Health and Safety Aspects When Working From Home During COVID-19

What was considered to be a temporary period of working from home has been extended, and 10 months on,  some workers report feeling stressed as a result.

Home working can affect mental health as being away from colleagues and managers makes it difficult to get the support that was available from ‘coffee machine chats’ and the blurring of boundaries between work and home mean some may feel unable to switch off.  Evidence suggests that the average working day has lengthened by two hours for home workers.

Employers have the same health and safety responsibilities for home workers as for those in the office. They must consider;

• what work they are doing,
• whether it can be done safely,
• how to keep in touch with them and
• whether control measures are needed to protect them.

Under Health & Safety legislation those working from home are “lone workers” and employers must assess;

• whether they need extra training;
• what levels of supervision they need; and
• how to monitor and keep in touch with them.

As lone workers have no direct supervision nor anyone there to help if things go wrong, employers must ensure they keep in touch regularly. Poor contact leads to workers feeling isolated, lonely and abandoned which can affect stress levels and mental health.

There are also particular requirements for those using Display Screen Equipment (DSE) at home. If employees will be doing so on a long- term basis employers must conduct a workstation assessment at home. If it is a temporary arrangement, they should provide a workstation checklist with advice to enable workers to complete their own assessment. The Health & Safety Executive provide examples https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/ck1.pdf. Employers should advise workers to;

• break up long spells at a screen with rest breaks (5 minutes per hour);
• avoid awkward static positions and regularly change their position;
• move and stretch regularly; and
• avoid eye fatigue by changing focus and blinking frequently.

As periods of temporary home working have extended due to coronavirus restrictions, employers should hold regular discussions with workers to assess whether extra measures are needed, especially if they report aches and pains relating to their DSE arrangements or other adverse effects of working remotely e.g. feeling isolated, lonely, working longer hours without breaks, and feeling stressed.

Employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting one it. The Health and Safety Executive have a risk assessment template and examples of risk assessments on stress https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/risk-assessment.htm

HSE defines stress as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demands placed on them”. Employees feel stress when they can’t cope with pressures or other issues and HSE identify six main areas that lead to work related stress if not properly managed;

• Demands – inability to cope with the demands of their job.
• Control – inability to control the way they do their work.
• Support – receiving insufficient support .
• Relationships – having trouble with a relationship at work or being bullied.
• Role – not understanding their role and responsibilities.
• Change – not being engaged when a business is undergoing change.

Recognising signs of stress as early as possible will allow problems to be ‘nipped in the bud’ and the impact on employees and the workplace will be reduced.

It is particularly important during the pandemic for employers to put in place procedures e.g. regular team calls, to keep in touch with employees working from home so as to recognize signs of stress and put in place procedures to help. It is also important to ensure their workers have an emergency contact so they know how they can get help if they need it.

Photo by Huy Nguyen on Unsplash