Due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, many businesses are searching for precautionary measures to take to reduce employee contact and in-person interaction amongst workers. One precautionary measure that has been implemented by many businesses to achieve this is allowing employees to work remotely from their own homes. Allowing employees to work from home instead of coming into the office is one of the most effective options to accomplish this, as it completely eliminates employee contact and in-person interaction. New ergonomic concerns are introduced when employees start to perform their work from home, that you wouldn’t typically think about when working from the office.
The basic principle of ergonomics is attempting to fit the work station to the employee as best as possible to allow them to work comfortably and with good posture. Typically, most office work stations are set up initially to address ergonomic concerns and reduce the likelihood of potential ergonomic injuries and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD’s). However, employees setting up their work stations at home may not be aware of different ways to make their work stations ergonomically efficient. As a basic practice, employees setting up a home work station should try to mimic their office work station as best as possible.