OFFICE ERGONOMICS 101, Mazda CX-50

OFFICE ERGONOMICS 101

Be Kinder to Your Body

Akash Sablok

Until recently in our Notary office, we had a b/w printer at every desk.

Now we are centralized to one high-quality colour laser printer. Not only is that setup cheaper to lease, maintain, and repair, it forces us to get up often and move around. (We have a backup printer on our network just in case.)

Your Legs and Feet

On average we do over 3000 steps per day, roughly 3km. Walk constantly to that central printer and you might add 1000 steps. Our feet not only carry our body weight, they get stuffed into tight socks and shoes. Right now your feet are either flat on the ground or propped up on the legs of your chair— not ideal positions. An elevated footrest, even 1” off the ground, helps relieve tension in your feet and your lower back.

Your Shoulders and Back

Arms resting on your desk should have a slight angle, basically 45° , comfortable and not straining your shoulders. If your keyboard has rear legs, use them and the angle of your hands will match. I recommend a good padded keyboard hand rest to place your hands in the right position. The padding is more comfortable than your hard desktop.

The keyboard should be positioned directly in front of you, between you and the monitor. A keyboard at even a slight left or right angle will slowly create tension in your lower back.

Your Hands and Neck

Our hands naturally sit sideways, pinky fingers down and thumbs up. Unfortunately most computer mice are flat. My upright mouse fits naturally the way my hand rests. Kensington offers the Pro Fit Ergo Wireless Mouse.

With the massive increase in cellphone sales in the last 5 years, kids, teenagers, and adults are glued to their screens. I see us evolving with curved necks—sadly that could be our future. At a lined-up bus stop, see how many waiting riders have heads down, eyes glued to a 6”x3” screen. Some pedestrians in crosswalks are checking how many likes their recent posts got. Honk at them, you know, just to say Hi . . . With the large screens at our desks, we need to ensure our eyes are level with the screen and we’re not tilting our heads much up or down. You can adjust your seat height but setting the monitor

height is best. Some monitors come with stands that height-adjust. If your monitor has standard VESA four small mount-holes in back, you can mount the monitor on an arm that has adjustment for height, tilt, angle, and the ability to rotate. I use a two-monitor system, supported by a two-monitor arm bracket. My main monitor is landscape mode, like a TV, the second is rotated in portrait mode, like a cell phone. Windows and Apple computers have display settings that easily allow the rotation of one or more monitors 90 degrees or 180 degrees.

My mouse cursor moves from one monitor to the other as if they are one large monitor, not two. My main monitor is in front of me, the other is slightly to the left. Once the monitors are mounted, the display settings can be adjusted so the cursor moves in a perfectly vertical line from left to right.

The two-monitor setup allows me to copy and paste data between two separate documents; the portrait mode displays a full page at a time, especially legal-size pages.

Laptops

The Kensington SmartView Organizing Laptop Riser is a great way to optimally position your portable. Choose the height from 3 to 4 different levels, then add an external mouse and keyboard.

AUTOMOTIVE

The 2023 Mazda CX-50 brings a unique, stylish shape to the SUV segment. Five inches longer than Mazda CX-5, CX-50 provides one of the best driving experiences in a top-quality-finished vehicle.

Inside, the glass provides great visibility. Technology, via the 360 degree camera and large centre console screen, further ensures you can see safely all around.

The sophisticated all-wheel drive system is Mazda’s Skyactiv-G 2.5 DOHC 16-valve in-line 4 cylinder, with 187hp @ 6000 rpm in the GS/ GT variants. Optional for the GT is a Skyactiv-G 2.5 Turbo with Twin Scroll Turbocharger, DOHC 16-valve in-line 4 cylinder with 256jp @ 5000 rpm (with 93 octane fuel)— ample power for local or highway jaunts. Fuel economy with CX-50 is an average of 9.8L/100km. Mazda’s six-speed automatic, two gears less than most others, has no lack of power.

All but the base CX-50 come with a 10.3” display that relies on a centre-console physical knob and buttons. Oddly, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto can be navigated by touchscreen. Cell charging is via a wireless pad.

Seats are fine leather; trim materials throughout the Premium Plus and lower models offer the same quality.

The CX-50 is handsomely equipped on the safety front. Every trim comes standard with full-speed adaptive cruise control, lanekeep assist, automatic emergency braking, and blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic assist. If you choose Premium Plus, Mazda adds rear automatic emergency braking, Traffic Jam Assist, and steering intervention for the blindspot monitor.

Off-road, CX-50 handles itself well. Terrain-control modes lend a hand. Your gear, up to 1588kg, can be towed behind you. s www.mazda.ca

MSRP 2023 CX-50 GS-L $38,250 GT $43,200 Meridian $48,200

Akash Sablok is a BC Notary with the AJAC designation from the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada.