The ergonomics of working from home during the pandemic COVID -19
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Abstract
As the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, work from home has become the new normal which shifted the work from office to work from home reducing face-to-face contact in many companies worldwide. With this rapid change, most of people are abruptly forced to work from home with non-ergonomically home-based worksite. The awkward posture, repetitive movement and prolonged working are the major health issues caused by the use of mobile computer and non-neutral postures which lead to musculoskeletal disorder. Furthermore, indoor environment which are lighting, thermal comfort, and noise condition are ergonomic
concerns. These can not only cause discomfort but also affect mental and physical health on home office worker. The purpose of this review was to focus on the impact of the unfavorable conditions at home office relating ergonomic concerns on health issue. The recommendation of ergonomic principles to design workstation in home office was also represented in this review. Design
workstation that setting the laptop screen as the eye level, providing the external keyboard and mouse, increasing the body movement and setting up the surrounding environment in home-office was investigated in several researches and was recommended to enhance health, comfort and productivity during working from home. However, it would be interesting to survey the different aspects of individuals regarding body discomfort. Further research might explore through questionnaires to study the role of home working on job satisfaction, stress, perceived productivity including body discomfort leading to MSDs in order to examine the relationship between physical and mental health and working from home.
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