At the outset of the pandemic there was a huge and sudden rise in people working from home. As restrictions ease, more people are heading back into the office, but for many of them it is on a hybrid model still working partially from home.
While many businesses had been paying attention to providing the right kind of equipment in their offices to look after the wellbeing of their staff, the sudden shift to being at home meant many employees having to make do without proper space or equipment.
This has included working at the dining room table, balancing a laptop on their knees while seated on a sofa or trying to work on their bed.
From chairs that offer no proper support and are the wrong height, to no chair at all, the long-term implications for muscular-skeletal issues are massive.
Hunching over a laptop that is on your lap or raising it to eye height and then trying to type on a keyboard that is at shoulder height has significant implications for physical health.
Combined with the physical issues is the impact on mental health. If it’s physically difficult or painful to carry out daily tasks such as sending emails, writing reports, or entering data, then work becomes more stressful.