Have you ever had muscle injuries from typing work?

Gentiana

Hi guys,

just wanted to know if you have encountered muscle injuries from typing work. We all have those overloaded periods, with projects coming one after the other, and you have to work without stop for hours. I'm having a total injury of the right arm and shoulder muscle. I couldn't realize immediately but after 3 months of non-stop working for several projects at a time, now I'm facing extreme pain and I have to see a physiotherapist. Is it anything that translators can do to avoid such kind of things? Any typing tips?

eleonorang

Gentiana Oh, no! I'm sorry! What did the doctor recommend?
I think it may be due to stress and a wrong posture altogether? It's true, people type for years and nothing happens to them, so there may be more factors that have caused this! How's your work desk in terms of ergonomics?

linguistceviri

Gentiana

https://www.usc.edu.au/media/1000574/Exercises-for-Computer-Users-and-Office-Workers.pdf

Try out these exercises. It works.

ninadepalma

I can't say I've encountered this myself, but I bet it's something that's going to become a major issues in the next few decades, when millions of people will have had jobs using computers for their entire lives.

Hopefully the doctor helps, and maybe some others here will have advice as to products you could use to make your workspace more comfortable!

Gentiana

ninadepalma thanks Nina. In fact our job affects our lifestyle. We have to think how to keep some time for ourselves and physical activities. If we work like mad, what's the point of being our own bosses, right? ?

Gentiana

eleonorang I followed some physiotherapy sessions. It's due to bad posture of the arms and stress. The pressure created on the shoulder is created in years, but the pain started after very long working hours between October-December last year. Now I have to follow exercises at home and maybe later swimming sessions.

eleonorang

Gentiana Hope you get to see and feel the benefits of the therapy asap! ? Only good things can come from this, you'll learn how to maintain a better posture (we all probably should) and maybe get into swimming ?

Dmitry

I'm really sorry you had a work-related injury @Gentiana! I hope a doctor can help you and that you have a medical insurance that would cover the cost of treatment.

I never had any kind of work-related injury yet, although I do feel that sedentary lifestyle takes its toll on me.

This is why I try to move whenever I have a chance and engage in physical activities (gym or team-based sports and swimming).

I need to do it more, though as I do have some light pain in the back and in wrists every know and then.

Dmitry

I would also recommend you to increase your rates. Because 3 months of non-stop projects on top of other projects probably means that you're charging too little. ?

By gradually increasing rates you'll reduce the volume of work you do while you'll end up getting the same amount of money or maybe even more (depending on how your clients react and how aggressively you pursue this).

After all we're not robots. And we deserve to be paid handsomely for out hard work that takes its toll on our bodies.

Gentiana

Dmitry well that's not easy. When working with agencies (like it was the case for me) the rate is what agency has negotiated with the client. On the other hand, in the internal market, the rate/word is not recognized. We charge on a page based rate which is very low too. Our market has accepted the challenge of new websites, e-commerce, social media and other new things, but when it comes to translation it's like 10-20 yrs ago. ?

Dmitry

Gentiana Sorry to hear that. Is it possible to seek clients in other markets? In ones that have better rates?

Gentiana

Dmitry well yes, but it requires a lot of effort. My language pair does not have a high demand.

Gentiana

linguistceviri thanks a lot ?