Giving your makeshift home office a makeover

Now that the 2020/2021 coronavirus pandemic is over a year old in the United States, many workers have been forced to work in remote offices. As a practicing chiropractor for over 36 years, I have had many patients who are in this position. I recently had a patient who has been working remotely and she gave me some interesting information about what her company is doing to help. This article will describe what her company is doing to help employees who work from home. Some of these ideas could be examples that other companies could implement and will also apply to anyone who is self-employed and to those whose companies will not be involved in improving their work-at-home situation.

At the start of the pandemic, my lockdown patient, Beth, told me that her group of 10 people who work for a very large corporation in our town were given laptops and software/Internet access and told to work from home. . Within a couple of weeks, they all found that they were starting to get neck and back pain and headaches. They also found that their productivity dropped considerably. They communicated this information to their human resources department, which resulted in positive action.

The company consulted ergonomic experts on what to do to make things better. The first step was to have a Zoom meeting with all 10 employees to learn about the issues they were having. The first recommendation was to establish a designated office area. A suitable desk and chair, optimal screen height, and keyboard and mouse placement were initially recommended.

Regular follow-up Zoom meetings were scheduled and other helpful ideas were encouraged, such as a sit/stand desk, stand-and-walk team conferences, phone calls, and taking regular breaks to get up from the desk and move around.

The team found that regular advice from ergonomics experts and their own group helped provide valuable support. The team members themselves developed some creative ideas for improvement. For example, several advancements were: having dim lighting in the work area to reduce eye strain, having a yoga/stretching mat to use periodically throughout the day to help counteract the physical stress of sitting, and using a monitor large exterior was much better than his laptop screen.

Beth’s company also contributed an initial monetary investment to help set up the head office and continued with a monthly stipend. The increased productivity within the group of 10 made this financial contribution a valuable return on investment.

Beth, her group, and her corporation found that by using and implementing many ideas, developed over time, they helped turn their makeshift home offices into comfortable, productive, and near-ideal revamped workspaces.