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I work in a fairly small office room with 4 other coworkers. Two of them sit in front of me facing my direction.

From time to time it will happen that as they work they will slighly pick up their mouses from the desk surface and unintentionaly flash my eyes with laser coming from underneath the mouse which is very frustrating when it happens few times in a small span of time, also I'm bit concerned about it's effect on my eyesight.

I'm pretty sure they are completly unaware of this problem, I've never confronted them about it as it seem obvious to me that they don't mean it and it's most likely unconcious/natural movement. And maybe even I do the same without being concious of that so I don't want to be a pain about something seemengly innocent like that. Also even if I did confront them I assume it would still happen as it's hard to control movements of your hand while being busy with work.

I've been thinking about getting a computer glasses to protect myself and also reduce some stress from my eyes while working 8 hours in front of computer already.

My question is, should I confront my coworkers about this or should I rather make proactive efforts to protect my eyes?

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    Are you concerned about safety or just the annoyance of the light? The LEDs used in mice do not produce dangerous amounts of light at all.
    – noslenkwah
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 15:08
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    From an user point of view you should confront them because using mouse on shiny/reflective surface could lead to mouse lag. And they probably don't use any kind of mouse pad. Propose you all use matte black ones with gel pillow for wrist relief.
    – SZCZERZO KŁY
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 15:24
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    "will slighly pick up their mouses from the desk surface and unintentionaly flash my eyes with laser" - this makes no sense. If I pick up my mouse SLIGHTLY, I have some light spot on the non reflective surface. Which is not really blinding me. EIther they TURN the mouse (or pick it up a lot) or you basically run mirrors as table surfaces.
    – TomTom
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 15:31
  • you can buy a mouse with "invisible" light less than $25, buy one and give him free.
    – Peter
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 16:37

2 Answers 2

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I used to sit opposite someone with a powerful mouse similar to those you describe. I didn't accuse them personally because I was confident they weren't shining the light towards me on purpose.

Without mentioning them directly (after all, the mouse is the problem, not the colleague), I suggested using some old books we had lying around to serve as a barrier that sat in the no man's land between monitors. Perhaps you could try something similar.

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It sounds like you already know the answer.

It'll be more annoying for you and them to even bring it up, and it wouldn't necessarily amend the problem.

If it helps, the light is not damaging.

Perhaps you could put something between their hand-area and your face. I'm not sure how your desks are set up, but I assume your monitor should already be around there. Put some books or maybe just a sticky note to block it.

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