The remote worker - Part 1 : The Dilemma.
Remote working. DSE setup.
Congratulations you made it through 2020 and into the shiny New Year. The last mince pie has been scoffed and all the fireworks have been set off. But let me guess … you still find that you’re still working from home? Covid-19 has upended our jobs and we’ve all done our best to adapt. But how much longer will it last? What does this mean for our physical and mental wellbeing? What can we do to help ourselves during these turbulent times? In this two part special, PhysioHub is here with a helping hand.
It’s no surprise that we have seen a huge shift into the world of remote working. From March 2020 Covid 19 forced a drastic reshape in how we work. Thankfully, this came at a time when we had excellent video conferencing facilities and the online technology to instantly connect with one another. Attending virtual meetings, and appointments with people from the around the world was no longer an idea, but reality. With the technology in place, what was once the “perk” of remote working quickly became a necessity for many businesses to survive.
The shift.
The Office for National Statistics showed that in April 2020 a whopping 46.6% of all people in employment worked from home. Of these 86% did so because of the coronavirus pandemic. With recent news that the Furlough scheme has been extended to April 2021 it is reasonable to assume that the way we work will not alter in the short term. In fact, many believe that, for white-collar professionals particularly, we are entering a new world in how and where we work.
In April 2020 46.6% of all people in employment worked from home
Office for National Statistics.
Problem 1 - The work/ home blur.
Many people will relish the opportunity to work from home, it certainly comes with benefits. The time and money saved on travel is appealing, not to mention being able to sort the laundry, walk the dog or make a start on dinner during breaks. But there are downsides to this situation. There has been very little quality research exploring the effects of remote working on our health and wellbeing. From what research is available some consistent principles emerge showing the following themes to have detrimental effects;
· Poor organisational support including; poor or infrequent communication with staff, uncertainty over role expectations, poorly defined performance measures, inappropriate workload and inability to access human resources.
· Poor co-worker support including; feeling disconnected from managers and colleagues resulting in loneliness.
· Poor technical support including; sudden or unexpected requirement to undertake technologically dependant work roles within the home environment.
· Poor home/ work management resulting in a blurring of work, domestic and recreational boundaries, and feeing on call 24/7.
· Non consideration of financial impact of working from home including; heating, cooling and telecommunication costs.
I’m sure most of us can identify one or two of the above risk factors that have affected your wellbeing. But what about our how we sit? Has the the office workplace transferred effectively to the home? Has our ergonomics changed and does the way we sit impact our health?
Online Physiotherapy promotional video. PhysioHub is a 100% online virtual physiotherapy company. We offer remote physiotherapy assessments by experienced online physiotherapists.
Problem 2 – The home set up.
Its fair to say that sitting has had bad press over the past 10 years. Alarming headlines have suggested that sitting is a bigger killer than lung cancer and that we are all doomed if we park our bums on a chair.
The bad press.
PhysioHub is obviously not an advocate for laziness, inactivity and sitting around all day. This would, of course, be terrible for our physical and mental health. Sitting, however, when performed in a sensible and structured manner, with regular postural breaks, can be safe for the human body. This has been highlighted by a growing body of research. For example, a recently published 15 year Netherlands study showed that good occupational sitting had no negative affects on health. A seperate 6 month study actually found long volumes of sitting at work (with frequenct postural breaks) to be associated with lower levels of back pain. The key thing is identifiying and correcting bad sitting postureand bad sitting habits, not chasticing sitting itself. PhysioHub’s Office Workplace Assessment is the perfect online service for this.
During the recent pandemic PhysioHub has witnessed a raft of poor sitting postures and poor sitting habits leading to all kinds of aches and pains. The following pictures are typical of our current working life.
Typical postures when working from home.
Rolling out of bed and “logging on” in your pyjamas. Checking your emails whilst balancing a 2 year old on your knee. Attending a virtual conference call slumped over the make shift office table. These poor postures, whilst ok for short periods, have a very high risk of causing aches and pains if sustained for long periods throughout the day.
So how can we improve the way we work and sit?
All will be revealed in part 2 so please keep tuned. If you would like, however, to find out more or book a bespoke virtual Office Workplace Assessment then click here.
We hope you enjoyed this blog. Thanks for reading.
Team PhysioHub.
Physiohub is an online physiotherapy company. We offer a 100% virtual service providing remote physiotherapy assessments, online physiotherapy treatment and rehabilitation sessions and online DSE assessments. To learn more about the services we provide, see our services page below.
https://www.myphysiohub.co.uk/services
References.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7703513/