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Has work become more sedentary since Covid and lockdown controls were lifted? OSH content developer, Gillian Littlewood, considers.
While reviewing publications about sedentary work and managing OSH risks (part of the EU-OSHA MSD campaign), some questions arose in my mind about worker activity. Has this changed since Covid? Has sedentary work increased proportionally with the increase in home working or is this a perception? Does working from home prevent activity or support it? Is there more we can do to ensure the occupational safety and health of workers working from home?
Looking back over the last two years, many workers have had to adjust to changes in their work location or work activities – either directly because of Covid, or other factors, such as changing jobs. This has led to many workers transferring their work activities from their workplace to working from their home.
Home/work spaces
Most homes were not designed as workplaces. This means many workers had to adapt from working in their office environment, to working within their home environment. At the same time, many workers were also adjusting to carrying out caring responsibilities within their new ‘home/workspace’ including home-schooling responsibilities. A significant change for many workers since Covid has been the changes in communication methods. For many workers this meant an increased use of online meeting platforms, this was a new way of working for lots of us. For myself this meant an initial “uncomfortable transition” from working directly with other workers in their workplace, to new challenges of unfamiliar computer systems or weak Internet. But did this lead to an increase in sedentary work? No, I think the significant change here was around the work environment, the different ways of working, new methods of communication channels or changes in technology.
Looking at levels of activity involved with office environments in more detail, the major activity for working in office environments tends to be commuting to and from the workplace. Once in the workplace activity tends be postural changes of position, screen breaks, or break times. With home-working, the general level of activity involved in ‘office work’ remains predominately the same. For example, before Covid, my role involved driving to and from different workplaces, around three hours driving daily. Now working from home, I am able to move about and adjust or change my posture more frequently than when commuting. While the number of on-line meetings has increased, the number of meetings is predominately the same it’s the environment (location of the meetings) that’s changed. I feel that working from home is less sedentary; it does not prevent activity or lead to an increase in sedentary working.
Reasonable adjustments
While many employers use specific risk assessments for home working, we need to ensure that risk assessments identify individual home worker’s needs. Including where reasonable adjustments are required, training for new technology and how workers can be supported when working remotely. That workers are provided with suitable and sufficient equipment for them to fulfil their roles.
Upon reflection, I know that whilst my work-style could result in sedentary behaviour, it’s within my own ability to keep healthy and active. And that as OSH professionals we must lead by example. I am sure there is a place within online meetings for ‘posture change’ breaks or swapping exercise tips, what do you think? Could it work? Would it help? Tell us in the comments below.
Gillian Littlewood is an OSH content developer at IOSH
