Back Story

Having been at the Times for eight months now, I’ve finally experienced first-hand one of the few occupational hazards of an office worker.

I spent the better part of Friday in bed, nursing a lower back that’s not only seized with shooting pains but also complete rigid. This ordeal began on Monday morning, when I woke up from an awkward position that must have pinched a nerve in my lower left back. The occasional sting lingered through Thursday, when I covered my back in Salonpas patches after getting a Valentine’s Day lunch with Rich.

Pulled forward and cut in half.

Friday morning—I awoke to a back condition that had intensified from occasional stings to constant, radiating pain. After calling in sick I frantically found a doctor in Chinatown—an old, Chinese, and very unattractive version of Doctor House from the hit television series.

I’d like to blame my occupation for this injury, but unfortunately it’s clear that the fault lies with myself. Being so neglectful of simple office stretches and exercises put me at risk for the carpel tunnel syndrome of my entire body.

While lying in bed waiting for the Ibuprofen to work its magic, I got to pondering the conventions through which people interact with computers and office equipment. There’s definitely much to be desired about being in an office space. Qualms about temperature regulation aside, I think it’s an awful shame—and awfully unnatural—that so little physical effort is exerted in doing work digitally.

At the end of the day, there’s nothing quite like setting lead type in a galley, or pulling a printing arm on a silkscreen press. That said, the professor who teaches lithography at school is very fit. Getting down and dirty in Photoshop or Illustrator is merely hunching forward for a close look at a few pixels. Kerning characters is just a few keystrokes’ worth of work. Offices seem to be where one can momentarily forget the fundamental relationships that exist between physical labor and work. A day’s work on the computer is simply disproportionate to the physical demands of wielding a keyboard and mouse.

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