Workstations, Storage and the Occasional Heavy Lift
The core module — setting up a workstation you can actually work at, moving through the day, and planning the archive boxes, deliveries, monitors and event set-ups that nobody planned.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Part of Manual Handling Training for Office and General Workplace Staff
Key learning points
- Set up a chair, screen, keyboard and mouse to reduce sustained awkward posture
- Use a sit-stand desk, laptop and home set-up properly
- Build movement breaks into a desk-based day
- Plan the occasional lift — archive boxes, cartons, water bottles, monitors, furniture and event gear — in two minutes
- Design storage so heavy and frequent items sit at waist height
- Know when to ask for help or a trolley instead of carrying
Sitting still is a manual task
The body is built to move. A posture held for hours — even a good one — reduces blood flow to muscles, loads the same discs and tendons continuously, and stiffens joints. Add a screen that is too low, a chair that has never been adjusted or a mouse held out to one side, and the load concentrates on the neck, shoulders and wrists. This is why workstation set-up and movement are the first manual handling topics for office staff, before boxes.
Workstation set-up basics
A starting point — your workplace checklist takes precedence
- Chair
- Adjust seat height so feet are flat on the floor or a footrest, thighs roughly horizontal, and the backrest supports the curve of your lower back. Armrests should not stop you getting close to the desk
- Screen
- Top of the screen at about eye level, an arm's length away, directly in front of you. Two screens: main one central, or both angled to meet in front of you
- Keyboard
- Directly in front, close enough that elbows stay by your sides at about 90 degrees, wrists straight. Keyboard flat or nearly flat
- Mouse
- Right next to the keyboard at the same height. If you reach out sideways for it all day, that is a sustained awkward posture
- Laptop
- For anything longer than short use, dock it: external monitor or a laptop stand, plus a separate keyboard and mouse. A laptop alone cannot put the screen and the keyboard in the right place at once
- Documents and phone
- Document holder between keyboard and screen; phone on your non-mouse side; headset if you type while talking
- Under the desk
- Clear of boxes, bags and bins so your legs can move and you can sit close
Sit-stand desks — how to actually use one
- Alternate. Standing all day is no better than sitting all day; most guidance suggests changing position every 30–60 minutes
- Set the standing height so elbows are at about 90 degrees and the screen is still at eye level — raise the monitor arm if needed
- Stand for tasks that suit it: calls, reading, video meetings. Sit for fine mouse work if standing makes it harder
- Save your two heights as presets so changing takes one button press, not a negotiation
- Wear supportive shoes or use an anti-fatigue mat; shift your weight, do not lock your knees
- A sit-stand desk that lives at sitting height is a fixed desk that cost more — the control only works if it is used
Movement breaks
- Change posture every 30 minutes or so — stand, stretch, walk to the printer, refill your water
- Take a proper break away from the screen at least every hour or two
- Look away from the screen regularly to rest your eyes and neck
- Stand for phone calls and short meetings
- Use software or calendar reminders if you lose track of time at the screen — most people do
Working from home
Applying the same principles at home
- Work at a table and a chair you can adjust or pad, not the couch or the bed
- Raise the laptop on a stand or a stack of books so the screen is at eye level, and use an external keyboard and mouse
- If the chair is too low, use a firm cushion; if your feet then dangle, use a box as a footrest
- Put the set-up somewhere you can leave it, so you are not rebuilding it every morning
- Complete your employer's home workstation checklist and ask what equipment they provide
- Report discomfort the same way you would in the office — the reporting system does not stop at the front door
Hot-desking resets everything
If you use a different desk each day, the chair, screen and desk height are set for someone else. Spend the first two minutes adjusting them. Organisations that hot-desk should provide the same adjustable equipment at every desk and a simple guide at each one.
The occasional heavy lift
The other half of office manual handling is the lift nobody planned. A courier arrives, a storeroom needs clearing, a meeting room needs setting up in twenty minutes, a new starter needs a monitor. These tasks are infrequent, so there is no procedure, no trolley nearby and no habit of asking for help. That is precisely why they cause injuries.
