A good ergonomic setup must involve a way of working that minimises strain on the body, with a particular focus on posture and physical wellbeing.

For computer-based work – including work done at home – a common over-simplification is that it is all about the chair. This is not the case – it is about the person’s posture and their level of physical activity.

An ‘ergonomic chair’ unfortunately does not guarantee that a person will adjust it to match the height of the desk so that the keyboard is about elbow height. A desk height that is too high for the chair will oblige a person to hunch up their shoulders, increasing the likelihood of fatigue, muscle strain, and headaches.

An ergonomic chair does not guarantee that the screen will be a little below face-height so that the head can be balanced above the spine, to minimise static muscle loading in the neck and upper back.

Laptops, tablets, and other devices without detachable screens have a lot to answer for in this respect, as people often use them with their head tilted forward, increasing the strain on the neck and back, and consequently the risk of pain and headaches.

An ergonomic chair can’t guarantee that the workstation won’t be oriented to windows or light sources such that glare or reflections on the screen oblige the worker to adopt an unbalanced posture to avoid them, or that there will be a window with bright light behind the screen, adding to the strain on the person’s eyes because of the contrast.

Merely purchasing an ergonomic chair does not necessarily mean a person will use it appropriately – it is perfectly possible to sit on an ergonomic chair in an unbalanced posture that may seem more comfortable and relaxed at first but is more taxing on the body.
 

Get up off the chair

Most important of all is that an ergonomic chair on its own does not guarantee that a person will take sufficient rest breaks involving standing up and moving away from the chair. Putting in long hours at the desk may satisfy people’s wish to get on with the work and get things done. But while it may be good for morale in the short term, it is bad for the body long-term.

Sedentary work and a sedentary lifestyle are well-known to raise the risk of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and many other conditions. Studies have found that people who spend too much time sitting and do not get enough physical exercise are much more likely to have a heart attack.

Sitting for long hours without breaks also tends to make people put on weight, which has its own adverse effects in terms of ill health.

Even standing up and walking around for two minutes sets off a cascade of metabolic processes that help maintain health. Ideally, people doing seated work should get up and walk around for two or three minutes every quarter of an hour.
 

What should employers do about home workstations?

Talking with staff about their home office setups is essential. Employers are required under work health and safety laws to give workers enough information, education, instruction, and supervision to help them avoid or minimise work-related illness and injury.

This can be as simple as instructing supervisors to ask staff working from home about their workstations. Are they working on a laptop on the kitchen bench, or what?

Sending employees written information about the need to take frequent rest breaks, the ideal sitting posture, and the arrangement of their desk, chair, keyboard, and screen may help. But too often, such information goes unread, meaning best practice would involve a supervisor ringing them to ask if they looked at the information sent to them, and how well their work habits and workstations stack up. Ideally, this conversation should be used to remind the staff member of the importance of taking a short break every 15 minutes.

Follow-up phone contact between a supervisor and an employee to check the worker has read, understood, and applied the information about the need for frequent breaks and appropriate workstation setup is not explicitly specified in work health and safety laws. But documented practices such as this could help employers defend themselves against workers comp claims based on allegations of unergonomic home office setups.
 

What it means for employers

The focus of risk assessment for home office working arrangements should not be on the chair alone, but on its fit with the desk surface, screen height, feet support, lighting and frequency of breaks involving physical change of posture and movement.

Good ergonomic work habits and workstation setup can be achieved without purchasing expensive ergonomic furniture – for example, using a separate monitor with a laptop. Ideally, work time should be interspersed with other activities throughout the day, rather than concentrated in one or two long sessions at the desk.