OOS\chap4

Computers Byte Back - Chapter 4, The Costs and Benefits of Preventing OOS

Chapter 4
The Costs and Benefits of Preventing OOS

4.1 Introduction

RSI [OOS], although often treatable, can become intractable conditions that ruin careers

and lives through permanent disability and pain. Over and over, experts have stressed...

that the best way to treat these injuries [OOS] is to prevent them from ever happening.

[italics added] [Sellers, 1996(b), p.147].

It is clear that OOS is a very real problem that is becoming more prevalent. But does this infer that today's businesses need to take active measures to prevent their employees from developing OOS, as well as ensuring that those who already have OOS are not unduly disadvantaged? The costs of OOS are high, and involve life-style costs as well as monetary costs. These costs arise both in the prevention of OOS, and in catering for those who develop the disease. However, the cost of prevention of OOS will produce benefits to both the employee and the company - benefits that will usually justify the costs. Not only this, but all companies are legally and morally obliged to do everything within reason to ensure the health of their employees - to put money into OOS prevention schemes.

4.2 The Effects OOS has on People

The most serious effect OOS has is on the well-being of people. Not only are people affected physically, they are also financially, emotionally and socially [OOS, 1991,9.20].

4.2.1 The Physiological Effects of OOS

The physical effects of OOS are diverse. Sellers [1996 (a), p.165] details some of the effects of OOS as being "loss of dexterity, muscle fatigue, loss of gripping strength, a sudden inability to perform normal tasks such as washing... or opening a jar".

A more detailed description of the physical effects of OOS is given by AT&T Bell's industrial hygiene and safety team. While implementing a programme to reduce the

incidence of OOS in the company, the team discovered that VDU ergonomic injuries tended to develop in three distinct stages (note that, whatever stage the injuries were at, the employee was still in pain and debilitated in some way):

Stage One: This involved "aches and stresses". Most employees shrugged off the pain - believing it was a normal part of everyday work.
Stage Two: This involved "loss of function". Employees had a recognizable loss of body function - such as impaired use of the thumb after they used the mouse for any prolonged amount of time. Employees also noted that they experienced consistent pain in the affected area when they worked.
Stage Three: Labelled as "extreme pain". By this stage the pain was with the employee, even when they were not working - they also experienced pains during the night and reported disturbed sleep patterns . "In extreme cases, people made career changes (or were contemplating such changes) in order to avoid repetitive work".

People with stage three OOS become prone to clinical depression [Turner, 1992, CH.12, p.11]. The severity of this is revealed by the statistic that 15% of people with clinical depression will go on to complete a lethal suicide attempt [Calabrese and Markovitz, 1991].

4.2.2 Social and Emotional Costs of OOS

Not only does OOS manifest itself physically -it also impacts on the social and emotional aspect of human life.

Some of the emotional costs include:

Stress
Fear of job loss
Fear of the future
Loss of self-esteem
Feelings of inadequacy
Loss of dignity
Loss of indepence
General despondency

Adapted from [OSH, 1991, p.20]

Some of the social costs of OOS to the individual include:

Loss of friends and workmates
Inability to participate in any social, workplace and family activities

Adapted from [OSH, 1991, p.20]

4.2.3 The Financial Costs of OOS to the Employee

If an employee is unable to continue working because of OOS they face the prospect of long-term unemployment, and future financial uncertainty, as well as the immediate effect of a sudden drop in income.

4.3 The Costs OOS has on Businesses

...computer safety is cost effective. Greater comfort and safety will reduce fatigue, improve

concentration, and improve job performance. Whatever money is spent on creating a safe

workplace will be made up fo in increased productivity and reduced costs. [Linden, 1995, p.222]

When an employee develops OOS, the business will incur both monetary and intangible costs. For example, if a business fails to address the issue of OOS, then the business may find that some of its employees are forced to take sick leave (which will cost the company money). Some employees may even quit their job; this is an intangible cost, as there is no way of measuring the true worth of the specialist skills the employee takes with them when they leave the company (see for example: [Williamson, 1994]).

4.3.1 Intangible Costs

OSH mentioned the following as potential costs of OOS to an organisation:

Loss of skill and experience
Reduction in output from OOS-affected workers
Redistribution of workload
Lower morale, increasing the likelihood of industrial conflict
Negative publicity
Employee dissatisfaction

If the company does not take active measures to prevent OOS in the workplace, they are not only breaking the law (see Section 3.3.1), but they are also creating an undesirable workplace for employees - employees who are becoming more aware of health issues relating to computing. The resulting decrease in morale can lead to industrial conflict (as mentioned above). An example of this occurred in December 1991 when "a dispute over the company's treatment of RSI [OOS] sufferers at the Financial Times led to strike threats" [Khilji and Smithson 1994 p.99].

