Remote working health risks
BEWARE: MAKE SURE YOUR DESK IS ALWAYS CLEAN – AND NEVER SIT FOR LONG PERIODS
Six steps to take to mitigate possible health problems.
It’s uncertain how long remote working will still be in force, but if a recent survey by Flexjobs, a US jobs listing site is anything to go by, it may be for some time. The survey showed that 65% of pandemic remote workers want to keep on working from home (WFH), with 58% saying they’d look for a new job if they had to return to the office.
WFH offers many comforts, such as your work commute being just a few short steps and the “canteen” only as far away as your fridge, but there are health risks associated with it.
Offices feature furniture designed for long hours of sitting, expertly placed overhead lighting, and computer screens set up at the correct height. Cleaning staff also regularly wipe down desks, vacuum and mop floors, and sanitise kitchens areas and bathrooms.
If your home office is a more casually set up affair, and you don’t have a regular cleaner coming to help you, Aisha Pandor of SweepSouth suggests taking these steps to help mitigate health risks associated with home offices.
1. Don’t eat at your desk
Most of us don’t think twice about eating at our desks, but research shows that it can be detrimental to our health.
A study by microbiologist Dr Charles Gerba of the University of Arizona to measure bacterial levels in offices shows that personal work areas contain alarmingly high levels of bacteria.
Desks are teeming with germs, and eating at your desk can turn it into a bacteria super fest. It’s not the fact that you’re eating at your desk that’s unhealthy, it’s crumbs and tiny food particles left behind that bacteria feast on. In fact, Gerbera says, the average desk harbours 100 times more bacteria than a kitchen table.
Keep your work surface hygienic by regularly cleaning it with an antibacterial product.
2. Wipe germs off your keyboard
If you nip out to the shops, make sure you wash your hands thoroughly before you sit down at your desk again. It’s important to practise good hand hygiene throughout the day, even if we don’t leave our homes.
According to British microbiologist Professor Sally Bloomfield, our hands and the surfaces we touch are the superhighways for bacteria. And, because we touch our phones and keyboards so often, they top the list of the dirtiest items on our desks.
Wipe them down weekly
to keep them clean.
3. Vacuum workspace
Any bits of food or biscuit crumbs that fall onto the floor or into hardto-reach areas behind your desk can attract rats and cockroaches, bringing even more germs into the fray.
Clean the floor around your desk regularly, especially if you have carpets. Carpets feel great underfoot, but they act as a trap for dirt, hair and dust mites.
Humans lose around one million skin particles and between 50 and 100 strands of hair every day, which means that as you sit at your WFH desk quietly typing away, you’re also busy being a human shedding machine.
It’s best, say the experts, to vacuum carpets and rugs at least twice a week, and more in high traffic areas.
4. Si ing is the new smoking
We’ve all heard that sitting is the new smoking, with warnings that sitting at a desk all day can be a major health hazard.
According to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, sedentary behaviour can raise the risk of developing a disease like heart disease or Type 2 diabetes.
Even if you exercise every day, sitting for long periods can still be problematic
It’s key to get up every hour and do a quick stretch or walk for at least a minute or two.
A longer walk will be even better, boosting your circulation and helping to keep your joints, muscles, and ligaments loose.
5. Is your chair hurting your back?
The chair you sit in is very important. Most WFH chairs are dining room or kitchen chairs, suited only for short sitting sessions.
A good chair – ideally an ergonomically designed office chair – will support your back and reduce aggravation to the spine. Well-designed ergonomic chairs aren’t cheap, so consider renting one from Teljoy, who offer specially designed office chairs that provide great lumbar support.
It’s also vital to be aware of your posture. It’s not just slouching that’s bad, though – sitting up straight and curving your back too much can put strain on it, too.
Add abdominal strengthening exercises to your exercise routine. Having strong abdominal muscles helps with proper spine alignment and can relieve the pressure that sitting puts on your lower back.
6. Try to minimise eye strain
With remote working, everything happens via your screen, from the work you’re doing to Zoom meetings held with colleagues and clients, to the lunch you eat while checking e-mails on your phone.
Straining your vision can lead to blurry, overly sensitive eyes, watery or too-dry eyes, headaches, and Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS).
CVS is characterised by blurred vision, acute headaches and severe eye irritation, caused by hours of looking at rapidly flickering screens, where eye muscles are unable to recover from the constant tension required to maintain focus on a close object. It’s a reversible condition, but symptoms may become more severe if you don’t change the way you use screens.
Make sure your computer monitor is placed slightly below eye level and about 60cm from your eyes, adjust the screen’s glare so that it’s not too bright, and reduce the amount of light that falls onto your monitor.
If your desk is close to a window, use blinds or curtains to eliminate brightness.
Most importantly, take frequent breaks. Our eye muscles contract when we look at something close by, and relax when we look away, so every 30 minutes, try to look away from your screen for a short period of time.