My boss is aware that I have RSI problems, and my company has been really accommodating, however, it's still embarrassing when workrave pops up a window with a coffee cup on it that says take a break when my boss is looking over my shoulder.

I'd like to see a stealth option that would have a different icon, something like a standard Gnome warning sign and different text that would suggest some sort of innocuous system activity. Ideally, it would rotate the text of these messages, and the messages would suggest the duration of the event. Here are some ideas:

Micro Break:
"Performing Checksum"
"Unzipping Archive"
"Updating Workspace"

Rest Break:
"Defragmenting Workspace"
"Resynching Cluster"
"Completing System Analysis"

+1 Funny

Actually, there is a valid point. But I'd rather see no text at all in the microbreak window, only the progress bar.

When I first saw this bug report, I was very unsure how to respond. I still am, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

In my opinion, dealing with (or recovering from) RSI is for a big part learning that taking good care of yourself is more important than whatever your boss (or anyone else for that matter) thinks. Learning that taking breaks makes you more productive, instead of less (you'll get brilliant ideas just walking to the coffee machine and back).

At least in most software-producing companies, they claim that the employees are the greatest asset. Hence, a good boss will scold you for not taking breaks, instead of the other way around.

I do realize that good bosses are rare, but fortunately most of them can be educated to some degree ;-)

So basically, my message is that you should adopt a "I'm taking care of myself, and proud of it" attitude, instead of "I'm a weak looser if I can't even type continuously for five minutes". I know that this is difficult, but it is an essential step.

By the way, how are you these days?

Original reporter requested his name and email-address to be removed from this report.