Common office loads — plan them, do not guess
- Type 1 archive box
- About 15–20 kg when full of paper. The most common serious lift in an office. Pack to a fill line and move on a trolley
- Carton of A4 paper (5 reams)
- About 12–13 kg. A single ream is about 2.5 kg — order or carry in reams where you can
- Water cooler bottle (15 L)
- About 15 kg and it sloshes. Store low, and consider a bottom-loading or plumbed-in cooler
- Toner and print cartridges
- Light individually, but boxed in multiples and often stored high. Unpack at the shelf
- Monitors
- Roughly 3–8 kg, but wide, fragile and awkward to hold close. Two people for large screens
- Desktop computers and small servers
- Dense, no handles, cables attached. Unplug and label first, and use a trolley
- Mail bags, satchels and parcels
- Unknown weight until you lift them. Test the weight, use the mail cage
- Folding trestle tables
- About 15–25 kg and long. Two people or a table trolley, never one person and a doorway
- Stacking chairs
- About 5–8 kg each; a stack of ten is a trolley job. Use a chair dolly
- AV road cases and projectors
- Cases have wheels for a reason. Roll them; lift only onto the stage or table, with help
The two-minute plan
Before any lift you were not expecting, stop for two minutes and ask: What is it and how heavy? Where is it going and what is the route — doors, stairs, lift? Is there a trolley, and where is it? Can the load be split? Does this need two people? And the question most often skipped: does it need to happen right now, or can it wait for the equipment or the person? Two minutes of planning is cheaper than six weeks off work.
Archive boxes and records
- Fill archive boxes to a marked line, or to about two-thirds, rather than to the lid — a box crammed with paper is at the top of its weight range
- Write the approximate weight or 'heavy' on the label when packing, so the next person can plan
- Move boxes one at a time, on a document or platform trolley, not stacked in your arms
- Check the base and handholds before lifting — old boxes lose their bottoms
- Store full boxes between knee and shoulder height; the top shelf is for empty boxes and light items
- In compactus units, open the aisle fully and use a platform step for upper bays — never lean in and lift from the bottom bay at arm's length
- For large purges, ask records or facilities to arrange collection from your floor rather than staff carrying to the basement
Deliveries, mail and consumables
- Agree a delivery point with couriers that is close to where goods are stored, not the reception counter
- Use a trolley or mail cage for anything more than one light parcel
- Unpack paper cartons at the shelf and put reams away individually rather than carrying the whole carton
- Store water bottles on a low shelf near the cooler, and toner near the printer at waist height
- Do not stack deliveries behind reception where staff must lift them in a confined space
- If a supplier's packaging is consistently too heavy, raise it — smaller units are usually available
Moving monitors, computers and furniture
- Shut down, unplug and coil cables before moving any IT equipment; label the cables if the set-up is complex
- Hold a monitor by the base and the top edge, screen facing you, close to your chest — never by the stand neck alone
- Large screens, all-in-one computers and towers go on a trolley, with a second person to steady them
- Empty drawers and pedestals before moving them; never move a filing cabinet with files in it
- Desks, cabinets and heavy furniture are a facilities or removalist job, not something for the team to shuffle at lunchtime
- Office moves are a project: crates packed by staff, everything else moved by people with the equipment for it
Meeting rooms and events
- Allocate time and people for set-up and pack-down in the event plan — it is not something one person does in the last twenty minutes
- Move stacked chairs on a chair dolly and trestle tables on a table trolley; two people to open and place each table
- Roll AV cases; lift them onto a stage or table only with two people and the case open so it is lighter
- Book the goods lift and use it; do not carry event gear through fire stairs
- Keep walkways and exits clear during set-up so people are not stepping over cables and stacks
- Wear suitable footwear on set-up days, even if the event itself is formal
Storage design
Where things should live
- Waist to chest height
- The heaviest and most frequently used items — full archive boxes in current use, paper, water bottles
- Knee to waist height
- Moderately heavy, less frequent items
- Shoulder height and above
- Light, rarely used items only — empty boxes, spare folders, decorations
- Below knee height
- Light items, or items on a trolley base that can be wheeled out
- Every storeroom
- A platform step and a trolley kept inside the room, not borrowed from another floor
- Labelling
- Weights or 'heavy' on boxes; shelf labels so items are put back where they belong
Ask, do not carry
In most offices the trolley exists, the platform step exists and a colleague is thirty seconds away. The barrier is habit — it feels quicker and less fuss to just carry it. Asking for help or fetching the trolley is not weakness or inefficiency; it is the control your employer provided. Use it.
