CHB 2.1: “The New Normal”
How COVID-19 led to a sudden change in the working life
The COVID-19 pandemic has been drastically affecting the working life throughout the world. ‘Remote work’ has been claimed as ‘the new normal’ (Savic, 2020) as current developments and resulting changes and restrictions appear to stay occurrent for an unforeseeable time. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 81% of the whole working population is mainly working from home (Savic, 2020). Governments of many countries have advised to work from home for as much as possible until further notice (Government of the Netherlands, 2020). Thereafter, some companies have already confirmed a continuation of remote work ranging in early/mid 2021 and even post COVID-19 (Spotify, 2021). As a result, the sudden shift of employees to working from home inherits new challenges for both employee and employers, i.e. employee health and overall work performance. However, as recent research suggests, findings for both work-related outcomes and effects on health are lacking and more research is needed to characterize the remote working population and potential outcomes (Chtourou et al., 2020; Kirwan et al., 2020; Moretti et al., 2020).
On the one hand, working from home may provide benefits for some, e.g. saving time to commute, more control over one’s agenda or being able to spend more time with families (Moretti et al., 2020). In particular, for employees with an already existing adequate work environment at home, i.e. little distractions, an ergonomic set-up, space to move, access to healthy foods and opportunities to exercise, remote working may have the potential to improve work efficiency (Vittersø et al., 2003).
On the other hand, remote working inherits disadvantages if the home working environment fails to meet conditions as found in the office, i.e. adequate ergonomic equipment and environments that allow space and focus. In fact, Moretti et al. (2020) reported many home working environments fail to provide ergonomic office furniture which may promote the occurrence of neck and/or low-back pain (Baker et al., 2020) and increase the risk for developing MSKd (Will et al., 2018). Indeed, many studies show that symptoms such as neck and low-back pain have increased since the sudden shift o remote work due to COVID-19 confinements (Kakar & Lomond, 2020; Fallon et al., 2020; Moretti et al., 2020; Nieto et al., 2020; Schladen et al., 2020; Smith et al., 2020; Ugbolue et al., 2020). Further, many people have never worked under these conditions before and don’t have a proper work environment free from distractions, particularly if children have to stay home, too, due to school/kindergarten closures (Moretti et al., 2020). Thereafter, it may become increasingly difficult to set boundaries between work and home and to communicate with colleagues, often leading to irritation and negative emotions, resulting in stress, anxiety and isolation (Hartig et al., 2007) which was shown to negatively impact eating behavior (Ammar et al., 2020). While these downsides may directly impact employees’ work-life balance, well-being and work performance (American Psychiatric Association Foundation, 2020), time for personal leisure activities may also be reduced (Nakrošienė et al., 2019). Indeed, working from home was shown result in decreased physical activity and exercise engagement as well as increased sedentary behavior (Ammar et al., 2020; Chtourou et al., 2020; Kirwan et al., 2020; Schladen et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2020; Ugbolue et al., 2020) and aggravated symptoms of back and neck pain (Fallon et al., 2020; Kakar & Lomond, 2020; Moretti et al., 2020; Nieto et al., 2020; Smith et al., 2020). As mentioned above, conditions such as back and neck pain seem to be worsened if work space setups fail to provide an ergonomic standard (Moretti et al., 2020) and are further amplified with physical inactivity (Kirwan et al., 2020). In fact, a recent study has referred to the COVID-10 pandemic as the potential initiator for a pandemic of back pain (Kakar & Lomond, 2020). Thereafter, the impacts of COVID on the working life may be classified as a catalyst for several conditions, in particular MSKd.
