In today’s business world, office workers generaly spend a lot of time on the telephone. Depending on your job nature, on average our telephone talk time can range from half an hour to 3-4 hours. For contact center representatives the time will usually be much longer.
Yet we are often required to multi-task during our conversations and we are forced to scrunch the handset between our ear and shoulder, so we can free our hands. We grow so accustomed to this that we can spend from minutes up to hours in such posture, leaving us with sore neck, back pains, and headaches which can lead to serious injuries.
Researchers have coined the term Telephone Neck Syndrome (TNS) to describe these work-related injuries which are the results of the neck forced to be in a bent position for a lengthy period of time, with the muscles continuosly contracted. After a while, the hyper-contracted muscles become irritated, cutting off their own blood supply and may go into spasm. Furthermore, within the spine. The vertebrae is being compressed along the lateral edge, causing squeezing of the discs, which may cause them to bulge or rupture.
Medical researches have now confirmed that TNS can be dramatically reduced with the use of a proper telephone headset. A study conducted at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, CA, found that office workers using telephone headsets can reduce neck, shoulder and upper back muscle tensión as much as 41%, compared to a control group using traditional handset. |
