Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, studies noted the annual prevalence of neck pain in office workers varied from 42% to 63%. If that isn’t staggering enough, now consider how many people are working from home looking down at their laptops. Working from home has it’s advantages. But for many, home ergonomics just don’t match up to the office setting. Working from home therefore magnifies the likelihood and even intensity of neck pain. And neck pain is just the tip of the chronic pain iceberg.
The effects of chronic pain have been studied in terms of revenue loss. One source noted on average, employees that suffer from chronic pain undergo five hours of non-productivity in one week. When this figure is averaged over one year, it amounts to a loss of $5,000 in productivity for each employee. Again, it is easy to argue those numbers are going up due to employees working from home. As a practicing chiropractor I can tell you the incidence of neck pain is on the rise in the home workforce.
Can you see the White Elephant in the room? Is pain that occurs in a home office setting considered a work related injury? Technically, yes. Of course, it is arguable. Meaning cases may need to reach adjudication to set precedence.
What really matters is getting rid of pain if you have it, and preventing it in both the office and home office setting. Corporations are adopting the stay at home work model more and more. They also see the White Elephant and are embarking on providing pain reduction, employee satisfaction and thus profitability by adopting online courses for injury prevention and pain management influenced by the home office.
Check with your employer and see what programs they have for you. If they haven’t started one yet, have your employer contact us.
We have been working with local companies since before the pandemic and are fine tuning our programs.
And of course, if you suffer from pain or just need postural advice and a solid set of stretches and exercises to ward off the pains that creep up, give us a call. We’d love to help.