4.3.2 Financial Costs

The resulting increased absenteeism [from staff on sick leave because of OOS] and higher

worker's compensation costs affect the corporate bottom line. [Guinter et al, 1995, p.30]

OOS costs companies money. OSH listed the following as financial costs that a business may incur as a result of OOS:

ACC levies (up-to-date figures are not available are not available but the total cost of compensation from ACC for OOS related injuries in 1989 was $6.7 million).
Initial period of sick pay paid by the employer
Lost production time
Modification of workplace to reduce or eliminate OOS
Replacement costs [of employees] (including training and retraining)
Support staff costs (for example: Health professionals)

A company not only faces costs from within the organisation if it fails to address OOS, it also faces the wrath of the law. For instance, if a business fails to comply with Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 (the HSE Act) they can be fined. On July 19, 1996, the ANZ Bank was fined $30,000 for breaching the HSE Act. The bank had pleaded guilty to six charges - three of "failing to take all steps to ensure that the three staff were adequately trained in the safe use of a visual display unit (VDU)", and three of "Failing to take all steps to ensure the workers are not exposes to hazards while using a VDU". Judge Jane Lovell-Smith added that "tougher penalties might be appropriate in future cases" [Anonymous, 1996(a), Anonymous, 1996(b)].

The prosecution of the ANZ Bank was not an isolated case. According to a recent article in the Christchurch Press, in 1996 three private companies: FAI Life Assurance, Wanaka Tourist Craft and the ANZ Bank were prosecuted under the HSE Act, and fined a total of $46,000 in OOS related cases [NZPA, 1997(b)].

4.4 Preventing OOS - Costs and Benefits

Albin and Gutmen [1994, p.107] mention the possible benefits a company could gain if they implemented measures to prevent OOS, including "productivity improvements; lower workers' compensation costs; and heightened employee morale". Thus instigating programmes to prevent OOS should prove worthwhile and cost effective.

Despite all this, and despite the plethora of costs created by OOS, some organisations still find the costs of preventing OOS prohibitive. This is even though:

4.4.1 Prevention need not be expensive

Sometimes the expenditure required to significantly increase the safety of the workplace is minimal. "Most of the time, inexpensive, minor changes will produce a significant improvement in worker comfort. It may be as simple as changing the height of the monitor, chair or key-board" [Albin and Gutman, 1994, p.113]. Even if more significant changes are required to the working environment, it must be remembered that although the initial costs may be high, the benefits realised (both tangible and intangible) will span many years.

4.4.2 Example of Benefits Gained from Implementing OOS Prevention
Measures

As already mention (see section 3.3.5), Levi Strauss & Co benefited from their OOS prevention scheme. Another example of a cost effective OOS prevention scheme involves

Sun Microsystems. Halfway through 1991, Sun implemented an OOS awareness/prevention programme [Jones and Mattinson, 1994]. This was because the number of OOS related claims, as well as the average costs per claim, was continually increasing in the organisation. For example, the numbers of OOS cases had increased from 91 to nearly 150 in the first half of 1991, and the cost per OOS claim in the year before the programme was introduced (1990) had increased from about $US2,300 to $US4,200. The costs for the programme were "substantial" (and were estimated to be around $US500,00 for the first year of the programme). Yet they were small when compared with the company's revenues and both the real and expected costs of OOS claims.

Despite the OOS prevention programme, the number of OOS cases at Sun is still increasing. This does not concern Sun, however, as they believe that it is due to the employees being more educated about the risks of OOS. The upside of the programme is that the cost per OOS claim (since the programme was implemented) has fallen and is continuing to fall. The costs per claim are decreasing because early detection of OOS has seen the nature of the claims change from "severe surgical intervention to simple therapeutic treatment made effective by early intervention" [Jones and Mattison, 1994, p.46].

Thus, through Sun's example, we see that, although a prevention scheme for OOS is costly, the benefits obtained from the scheme can potentially outweigh the initial costs.

4.5 Summary

OOS is an expensive disease. It can debilitate the individual physically, financially, emotionally and socially. It can cause organsiations to incur numerous financial and intangible costs. If an organsiation implements an OOS prevention scheme (which it is morally and legally obliged to do), it will incur the financial overheads of the scheme. Either way, the organisation will end up spending money due to OOS. The good news is that OOS prevention programmes have been shown to be both effective in reducing the incidence of OOS (hence the individual and the organisation benefit) and cost effective. The next chapter details the methodology of a survey carried out to assess the state of OOS (including its costs) in New Zealand's IT industry.