After ignoring the symptoms and cutting back on sports like rock climbing, which he thinks contributed to the trouble, Mortimer said his wrists felt better. But months of spending 12 hours a day in front of his laptop, crunching projects and reports for a Big Five consulting firm, proved too much. Now I'm trying to find some kind of alternate career path. Even in marketing and sales, there's a high volume of e-mail. It's a tough problem.
Nobody really cares about ergonomics until they have it.
Some health groups maintain that the situation will grow only worse because of the ways technology has infiltrated nearly every aspect of peoples' lives spurred by the added stress that comes with working long days in high pressure situations. We're totally hooked on our beepers, our cell phones, our laptops. The whole point of laptops is that you can use them anywhere. You're bent down. The Clinton administration spent nearly 10 years developing a rule aimed at preventing repetitive stress injuries in the workplace.