Bite My Bullet
A Letter to the Editor of Computer Currents
By Deborah Quilter
First published November 23, 1997

This nation contains a bunch of whiny wimps ("There Oughta be a Law!" Ergonomic Office, November 11, 1997). A coal miner crushed by 100 tons of rock is hurt. The office workers in Quilter's article are just crybabies.

Worker number one is 42 and can never work again? Why not? There are thousands of jobs in other industries. Get off your rear and apply. Worker number two needs months off for a sore hand and arm? Grow up. Get a new chair, lower the keyboard, get a head set.

As usual, the recurrent themes are "it's not my responsibility" and "who do I sue?" Millions of honest, hard-working Americans are sick of hearing this.

-T. Betts
Los Angeles, Calif.

Betts suggests that employees provide their own ergonomic equipment. That could cost $1,000, a sum many people would find a hardship. Besides, I know of cases where employers refused to allow employees to buy their own ergonomic equipment because it would not match the office decor.

As for the "thousands of jobs in other industries," most require employees to use their hands, and people injured by RSI cannot do so. Indeed, severely injured people may not be able to write or drive.

Many less severely injured people are desperate for work and do apply for jobs. There are several pending lawsuits where people have been fired – or not hired – because of their RSI-related disabilities. Rockwell International is facing a class action lawsuit for rejecting job applicants who could not pass nerve conduction studies. The company thought those people would develop cumulative trama disorders.

Unlike a gaping wound, repetitive strain injury is a hidden disability. Hard-working Americans with RSI are doubly hurt: first from the injury, then from being branded crybabies and wimps because other people can't see their injuries. The pain and disability are real.

-Deborah Quilter

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