Time-Honoured "Translator’s Buttocks"

Today is World Day for Safety and Health at Work. With the ever growing amount of remote and digital nomad jobs, the definition of 'at work' itself is now in question, I suppose.
 
During the lockdown period last year, people often asked me if I was working at home (in neo- German: to do “Homeoffice”). As my office is only a few steps from my home, I see no point in working from home. Especially, since I love my working environment there optimised for my needs as a translator.
 
🖥 As practicing a desk-bound profession, translators are prone to tennis elbow, back pains, stiff shoulders and even headaches at times.
 
Let me share my modest yet helpful #work safety measures as a “hardcore translator”.
 
✔️ Use of a speech recognition program, Kana input-method (which reduces the number of key strokes by 50%) and #bar mouse to prevent tennis elbow
✔️ PC eyeglasses with blue light protection to reduce eye strain 👓
✔️ Height-adjustable desk and a saddle chair to prevent back pain
 
No matter how efficient your working tools are, nothing will save your health if you overreach yourself. Working off one rush job after another by working overtime can inevitably take a toll on your mind and body. Thus, the best remedy for occupational health may be a reasonable work-and-life balance after all.
 
Once I came across an expression “translator’s buttocks” in an article related on “La Escuela de Traductores de Toledo”, the exact title of which unfortunately escaped my memory, though.
 
The Toledo School of Translators is said to be a hidden driving force of the later Renaissance for its achievements of translating unknown knowledge from Arabic or Greek into Latin under the patronage of a Castilian King in the city of Toledo in the 12th and 13th centuries. Their occupational diseases: 'sore hips from sitting too long'. I couldn’t help musing at the fact that the sorrows of translators have changed little since then. 😉
 
🍀 Occupational health is not a pure “labour issue” (i.e. something employers should take care of). I wish the best of health to all working people on the earth, including us freelancers!

#safteymatters #freelancer