Working From Home ...

"Repetitive strain injuries are chronic and they creep up over time. So anybody who has underlying conditions like tendinitis, a herniated disc, sciatica, neck problems ... depending on how many weeks or months this goes on [coronavirus lockdown; working from home], these people are going to be going back to their employers with aches and pains. It's going to have a snowball effect."
"Don't forget, a lot of people were going to chiropractors and physiotherapists and that's all come to a grinding half. You can't get a virtual massage."
"The most important part of the work station is the chair. How many of us are going to have a  height- adjustable chair like we have at the office? Probably not many."
"The overwhelming message is we have to get the person up higher. What you don't want to do is what we call 'turtling'. That's when you hunch over the computer, say to look at the numbers in a spreadsheet, then you forget to lean back again."
"Every twenty minutes look at something 20 feet away and hold it for 20 seconds. That's a good thing for visual fatigue, migraines and headaches."
Sue Hanel, founder, Ergo-Safety, Ottawa

We've all been thrust into a strange, new world. One mitigating against going out daily, crowding onto public transit, entering a busy building full of other people going to their offices, and once there, taking your place among the others who happen to work nearby. Government workers and workers in high-tech and other white collar jobs have all been released from daily workplace attendance. But not from their daily work schedules, necessarily. It's semi-permanent work-from-home time. At least until the lockdown hoping to protect populations from the transmission of the novel coronavirus comes to an end.

So, it's a boon to be ordered to work from home. Still working, still earning a pay cheque. Many have that option, many more in the service industries or operating their own retail businesses do not. Those who can, do, and focus on working from all manner of temporary 'work stations'; anything from the living room sofa to the dining room table, hunched over a laptap. Since these workplace scenarios fail to focus on optimum or even sub-optimum working conditions, they may lead to health complications due to musculoskeletal injury.

With the closure of businesses, work can still proceed but government offices are closed for business. When people left their place of employment they left behind all the functioning tools enabling them to do their jobs with personal safety. Those ergonomic keyboards, mouses, extra monitors and office chairs geared toward proper workplace conformation. "We've even had people send us photographs of their work spaces and asked us for advice on what to do", Ms.Hamel whose company has been tasked by private industry and government departments to perform work station assessments for close to 30 years, noted.

The worker should ideally be seated with back straight; ears over shoulders, elbows under shoulders; forearms and thighs parallel to the floor. Lumbar support is critical, even if you resort to placing a cushion on the seat to raise yourself to the proper working level, and another at your back, if using a wooden chair. A footrest may be required. Eyes should be at the level of the top third of the monitor. So if a laptop is being used, think of placing it atop a stack of books to bring it to eye level. Use a separate keyboard and mouse.

Light sources from a window should be shining in from the side, neither from the front nor behind. The use of blinds or curtains to control light is recommended, as the sun moves. Display settings to be adjusted with contrast close to 100 percent, and brightness in the 40 to 60 percent range. Do it.