Summer's over. The kids are back in school. Your inbox is suddenly full again. And somewhere in the back of your mind, a little voice is whispering: new notebook, new me.
Don't fight it; it's not just nostalgia for the smell of freshly sharpened pencils. It's psychology. And it's exactly why September, not January, is the smartest time to get your team's ergonomics sorted.
You're not imagining the "back to school" feeling
Even if your last first-day-of-school outfit was decades ago, September still hits different. Researchers call it the fresh start effect; the tendency for people to act on their goals right after a "temporal landmark" like a new season or the start of a school year, rather than at some random point on the calendar. A study out of the University of Manitoba even found the effect showing up in something as mundane as cycling to work, with commuting behaviour shifting measurably around these seasonal landmarks (Fast et al., 2025, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity).
As Psychology Today Canada notes, the research behind this effect (originally from Dai, Milkman & Riis) found people were 47% more likely to pursue a goal at the start of a new semester compared to an ordinary week (Psychology Today Canada). September, in other words, is basically a free motivation top-up that shows up right on schedule every year.
Translation: your team is already leaning into reset mode. You don't have to talk anyone into caring about their setup this month; you just have to meet them where the motivation already is.
The window doesn't stay open forever
Here's the honest catch with fresh starts: they're a boost, not a permanent state. That's why Canada's own workplace safety authority, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), recommends treating proper workstation setup as an ongoing habit, not a once-and-done fix. Chair height, monitor position, and keyboard placement are meant to be checked regularly, not adjusted once and forgotten (CCOHS, Office Ergonomics). The best time to build that habit is while the motivation to bother is already doing half the work for you.
Wait too long, and September's goodwill runs straight into Q4. That's the stretch where most teams are heads-down trying to close out targets, finish projects, and clear the decks before the holidays. It's a season built for pushing through discomfort rather than addressing it: longer hours, tighter deadlines, and a workstation that quietly keeps getting deprioritized because there's "no time to deal with it right now." That's exactly the environment where minor aches turn into real injuries, since the instinct in the final quarter is almost always to push through rather than pause.
September isn't just a nice vibe; it's the runway. Miss it, and your team heads into the exact stretch of the year when they're least likely to stop and fix a bad setup, and most likely to get hurt by one.
And the stakes are higher than "feeling a bit stiff"
This isn't just about good vibes and new notebooks, either. Musculoskeletal injuries; the sprains, strains, and repetitive-use injuries that come from bad setups; are still the single most common workplace injury in Canada. In B.C. alone, they account for roughly 30% of all WorkSafeBC time-loss claims, totaling around 88,000 claims and $2.35 billion in costs over just five years (WorkSafeBC, 2026). These injuries don't show up overnight. They build quietly over months of poor monitor height, the wrong chair, or a keyboard angle nobody ever got around to fixing, then surface right around the time everyone's already sprinting to hit year-end goals.
Which means the habits your team builds, or doesn't, in September are quietly writing next year's WCB report.
So, ride the wave (with good posture)
September is handing you a fully loaded, evidence-backed excuse to get people's workstations sorted; while motivation is already on your side, before the year-end crunch hits, and before "I'll deal with my sore wrist eventually" turns into an actual claim.
Whether that's a seminar to get everyone's basics right or an audit to catch the setups quietly working against people, this is the month where the psychology, the calendar, and the data all seem to agree: now beats later.
Ready to book a seminar or audit for your team this fall? Let's find a date before the calendar fills up.
Evolve Ergonomics Consulting Inc. provides in-person and virtual ergonomics and rehabilitation consulting for individuals, corporate teams, and industrial clients across Canada, delivered by registered physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
Sources:
· Fast, I., Sobhan, S., Klaprat, N., et al. (2025). Urban cycling-specific active transportation behaviour is sensitive to the fresh start effect. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (University of Manitoba).
· Psychology Today Canada (2025). Harnessing the Fresh Start Effect.
· Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). Office Ergonomics.
· WorkSafeBC (2026). Musculoskeletal injuries remain the most common workplace injury in B.C.