Andrea Chang Working from home takes a physical toll — and companies are trying to profit from that
Lindy Burns had every intention of getting a proper desk and chair after the pandemic forced her to start working from home. As a yoga therapy clinic owner, she understands the importance of posture more than most.
A year later, “I tend to work a lot in the bed or on the floor using the bed as a desk,” Burns, 38, said. “I’m basically in a deep hip flexion all the time, and it’s really causing pain and strain at the hamstrings.”
For many who have been working remotely since March 2020, the home office never truly became one — just a makeshift setup meant to suffice for a few weeks or so. At which point life would surely be back to normal, right?
But those less-than-ideal workstations — monitors too small and too low; desks that don’t adjust; chairs without armrests and back support; built-in keyboards and touchpads instead of external ones — combined with sedentary work habits have taken a physical toll as the pandemic has dragged on.
Remote workers report suffering from aches and pain, joint soreness, stiffness, numbness, carpal tunnel and headaches. That’s a concern for employers, especially as many adopt permanent workfrom-home policies, and a boon for the businesses that are offering solutions such as pain-relief devices, office equipment and ergonomic consulting.
“I have a constantly tense upper back and shoulders, and issues in my lower back right at the base of my spine,” said Rose Salm, a tax accountant from Vancouver, Canada. “I think my head is too far forward. Maybe it’s the screen angle or something, but I have muscle pain at the top of my neck.”
Salm, 26, also blames an environment that makes it too easy to spend hours at a time motionless.
“In the office, you’re encouraged to get up and walk around,” she said. “Now that I’m at home by myself, I don’t really get up at all unless I’m hungry or something.”
Her ailments are being echoed at doctor’s offices, on company Slack channels and across social media as workers struggle to adapt:
“Working from home is mashing up my back and neck.”
“I might need to improve the ergonomics of my working-from-home setup because ever since I started working again my neck has been killing me.”
“I converted my desk into a standing desk by literally just stacking boxes on it and it has made a world of difference for my posture, as well as neck, back, and shoulder pain.”
Doctors and chiropractors point to a number of contributing factors. Office workers had professional workstations and, at many companies, access to ergonomic specialists. Just as important, work lives revolved around a daily routine: getting dressed and commuting, attending meetings, taking coffee breaks, walking outside to grab lunch, maybe going to the gym.
“There was forced movement. And now all of a sudden that routine is gone,” said Scott Bautch, president of the American Chiropractic Association’s Council on Occupational Health. “There was not much transference of the work environment to the home environment.”
Last spring, the chiropractic association polled its members and found that 92% of respondents said they’d seen an increase in musculoskeletal conditions such as back and neck pain as a result of patients working from home. In follow-up polls conducted over the summer, 57% of respondents said lack of movement was the main reason those issues were on the rise during the pandemic, followed by psychological stress (20%) and poor posture (12%).
Some employers, particularly those in the technology sector, have provided substantial support to get their workers set up correctly.
At Twitter, employees receive $1,000 to furnish and equip their home offices, which can include AirPods, foot rests, air purifiers and “videoconferencing soft lighting setups,” a spokesperson said.
Salesforce offered its workers a $250 initial reimbursement in the spring to help cover the costs of athome office-related equipment; it supplemented that with an additional $250 in the fall. The San Francisco company also provides all of its employees access to an ergonomic assessment with a specialist, a spokesperson said.
Shopify gave each of its employees a $1,200 remotework allowance last March and an additional $1,440 after it announced two months later that it would move to a permanent workfrom-anywhere structure even after the pandemic ends. Besides the usual office basics, employees have used the money to buy espresso machines, slippers, bean bag chairs and an “office snack shelf.”
“We trust our employees and didn’t have set guidelines for this remote allowance,” said Brittany Forsyth, Shopify’s chief talent officer.