How Work From Home is Slowly Killing You (and How to Save Yourself)
We all had fantasized of this for years: The ability to work from home. No more long commute to work, office politics, endless meetings or burnt vending machine coffee.
“But there are trade offs, and the nature of remote work can come with issues and irritations of its own. In fact, if you don’t work smart, you could end up jeopardizing your health.”
In this article, I will walk through the most common unexpected health problems that happen when you’re working from home. I will also add some tips to avoid them, which you will hopefully find valuable.
1) Burnout & Overwork
Millions around the world and in India had to make a sudden shift to remote work amid the pandemic. This has made employers concerned about employee productivity. But what is often neglected in this situation is a longer-term risk: employee burnout.
The boundaries between work & non-work activities are blurring in unusual ways. Experts have suggested that drawing boundaries between our professional and personal lives is crucial for our mental health. But it’s difficult, even in the best of circumstances. Many first time remote-working employees are struggling to preserve healthy boundaries between their work & home personas. To demonstrate their loyalty and productivity to the company & their managers, they feel compelled to work all the time. The pandemic has further amplified these pressures.
Schools are closed & Daycare for kids may no longer be an option, which places additional burden on working parents. On top of that there are many challenges of working at home in the presence of family members, especially for lower wage executives who might find it difficult to get an isolated workspace to themselves.
Then there is also a growing trend to send work emails after work hours. Workers still feel compelled to respond to work email as soon as they receive them, especially when it comes from a supervisor.
So how can we “leave our work at the door” if we are no longer going out the door, and how can employers, managers, and colleagues do to help each other?
Backed by some personal experience and some research from reputed experts, I recommend trying to do the following to cope up with Burnouts.
a) Emulate the regular boundaries between work and home
Sometime back I read in a research paper, about the ways in which people demarcate the transition from work to non-work roles with “boundary-crossing activities”.
Putting on your work clothes, commuting from home to work and vice versa provide the neuro-signals to the brain that something has changed. You’ve transitioned from “home you” to “work you.”
Initially after the lock down, for the short-term, it was a welcome change for me to not catch that early metro to work, or be able to spend all day in my pyjamas. But I quickly realized that both of those things are boundary-crossing activities which actually set me up for the day.
So now I don’t abandon them altogether. I try to emulate these activities when working remotely. I put on my work clothes every morning, and get ready for work. And I try to replace my morning commute with a walk to a nearby park, or even just around the balcony of my apartment, before sitting down to work.
This might also mean frequently holding short virtual meetings with employees, or providing them with tools to create virtual coffee breaks or workspaces. This will mimic the casual conversations that happen in the pantry or corridors. Microsoft Teams helps in this regard, by allowing the creation of many sub-groups and channels within a team meant for specific purposes. My team has made specific channels meant specifically for casual virtual hangouts.
b) Establish intentional time boundaries as much as possible
Fixing time boundaries is critical for personal well-being and professional commitment. This is particularly true when so many remote workers are now facing the challenge of integrating childcare or elder-care responsibilities during regular work hours. Once around kids or elders, you cannot ignore their needs as easily and also they may not quite understand the professional requirements of work even though you are at home.
It’s challenging even for employees without children or other family responsibilities, thanks to the mobile devices and the knowledge that you are available at home, which signals a casual approach to them.
This makes it essential for employees to budget their work time, that functions best for them. You also need be conscious and respectful that others might work at different times than you do.
Employees can create intentional work-time budgets in many ways, like adding an “out of office” reply on their emails during certain hours of the day to focus on personal work.
I use a less-extreme approach to just let my work colleagues know that I might be slower than usual in responding, during my off-work commitments at home. Decreasing response expectations for others and myself, at certain time intervals allows me to focus on playing with my daughters.
c) Focus on "First Things First"
This is not the time for looking busy. Workers should be devoting their energy to top-priority issues. While working from home, employees often feel compelled to project the appearance of productivity. But this can lead them to work on tasks that are more trivial than important. This is counterproductive in the long run, even if it benefits the appearance of productivity in the short run. Even before Covid-19, employees found it difficult to carve out time to focus on their core tasks. With work and family boundaries getting blurred, employees’ time has never been more fragmented.
I make a list of 3-4 core tasks before starting work daily. My focus on any given day is upon finish those tasks. I recommend that you give this a try too.
2) Stress Eating & Weight Gain
People working from home, especially during the pandemic can suffer from severe stress. This is because of factors such as financial concerns, job performance, having to remote school their children, working near their spouse, and constant overload of phone calls.
