Working safely in the home office Homeoffice
The University Heidelberg offers its employees the opportunity to transfer office work to their home office with a telework operating agreement.
In the home office, just as in the normal workplace, awkward postures put strain on the musculoskeletal system or the eyes and can lead to consequences such as back pain or headaches. Before you accept this offer, you should definitely check whether the working conditions at home meet the minimum requirements for a writing workstation. There are two documents available to you that were created specifically for this purpose by the Staff Unit Safety: the information sheet on working safely in the home office and the Risk Assessment form for the telework operating agreement to assess your working conditions at the home office. The “CheckUp Home Office” form from the German Statutory Accident Insurance can also be helpful for the assessment.
Work Station
Ideally, you have a desk with an office chair at home that you can adjust accordingly. Otherwise, any seating position that comes closest to this ideal is recommended. It's better to work sitting upright at the kitchen table than half-slouched on the sofa at the coffee table.
Often, however, a dining table is too high compared to the chair. You can tell this because you have to pull your shoulders up or spread your upper arms away from your body. The result is tension in the neck and shoulder area. The correct thing would be to let your shoulders and upper arms hang relaxed and place your forearms at a right angle. Even if the upper and lower legs do not form a right angle when sitting because the chair is too low or too high, this can lead to pain in the thighs or knees.
Ergonomics can be improved with a few simple measures:
- A flat cushion on the chair increases your sitting position
- An improvised footrest such as a box or a thick book will relieve pressure on your thighs and knees
- A surface under the screen or keyboard increases a work surface that is too low
- Positioning the screen perpendicular to the window reduces glare and reflections
- An external screen, an external keyboard and a mouse on the notebook help to avoid awkward postures (e.g. “hunching”)
- Last but not least: Dynamic sitting and working is the healthiest. So get up sometimes or work standing up and change your sitting positions regularly
Work Organization
There are further options for proper organization to avoid or minimize typical “home office traps”. Especially if your life partner or children are also at home, it may not be possible to work without interruption. It can help to agree on “disruption-free times” during the day with your life partner. If possible, the workplace should be set up in a separate room (if no office is available, rather in the bedroom than the living room). A typical burden when working from home is the blurring of the boundaries between work and private life and the often increased availability. It is important to separate work and private time as much as possible, because recovery time stays as important as ever even when working from home. If necessary, availability hours should be reviewed within the team. If one employee in the office starts early and ends earlier and another employee starts later and ends later, there is an overlap in communication that is clearly regulated by their presence in the office. When working from home, this regulatory mechanism is no longer applicable, which can lead to increased availability during the recovery period. Therefore, mutual consideration is particularly important. Discuss problems within your team (maybe others are just not aware of it) or communicate fixed availability times. In this exceptional situation, official and personal needs must be weighed up. Another problem can be the breakdown of information chains and personal exchanges, which can lead to errors, frustration or feelings of isolation. Again problems and solutions should openly be discussed within the team. For example, the University Computing Centre offers software for digital collaboration, but a private call to a valued colleague during a break can also help counteract feelings of isolation and maintain team spirit.