A watchful eye on a digital-age hazard

Protecting your eyes at work usually involves wearing special goggles or safety glasses that shield against chemicals and particles. Industrial and healthcare workers take routine precautions to avoid eye injury. But desk jobs can affect your eye health as well, and so can your after-hours activity.

The American Optometric Association has identified “digital eye strain,” also called “computer vision syndrome,” as a growing cause of vision problems in the workforce. In fact, the average American worker spends seven hours a day staring at a computer.

Symptoms of computer vision syndrome include eyestrain, headaches, blurred vision, dry eyes, and neck and shoulder pain. Some factors that contribute to the problem include poor lighting, screen glare, poor posture or sitting at the wrong distance from your screen, or working with uncorrected vision problems.

The AOA offers a simple “20/20/20 Rule” of advice to help prevent digital eye strain: Take a 20-second break every 20 minutes by looking at something 20 feet away.

More tips and information can be found here: aoa.org/patients-and-public/caring-for-your-vision/protecting-your-vision/computer-vision-syndrome

 

Best Cities for Jobs

Looking for a great place to start your career after college? You’ve found it! According to Forbes.com, the Raleigh metropolitan area ranks third on its list of Best Places for Business and Careers. Raleigh is bested only by Denver, Colorado and Provo, Utah. And that’s the just latest accolade for the City of Oaks. ZipRecruiter ranks the Raleigh-Cary metro ranks second in the U.S. among up-and-coming cities for tech jobs, and CareerBuilder says Raleigh is third-best U.S. city to find a job.

 

It’s a New Generation

Millennials are now the largest share of the American workforce. Adults ages 18 to 34 represent more than a third of the labor pool, and they are redefining the way work gets done, according to Deloitte.com. Its survey of nearly 8,000 global millennials found that young workers’ attitudes toward work are different than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. They care more about technology and innovation than profit, for example. And their most important factor when choosing a job: a good work-life balance.