Practical scenario
Scenario: twelve boxes, no trolley
Your manager asks you and a colleague to clear twelve full archive boxes from under a row of desks and take them to the basement archive before an inspection tomorrow. The office trolley is missing, the lift is working, and it is 3 pm.
Apply the two-minute plan.
Reveal the explanation
Twelve boxes at 15–20 kg each is a serious task, and pulling them out from under desks adds an awkward, reaching lift for each one. Find the trolley or borrow one from facilities or the mailroom before starting — this is worth fifteen minutes. Slide each box out from under the desk before lifting, lift one at a time onto the trolley, load no more than the trolley is rated for, use the lift and make several trips. If no trolley can be found by the time you need to start, the task waits or goes to facilities; two people carrying twelve boxes by hand is not an acceptable fallback.
Practical scenario
Scenario: eighty chairs and ten tables
An event coordinator is setting up a town hall for 80 people in a multi-purpose room. Chairs are stacked ten high in a store, trestle tables are leaning against the wall, and the AV team has two road cases. The coordinator is alone and the event starts in 45 minutes.
What should have happened, and what should happen now?
Reveal the explanation
Set-up should have been in the event plan with two or three people, a chair dolly, a table trolley and an hour allocated. Right now, the coordinator should call for help rather than start alone, use the dolly and trolley if they exist, and move tables in pairs. If help is not available, the event starts with fewer tables and a message to the organiser — an injury is a worse outcome than a late start. Afterwards, the event procedure should be amended so this does not recur.
Practical scenario
Scenario: the home set-up
A colleague working from home mentions they have started getting pins and needles in their right hand by mid-afternoon. They use a laptop on a low coffee table, sitting on the couch, with the trackpad.
What would you suggest?
Reveal the explanation
Report the symptoms to their manager now, because tingling is an early warning sign, not something to wait out. Then change the set-up: move to a table and chair, raise the laptop so the screen is at eye level, and add an external keyboard and mouse so the wrist is straight and the shoulder relaxed. Ask what equipment the employer provides — most will supply a stand, keyboard and mouse. Build in a short movement break every half hour.
Knowledge check
These questions are for your own learning. They are not part of the final assessment.
1. Which set-up is most likely to reduce neck and shoulder strain for someone who works on a laptop all day?
A laptop alone cannot put the screen and keyboard in the right place at once. Docking changes the task at its source.
2. What is the correct way to use a sit-stand desk?
The benefit comes from changing posture regularly. Standing all day simply swaps one sustained posture for another.
3. You are asked to move eight full archive boxes to another floor and the trolley cannot be found. The most appropriate action is to:
Full archive boxes weigh around 15–20 kg each. Repeated carrying between floors is a hazardous task that the trolley exists to control.
4. Where should the heaviest, most frequently used items in a storeroom be kept?
Storing heavy and frequent items at waist height removes the bending and overhead reaching that make a lift hazardous.
5. An event needs 80 chairs and 10 trestle tables set up and you are the only person available, with 45 minutes to go. What should you do?
Trestle tables are a two-person job and stacked chairs need a dolly. A late or reduced set-up is a better outcome than an injury.