflects less overhead light. If that didn't do the trick, I would see if their screen could be repositioned in their work space. If that didn't work, I've had overhead lights moved.

I guess all this sounds a little silly, but my workers' comp flag goes way up whenever employees start talking about how the light bothers them. Same thing when they complain about their chair. I'd rather buy a new chair or pay to have a light moved than go down the workers' comp path.

Sharon

Sharon McKnight SPHR

A word about screen covers. If you do get your employee one, I recommend getting the kind that just reduces glare instead of a privacy screen. The privacy screens are great for allowing employees to sit at their desk and surf the Internet instead of working because you can't actually see what's on the computer screen unless you're directly in front of it.

Sharon

joannie

We've had the same issue, Nae. Our light fixtures are the four tube fluorescent variety. The solution was to only use two tubes per fixture. Not only reduced the complaints, but saves a bit on the electric bill, too.

plynnl

Interesting you should mention taking out the light tubes. We did that in all our fixtures just a couple of weeks ago. I will check to see what the power savings are but the employees were happy and it really didn't seem to make the offices dark just less glare.

cnghr

Since there is a lot of glass in my office - huge windows on both the inside & outside walls, glass covering the top of the desk to protect the wood - and since I wear glasses, glare & reflections can be a huge problem for me. Removing two tubes from the four-tube fluorescent fixtures helped tremendously, as well as adjusting my computer monitor to a better angle.