Look Left and Get it Right
by Gone are the days when children would be rapped over the knuckles for using their left hand, but lefties can be at far greater risk in workplaces that fail to accommodate them.
A less satisfactory solution is to move left-handers onto tasks not involving the use of right-handed equipment. But this is more likely to result in the loss of good workers, who, for want of some adjustments in their workplace, feel undervalued.
At first the costs of altering a workplace or buying special equipment seem high, but the costs of not attending to these matters may prove higher. Injured staff cost money.
While factories and machine shops can be hazardous places for left-handed people to work, offices, banks and supermarkets, with their ubiquitous computer keyboards, cause a different kind of stress.
Office Workers
Many office workers, bank tellers and checkout operators spend their days tapping at keyboards. Typing (like driving) is an ambidextrous task, and should not be a problem for left-handers, but those using numeric pads on the right of the keyboard are left to sink or swim.
Computer keyboards with the numeric pad on the left are available, but that solves only half the problem. Unless left-handed workers are permitted to rearrange their desks, their computer set-up remains on the right.
Equally, most bank tellers work with their keyboards on the right, which is a hindrance for the left-hander. Obviously it is inconvenient to consider moving such equipment around when tellers change places and shifts, but in larger banks there should be room for at least one bay with equipment on the left.
One left-handed teller told me she had become proficient at using the keypad with her right hand, but struggled with being forced to count the money with that hand. The bank ‘wouldn’t accept her using her left.’
Supermarkets
Nowadays supermarkets tend to use keypads placed in front of their checkout operators, giving ease of operation for both left and right-handed workers. However the cash drawers for the most part remain to the right, and the worker still has to shift stock from right to left.
There are still many other areas where left-handed workers find themselves at odds with the workplace.
Don’t Leave Lefties to Cope
Many left-handers, through years of adjusting to a right-handed world, are capable of working satisfactorily with right-handed equipment. They have learnt a kind of ambidexterity (or should that be ambisinistry?) and cope with whatever comes their way.
Nevertheless this should not be an excuse for not considering the left-handers on your staff. The obvious place to start is by talking to the lefties – once you discover who they are (most of us are blinkered in regard to the left-handers amongst us).
Left-handers, being used to adapting, will have thought about the hazards and difficulties in their workplace. And it is likely they will already have suggestions for improving their working life – at hand.
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