Dry eyes for call center workers

Call center work dries the eyes through hours of focused screen time with few full blinks, air-conditioned or heated air that keeps circulating, bright overhead lighting and breaks that are short and scheduled. Set up your monitor and light so you’re not straining, use the seconds between calls to blink and look away, keep air vents off your face, and if you use a lubricating drop, time it around your scheduled breaks.

Why a call center floor is hard on eyes

A typical shift means watching a CRM screen, a chat queue and a call timer at once while you listen. That kind of focus lowers your blink rate, and the blinks you do make are often incomplete. Large open floors usually run central air conditioning or heat around the clock to keep a few hundred workstations comfortable, so the air near your desk is always moving and often dry.

Then there’s the structure of the job. Adherence metrics, after-call work timers and scheduled breaks make it hard to step away whenever your eyes feel gritty. The fixes have to fit inside the workflow you already have.

Setting up your workstation

Many centers use shared desks, so you may need to adjust your station at the start of each shift. It’s worth the two minutes:

• Raise or lower the monitor so the top of the screen is at or slightly below eye level; looking slightly down keeps more of the eye covered by the lid.
• Push the monitor back to roughly arm’s length.
• Turn screen brightness to roughly match the room, and bump up text size if you’re leaning in to read.
• Tilt the monitor so overhead fluorescent lights don’t reflect off it.
• Check for a ceiling vent directly above you; if there is one, ask whether you can sit elsewhere or have it adjusted.
• Clean the screen, since smudges make you stare harder.

Our guide to eye drops for computer users has more on monitor placement for desk jobs in general.

Using the seconds between calls

You may not get to leave your desk, but there’s usually a moment between calls. Small resets help more than you’d think:

• When a call ends, close your eyes for two slow breaths before taking the next one.
• During hold time, look past your monitor to the far wall and blink fully a few times.
• While the customer is talking and you don’t need the screen, look away from it.
• Use a general habit many desk workers rely on: every 20 minutes, look at something about 20 feet away for about 20 seconds.
• Keep a water bottle on the desk; talking for hours dries out your mouth and reminds you to drink.

Headsets, lighting and the air around you

A headset doesn’t affect your eyes directly, but its cord or a mic boom can keep you sitting in one position for hours, facing the screen. Shift your posture and chair angle now and then so you’re not locked in one spot.

Bright overhead fluorescent lighting, common on call center floors, makes some people squint, and squinting reduces full blinks. If your center allows it, a desk lamp with warmer light and dimmed screen brightness can make the station more comfortable. Air conditioning in summer and forced-air heat in winter both dry the air; a personal desk humidifier may or may not be allowed, so ask your supervisor or facilities team before bringing one.

Fitting eye drops into a scheduled shift

Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. The label’s Uses line reads: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. The directions are: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. On a call center schedule, that maps neatly onto your day:

• Before you log in, at the start of the shift.
• On your lunch break, after washing your hands.
• After you log out, or on your last break if the shift runs late.

Using breaks rather than putting drops in between calls gives any brief blur time to clear before you’re reading a screen again, and gives you a chance to wash up first. Follow the handling line each time: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination. Don’t share a bottle with a coworker, even a friendly one at the next desk.

Where to keep your bottle at work

The carton’s storage line reads: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A desk drawer, locker or bag at your workstation is usually fine, since most call centers stay within that range. Avoid leaving the bottle on a sunny windowsill or in a hot car in summer. The label’s “Do not use” line reads: If this product changes color. Read the full panel on our Drug Facts page, including the egg and bird allergy caution, before you start.

Ordering for yourself or the team

Quell ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, to addresses anywhere in the US. You can check out as a guest; shipping is $10.00, and orders of 3 or more bottles ship free. We don’t promise a delivery date, but you’ll get a tracking email when it ships. Unopened bottles can be refunded within 30 days of delivery, with nothing to send back. Order from the home page.

When it’s more than a long shift

If your eyes keep bothering you on days off, or you notice pain, light sensitivity or changes in vision, see an eye doctor instead of relying on drops. The label puts it this way: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours.