Denver factory workers know how difficult it can be to finish a shift and the older the workers get, the harder it is to keep going. It’s natural for Colorado employees who perform heavy, physical labor to start to develop back injuries over time. Sometimes, these repetitive lifting injuries can lead to a forced retirement after workers can no longer ignore the pain of performing strenuous work.
Luckily, employers are starting to realize that they need to protect their employees from repetitive stress and back injuries. Some employees have started reforming their procedures and processes to make work a little easier for baby boomers in the effort to keep their employees healthy and on the job longer. This is especially important for baby boomers, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that approximately 24 percent of workers in 2018 will be at least 55-years-old.
For baby-boomer employees, some of the most common workplace injuries are the direct result of repetitive strains and stresses on the body. With more employee-friendly processes, however, the number of repetitive stress and occupational injuries has fallen 4 percent for employees between the ages of 55 and 64.
For a 52-year-old cement truck driver, the changes his company enacted has made his job much more manageable. The driver previously had to deal with a 48-pound chute from which the cement poured, but by changing the composition of the metal, the chute now only weights 27 pounds. The company also moved its water tanks to the side of the truck from its previous position on top. Now, the 52-year-old believes that he should be able to continue working until he is 65-years-old.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, “Keeping Boomers Fit for Work,” James R. Hagerty, Dec. 28, 2011
