Blue Cross Careers,West Michigan,Northern Michigan,Mid-Michigan,Southeast Michigan,Ancillary Offerings
New Ways to Protect Your Employees’ Vision
Dr. Gina Lynem-Walker
| 3 min read
Dr. Gina Lynem-Walker, MD, is a quality medical director for utilization management at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. She is an internal medicine physician with experience in utilization management, care management and disease management, and is a volunteer faculty member at Wayne State University Medical School. She is married with two children, and enjoys gardening, reading, crafts, music, community service and travel.
As an employer, you want to make sure your employees stay healthy and happy. But often, the focus of workplace wellness programs is on encouraging your team to exercise, eat well and abandon unhealthy habits. One area that’s often overlooked is vision health. Eye care isn’t just important for those employees who require safety goggles for their jobs, like construction workers and welders. Eyes can become strained after hours of staring at a screen or reading fine-print documents. Though these activities do not lead to long-term damage, eye strain can be uncomfortable and cause headaches and blurred vision — issues that may affect morale and productivity. Luckily, thanks to advancements in technology, helping employees take care of their eyesight is easier than ever. During your next staff meeting, suggest the following tips to help keep your employees seeing clearly:
- Swap the light they see at night: The blue light that shines from phones and tablets can not only strain eyes, but actually delay falling asleep at bedtime, making it tough to be productive the next day. Employees who rely on technology to stay in touch in the evening, should be aware of the iPhone’s Night Shift and Android’s Night Mode. These features switch the phone's lighting function, so it produces yellow light, which is better for sleeping and eye protection. It’s also important to position computers so eyes are level with the top of the monitor and use anti-glare screenprotectors.
- Take an app break: Apps like Awareness and TimeOut provide a simple reminder for your team to get up and walk around the office during the day, giving their eyes a break from looking at a screen. These breaks can also help with focus and overall mood and should be taken at least once every two hours.
- Switch out eyewear: Just like some people need a different pair of glasses for reading versus driving, your employees might also need a new pair for looking at the computer. Computer glasses are a new way to help office workers adjust to the lighting and strain of their computer screens. This versatile eyewear relies on filters and lenses to make the user experience a more comfortable, less blurry screen. Even better, they’re super affordable and can be ordered online.
- Don’t forget the simple walk: It isn’t high-tech, but encouraging your employees to take frequent strolls around the neighborhood can improve eye strain. It gets them out from under fluorescent lighting and allows their vision to focus on objects that are further away than their computer screen.
For more tips on the importance of vision care, check out these recommended blogs:
