It seems like just yesterday, millions of employees across the world saw their workplaces change overnight.
They went from cubicles and private offices with equipment designed for a long day’s work to hard kitchen tables and makeshift setups in their bedrooms as many began working from home.
Now after more than a year later of this transition and the revelation that many companies may continue a work-from home option, healthcare providers and experts want to make sure that an uptick in injuries unique to the home reported since the start of the pandemic is not exacerbated.
Many problems can be prevented or alleviated by taking some simple measures to improve your at-home work environment, according to Carisa Harris, director of the University of California Berkeley and UC San Francisco Ergonomics Laboratory. Harris finds that working from home can actually have some benefits on our bodies and mental well-being, so long as we maintain good practices and an optimal work setup.
Here are some common injuries that Harris has seen occur among those working from home and some easy ways people can address them.
Q: What issues have you seen exacerbated by more people working from home?
A: It really depends on their setup. When people were all of a sudden working from home, there were so many problems right off the bat. Not everyone has a place to work at home that has a desk set up with monitors or eternal keyboards like you would in the workplace. And if they did have it, it oftentimes wasn’t a chair that was designed for a full day of sitting. We tend to look at esthetics more than function in the home.
If people are working from a bed or soft couch, we tend to expect some back or neck problems. When people are working for long periods of time from hard kitchen chairs or stools without back or forearm support, you tend to expect either back pain or neck and shoulder pain. Forearm rests and back support not only reduce the amount of muscle activity that your body has to generate to keep you upright but also have an impact on the compression forces in your spine.
In terms of laptops, they’re are great for on-the-go, but they’re just not designed for working off of for long periods of time. Sometimes people will put it up high, which is better for your neck, but then you reach and it can hurt your shoulders. Otherwise, people will put it down low, so it’s better for your shoulders, but then it’s worse for your neck because you’re looking down at the monitor. And depending on the size of your body, using the keyboard and mousepad on a laptop may put you in some awkward wrist positions that can be detrimental for things like carpal tunnel syndrome.
We try as much as possible for people with laptops to get an external keyboard and mouse so that they can at least prop up a laptop monitor on some books to make it the right level for their vision and have a nice option for mousing and keyboarding that’s set up a little bit better than the laptop.
I certainly think there are going to be some ramifications on people’s bodies and welling-being depending on what (equipment) people had and did not have.
Q: Is it too late for people who still may not have an ideal work-from-home setup?
A: There are certainly some good habits that people can still adopt while they’re working from home. And, the good news is there are a lot of cheap and easy options that you can use to make your working situation at home healthier.
For example, one of the things I think is important is getting people to move more, whether they’re in the office or at home. Preventing that two or four-hour stint of sitting in front of your computer static and getting up and moving for periods of time is really important.
We try to help people identify a couple of good sitting positions that they can work in, as well as a standing position. We’ve taught people how to use an ironing table against a wall, which actually works quite well for a standing workstation, and we’ve been coaching people to try and schedule certain meetings that they can take on the phone while they’re walking around their neighborhood.
Q: For those who are considering a transition back into the office, what would you tell them?
A: There’s a phrase that we use — your best posture is your next posture — and I think that’s something that people can really apply regardless of whether they’re in the office or at home.
Twenty years ago, the thought was to sit perfectly straight, with your knees, hips and elbows at 90 degrees and there was this “perfect” ergonomics posture that you wanted to adopt. But I think that has long been put aside for a concept that really talks about the importance of changing your posture.
When you go from sitting to standing to walking, you’re changing which muscles are activated and the way gravity is interacting with your body. Those are really good things for preventing fatigue and for preventing discomfort. People had an opportunity to really be in charge of their positions and postures and moving around while they were working from home and hopefully, we can continue that.
Q: Do you think working from home had any benefits for our health and bodies?
A: I do think there have been some positives from working from home — one being less commute time, which means less sitting time for a lot of people. I also think we’ve seen a beneficial outcome in terms of work-life and family-life balance. I’ve heard that some people have been more active because they’ve swapped their commute time for physical activity, which is great. I’m hoping that companies do adopt a mixture of work-at-home as well as work-from-the-office going forward.
Want to learn more?
Check out a webinar from the UCSF-UCB Ergonomics Laboratory on tips for working and schooling from home by clicking here.
