Yahoo! is also a source of information, including health information. According to an article listed on Yahoo! Health, computer usage can be harzardous to your health.
You can prevent RSI in its early stages by following these suggestions:* Stop using the computer whenever you start to notice pain or fatigue.
* Watch your posture. Don't hunch your head and neck forward. Keep your back straight, your feet flat on the floor, and your arms parallel to the floor.
* Take regular breaks. One option is to install software that reminds you to take breaks.
Yahoo! actually allows its full-time permanent workers to order a software that will time breaks, RSI Guard. When, on the advice of my physician, in 2005, I requested it, I was discouraged from using it. I was told that I would never advance because I doodled during meetings and I did my “yoga.”
Later, when another co-worker finally got it, she told me a supervisor discouraged her from using it, explaining that if she wanted to remain at Yahoo! she would stop complaining about her repetitive motion pain.
In my case, I was admonished for my low productivity on the day I reported the workers comp injury, and the next day back when it became obvious that the wrist braces were too big. I was also suspiciously moved in December 2007 to a position that would be eliminated in February 2008. My HR representative would neglect to tell me that I could refuse such work as it went against my physician’s restrictions and even a month after I had complained about the pain it was causing, my HR person was not able to move me back to a position that my physician had cleared me to work full-time.
This is not to say these were all problems inherent to Yahoo!. Overture also had problems listening to the workers, and most of the managers I worked under had been there during the Overture days. Training in the Overture guidelines was confusing and if it was confusing for college graduates — most of whom, like myself, held higher degrees — how much more confusing was it for people who had trouble comprehending what a superlative was?
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