About
Many many years ago, a fiesty, ambitious Armenian girl began a “desk job” with bright eyes and a bushy tail. Yes, an actual bushy tail - she hadn’t discovered straightening irons yet.
Ok, writing in third person is creepy, y'all. Please allow me to try again.
Hi, I'm Marina! Nearly two decades ago, I started a career I loved so much, that I spent 8 hours a day, glued to my shitty corporate computer, writing strategic plans and hand-coding HTML emails (yes, it was that long ago). I got really good at pretending I was taking my US government-mandated 15-minute breaks so that my boss wouldn’t get in trouble for not enforcing them.
Two years later, I came down with a set of debilitating musculoskeletal disorders that injured my back, arms, and hands. I couldn’t do basic life tasks like turn doorknobs or hold up a hairbrush, much less continue working with my current pace and habits. And, for someone whose entire career was based around a computer, it meant everything I had worked for was going to be taken away.
Luckily, I had a very sweet and caring HR lady who forced/encouraged me to get physical therapy, hoisted my monitor to the correct height, and got me some fancy footrests and squishy keyboard accessories. The personal and economic impact of these injuries on an employee was as much an eye-opener for her as it was for me.
Then two years later, the pain came back with a vengeance so I went back into physical therapy again. One doctor actually said that my injuries were so bad, I could be forced to quit working entirely and spend the rest of my life on disability leave. Retiring in my 20s was not something I had planned when I ambitiously mapped out my career and tried to make my immigrant parents proud - who had come to America to give me better future, which involved better professional possibilities. So, once again, I went into a year of treatments and made even more drastic changes to my workstation and habits.
A few years passed and I found myself eagerly starting my own full-time business. But working for myself, with no health advocate buying me footrests and forcing me to take breaks, I felt those familiar pains creeping back in my neck and arms. I had to take an active role in my interactions with technology and my habits in order to avoid additional damage to my body.
After renting an office of my own and building workstations for myself and my staff from scratch, I realized just how little the entrepreneur, freelancer, and remote work communities really know about workplace safety.
As it becomes increasingly clear that our technology habits and postures are literally killing us, this information is more essential than ever before. But all we currently have? Are the occasional articles on business websites quoting some doctor/CEO/random person who smugly states “sitting is the new smoking.”
There are not many good actionable resources out there that cater to the habits and lifestyles of freelancers, entrepreneurs, and basically anybody who works in a nontraditional setting (like home offices, co-working spaces, homes without a dedicated office, coffee shops, airports, client offices… you get the gist). AND - the ergonomics ecosystem doesn’t take into account a holistic look at the psychology and behavior science behind what it means to work from home. Most of the current research and resources are not very useful because they are geared towards traditional corporate office spaces and still use words like “computing.”
So – since I know way more than any regular person should about the wonders of workplace injuries - and since I am a practitioner of human-centered design - I had no choice but to bridge this knowledge and habits gap!
I even made this the topic of my thesis project when I was working on my Master's of Science in Global Strategic Design Management from Parsons Paris School of Design - combining service design and behavior science to find meaningful ways to design the future of health and work.
Please note that I am not a medical practitioner nor pretending to be one. Most of what I post here is fully-researched and includes information directly from interviews with licensed medical practitioners, or publications, or includes anecdotal best practices that I’ve learned over the years. This site is not meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any diseases, injuries, or other physical issues. If you have any health issues that may make this info inadvisable, make sure to consult your doctor. Consult your doctor either way - it’s a good excuse for a check up.
The posts on here will each take you no more than a few minutes to read. Because if I kept you staring at the screen longer than that… then kind of example am I setting? Full disclosure: I may even encourage you to stretch as you read.
I will also review products and services for ergonomics (if you work with a company in this space, please do reach out if you want me to test any of your offerings!).