Get your ergo setup
Every now and then I hear software engineers complaining that they cannot expense their ergo setup (or only partially or that it takes too long). My 2 cents is that you should just get your ergo setup – don’t wait and don’t fret on reimbursement.
The truth is that as a software engineer, you likely make enough money to afford your $100 ergo keyboard without feeling any financial consequences. On the other end, you have one body – don’t develop chronic wrist pain because of a bad keyboard, back pain because of a bad chair or other chronic pains for a negligible sum of savings. I have the chance to not have any chronic pain but I’m well aware that with age (😮💨) I’m getting more sensitive to bad postures – my wrists start to hurt if I work a few hours on a bad keyboard.
The most common advice I get from older peers/friends is to treat your body with care. Even if you can still work hours on a regular keyboard, you probably should consider an ergonomic keyboard – it may require a bit of learning but you should power through the changes. They are good in the long term
There’s no point in growing as an engineer, making more money, learning a lot of things if you end up in so much pain that you can not work anymore. Even if it doesn’t go as far as preventing you from working, chronic pain will definitively make your work life balance tougher.