The Ergonomic Consultant

I’m not going to lie, I get hassled, made fun of, laughed at and pointed at. Yes, I’m that guy that carries his keyboard with him when he shows up to a new client. Yes, I’m the “booger-eater” that sits in the corner with his special keyboard. Yes, I will hunt down an old small box in your back room to use for a monitor stand. Yes, yes, yes, I’m THAT guy.

I’m also the guy who will never complain about back pain, neck pain, wrist cramps, sore hands, or numb fingers even though I’m using a laptop all the time. Yes, I’m the guy who is a ergonomic freak.

Being a consultant can be tough at times. You come in as the software ninja (a term I stole from BoodHoo) to save the day with you’re “infinite wisdom” (riiiiiighhhht…) and skill. You’re forced to sit in the “old dirty cube where Mort used to fart all day long”. You’re given OLD chairs, and very limited space. A lot of the time you’re forced to sit in areas where you’ll share a desk with a few other developers, giving you elbow room only. Heck, one time the company I work for had myself and a fellow consultant at a client location doing some work for them. We got placed into the location known as the “Shack”. SERIOUSLY.

At first, I was very skeptical… my thoughts were “Ok, where is this ‘shack’ located?” Does it have A/C? (I’m in Phoenix, land of the blazing sun), and “can we even get on the network?” Well, I was introduced to the shack.

The picture to the left, is almost exactly what the “Shack” looked like. It was just a tad bit bigger, maybe another 100 sq ft.

The funny thing was, it WAS the best seat in the entire company. No one bothered you, the A/C was freezing cold, and it was QUIET so you could get your work done. But still, we had sub-par chairs, laptops, single monitors (laptop monitor) and that’s about it.

So, in order to make sure my career lasts longer than 5 years because of Carpel Tunnel or some other complications I decided to come up with a few things that can make a consultants life a lot healthier in regards to ergonomics.

Recently Jeff Atwood covered some great ergonomic info on his blog. I was already up to par on all the stuff he covered because I’ve been concerned with ergonomics since I’ve started my “insta-just-add-cheesburger-big-butt-chubby-stomach-chicken-gobbler-desk-job” career as a software developer. I’ve wanted to make sure my career didn’t hurt me, physically. He even goes over how others have experienced pain and agony from coding all day/night. (Damn those 12 hour JOLT binges).

I digress, I’ve compiled a list of MUST haves when working at a client location.

1. The Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Keyboard
1. I bring one with me everywhere I go. I have one at home and one for the road. I think Jean-Paul Boodhoo does the same thing too. I WILL NOT use any other ergo keyboard ever. If Microsoft stopped making these like they did years back, I’ll have to resort to the ways of Jeff Atwood of buying them off ebay. For real man. For real.
2. A good WIRED optical mouse with an easy to use back/forward button combo.
1. I’ve been going commando for years, and god does it feel good. I rarely use the mouse, but when I do, I LOVE these buttons. I use a Logitech MX 310. It’s nothing fancy and it works. No cordless crap. I hate when batteries go out, or are about to go out. It kills my productivity.
3. A Laptop Raiser.
1. This can be a box, a couple of books, anything. This usually stays at the client location at the desk I’m working at. This  helps keep the monitor directly in front of you at eye level. Looking down all day can kill your neck/back. So this helps with that. See Jeff’s post on where your eye level should be. This will help you judge height. It’s different for everyone, so don’t think that 3 Microsoft Press Books that work for you will work for Joe Developer too.
4. A Decent Chair.
1. This is the HARDEST commodity to fill for a consultant. We normally get stuck with a crappy chair. I’ve even been at client locations where I had metal folding chairs as my main seat. So, sometimes it takes a bit of creativity to win in this area. My advice is to ask for a nice chair, that works 80% of the time. The other 20%, you’re going to have to get creative. Bring in a pillow, create back support with a jacket, make sure you can at least raise your seat to create the 90 degree bend. If worse comes to worse, sit in their conference room. (Or get there early and steal a conference room chair and roll it over to your desk in the smelly corner – but you didn’t hear that from me). 🙂
5. An extra monitor.
1. Getting this is much harder than finding a decent chair. If you can though, get that dual monitor set  up, use your laptop as monitor 1 and the spare as monitor 2. Instant productivity booster.

Its not much, but these few things can help your body immensely. Being a consultant myself, I’ve had to live and learn the ways of working in the worst of conditions. Don’t get me wrong, at times you’ll get clients that set you up with an $800 custom chair, a dual/triple monitor set up and a machine that could smoke a cigar faster than you’re uncle gomez, BUT…. those are few and far between.

So, save your body, save your mind, save your time, and save your sanity. 🙂 Just get comfortable, regardless of the cost.