When we are stressed, our body is flooded with cortisol, which makes us crave empty carbs, sugar and fatty foods. We also tend to become less active than normal, losing the exercise that was part of our normal workday.
It’s important to make sure we are making healthy dietary choices to prevent unwanted weight gain. I follow just three basic principles that help me immensely in this regard. It might surprise you how effective these are, if you commit to it.
First thing I do routinely, whenever I feel the urge to binge eat, is to stop for a deep breath. This simple trick has helped me greatly, and costs nothing in terms of time or effort.
Second most important principle I follow is to never skip meals, and keep healthy snacks like almonds or fruits handy. I try to segment my meals into 3 times daily. This also allows me to partake in family time for short breaks within the day.
Last thing I focus upon is to try and walk daily, if only at the end of the day to clear my head. Sometimes I just walk along the balcony and do some stretches. The walking and exercise help me remain physically active in a mostly sedentary work culture. It also helps preventing the craving of empty calories.
3) Back & Neck Strain
One of the most important parts of setting up a home office is setting up proper ergonomics. Being stationed in an asymmetric position can lead to overly used and tight muscles of the neck, shoulders and arms.
The average human head weighs almost 12 pounds (5.4 Kg.). When your neck is tilted to 45 degrees, the effective weight your head increases to nearly 50 pounds (23 Kg.) In addition to straining joints & muscles in your neck and shoulders, the pressure affects your breathing and mood as well. Many of us routinely do this while staring at our work devices (Laptop or Tablet) and this can be easily avoided with the right ergonomics and desk setup.
As a starter, always hold your phone at eye level, and move your body often when you’re reading a long article or participating in a webinar or virtual meeting. Try to use ergonomically designed mouse and keyboard such as the Logitech MX Master series and set it up in a way that you do not need to over reach for them while working.
It’s also tempting to work from your bed or couch, and even your dining room chair while working from home; but they won’t provide you with the same support as an office chair. Also preferably use an office chair which has armrests and back support for lumbar region.
As you work, also try be aware of your body’s positioning. Remind yourself to sit with a straight back, and try to make sure to get up at least once an hour and stretch your back.
Appropriate hardware setups are also important. Logitech takes ergonomics seriously.
4) Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Work from home, means working at a computer for the whole work day. Unfortunately, this can lead to wrist & hand strain, as well as carpal tunnel syndrome.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by pressure on the median nerve that runs from your forearm through a passageway in your wrist (carpal tunnel) to your hand. It provides sensation to the palm side of your thumb and fingers, except the little finger. It also provides nerve signals to move the muscles around the base of your thumb. One of the many reasons for this syndrome is asymmetric use of the Mouse while working long hours in front of the computer. To avoid wrist & hand pain and associated problems, be sure to use an ergonomic mouse like Logitech MX MASTER and try to take frequent breaks to flex your wrist and hands throughout the day.
5) Hearing Loss & Noise Overload
Online conference calls & webinars have now become a mainstay of our Remote Work Environments. It is important to make sure we are adapting to this new work style safely and hearing clearly.
Loud sounds directed to the eardrum can lead to noise-induced hearing loss. Other sounds in the environment, such as television or radio, may not only be distracting, but may overwhelm the ear drums with excess noise, and force you to increase the volume on your conference call.
If headphones or earphones are being used, it is necessary to make sure the volume is at a safe level. As a rule of thumb,if someone around you can hear your webinar, music or virtual colleague’s conversation while you are wearing headphones; you are most likely using poor quality headsets which compels you to likely have your volume up too loud.
I personally use Logitech Zone Wireless Headphones to safeguard my ear drums, as well as be able to cut out background distraction while attending almost 3-4 hours of Video Conference calls daily, as part of my daily WFH routine. The noise cancellation feature cuts out all distractions and therefore, makes me complete my work faster.
Apart from the above health concerns, we obviously have severe anxiety issues being faced by innumerable people around the world. I am not covering that in much detail here, as that warrants another whole article by itself.
“Remote working during these crisis times, can lead to feeling isolated & disconnected from your bosses, co-workers and projects. That can lead to anxiety about our performance and job security. The best way to mitigate these challenges is to proactively set a time to check in several times a week with your supervisor and co-workers via video conferencing.”
At Logitech we strive hard to make Remote Work experiences Joyful, Purposeful and Healthy for organizations and their employees. Do message or comment if you would like to talk about the specific challenges you are facing during your WFH routine.
Leave a Reply