A Different Minority
In the last two decades employers have gained more understanding of the needs of minority employees, from those who are culturally different to those with disabilities. But many employer still overlook one minority group: left-handed workers. Lefties make up about 10% of the population and the average workforce.
Modern society still tends to regard left-handedness as slightly abnormal. It doesn’t help that our language is biased against the left, with words like ‘sinister’ and ‘cack-handed.’ And it’s easy to forget that even though the majority of people are right-handed, this doesn’t make it the ‘norm.’
Left-handed employees deserve the same consideration as other minorities. Factories can pose serious safety threats to lefties. Most workplaces are designed with right-handed people in mind, and left-handers are left to fend for themselves. Their solutions may put them at risk.
Assembly Lines
Assembly lines are a case in point. Lefties sometimes have difficulty keeping up, struggling to work in a way that is unnatural for them. This unnaturalness is caused by assembly line tasks being organised for right-handers. One solution is to allow enough room on both sides of the line, so that left-handers can stand opposite other workers and use their dominant hand.
Safety switches and safety guards in factories (for example, on machines like band saws) are biased towards the right. Left-handed people have two choices with such machinery. They can lean across and risk harm to themselves, or they can try and use the machine right-handedly, putting strain on their non-dominant hand (with the possibility of occupational overuse syndrome). This also means their work may not be up to standard.
Altering Equipment
Often only minimal alteration to equipment is needed to make it safe for left-handed people. Machinery controls can be placed where both right and left-handers can easily access them. A double control could be installed so whoever is using the machinery can confidently switch it off if a problem arises.
Levers on tools such as drill presses are normally on the right. When left-handed workers reach across their body to use them it blocks their view. Accuracy is impaired, and productivity reduced.
In such cases it may be a matter of purchasing left-handed equipment, which is now more readily available. When left-handed tools are purchased, they will need to be readily identifiable so that right-handed workers do not damage them by attempting to use 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.
