The Workaholic: These people are extremely driven, often quite competitive, and achieve a sense of self-worth through their career. They work hard either because they love their job, are striving for recognition, or feel obligated. They take on more than they should out of enthusiasm or they are overburdened due to understaffing and/or poor management. If you are an employee with these tendencies, or if your manager asks you to give 110% on a daily basis, then you are at risk for repetitive strain injuries that are slow to develop and even slower to heal.
	The Stoic: These people see pain as a part of life. They keep a stiff upper lip and forge on despite their pain. This may be a heroic thing during a war where someone is injured and continues to fight for their country, but SRI is not a combat zone. There is nothing heroic about working beyond your limits; it's shortsighted.
	The Oblivious: Some people are simply not tuned into their bodies. Such people do not intentionally hurt themselves, but they are not aware when their body parts are in awkward positions. They are often not even conscious of any of the early warning signs*, even though they are present. It's not until the appearance of the late warning signs - pain, numbness, and tingling - that these people finally wake up to the fact that something might be wrong. Often these people are too engrossed in their work to stop and think about anything else!
	The Macho Man: (Yes, usually men, but sometimes women.) Admitting feelings of discomfort or pain is "wussing out". This is similar to The Stoic, but these guys aren't trying to be heroic as much as they are worried about their image as a sissy. What they don't realize is that eventually they will probably become disabled and require extensive physical therapy. The image they are trying to preserve as strong, capable, and independent will be replaced by an image of someone weak, injured, and dependent on others if they continue to work through discomfort.
	The Shy. This one is a surprise. But, actually it makes sense. Shy people tend to keep a lot of things to themselves. They don't want people to pay a lot of attention to them or to generally "bother" about them. So when shy people feel discomfort or pain, they tend to just keep it to themselves and deal with it…until they quietly admit that they are in so much pain they can't continue at all.
	The Nonchalant. It's just a "little" tingling or a "twinge" of pain that goes away, so The Nonchalant brushes off warning signs* of Repetitive Strain Injury as nothing. It's no biggy, right? Sometimes the pain or aches get pretty bad, but it's not like a broken leg. It's more like a headache that we expect will go away and stop bothering us. The problem is, the cause of the discomfort is not being addressed and over the weeks or months, irreversible damage is being done.

Understanding your tendencies won't cure you of anything, but if you realize that you are possibly cutting your career short and limiting the hobbies you will be able to enjoy over the years, we hope that you will let us help you before it's too late. Many people have done so and are happily living pain free. We are asking that you address the problem areas in your workstation and lifestyle that may be causing injury.

Why would you NOT want to make your life more comfortable? We are still trying to figure this out! We would also like to point out that, activities outside of work DO count! Weightlifting, tennis, golf, home improvement projects and gardening can easily cause injury and add to strain of similar tissues that you are using at work. Keeping your discomfort a secret from the ergonomist doesn't mean you are fooling your body. It's just like cheating on a diet. You are only hurting yourself!