Getting Back Pain While Working From Home? An Ergonomics Expert Offers Advice

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, roughly 1 in 6 U.S. workers, some 26 million people, worked either partly or fully from home. Now that number has grown significantly, as states are requiring non-essential employees to stay home. If you’re one of these people, you may be noticing new aches and pains that you did not experience at the office. That’s because even though it isn’t mandated, many companies follow an ANSI-HFS standard in the design of their computer workstations, furnishing the office with the ergonomic furniture and accessories. Most residential settings, however, simply don’t have the space to accommodate today’s ergonomic office furniture, nor do most people invest in it, especially if they do the bulk of their work in the office. So if you are working from your home, it’s likely that you are either using your computer on a regular table or a kitchen countertop, or you are in a lounge chair or on your bed. Wherever you’ve camped out for the day, chances are you aren’t in a healthy posture. If you do this for only short periods of time, you might not need to worry, but our weeks at home are turning into months. And even after the pandemic has passed, remote working is likely to remain the norm for millions of workers, as companies learn that certain jobs don’t require the in-office hours they once did. If you are already feeling the physical strain, the bad news is that you may be on the road to a pot...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 feature Source Type: news