A systematic review of working conditions and occupational health in home office.

BACKGROUND: In times of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees around the world may be practicing part-time telework at home. Little is known about the working conditions at home and its impact on the employee's occupational health. OBJECTIVE: This systematic review examines the working conditions at employees' homes, the work-related disorders associated with working from home, organizations' perceptions of ergonomics at home and how they support their teleworkers. METHODS: A search of electronic databases (Cochrane Library, Embase, Medline, Google Scholar, Open Grey, Pedro, PsychInfo, PubPsych, Scopus and Web of Science) was performed. Twelve studies were included in this review. RESULTS: The findings highlight the lack of ergonomic working conditions for home-based teleworkers. Furthermore, the results underline organizations' lack of awareness regarding home-based policies, ergonomics programs and the health-related consequences associated with the absence of ergonomic support. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that home-based teleworkers have increased health risks. This assumption is substantiated by the fact that most of the included studies reported teleworkers who have experienced musculoskeletal issues. These results underline the necessity for implementing ergonomic design recommendations, especially for working at home. Further research is needed to understand the impact of ergonomics programs and workplace design for working at home.

Short-term effects of social stressors at work on rumination and physical symptoms in social workers.

The present study focuses on social stressors at work and the development of physical symptoms in social workers on a daily basis. In a seven-day diary study it was anticipated that daily rumination functions as a mediator, linked to additional daily physical symptoms in individuals. Before and after work, 81 social workers completed daily questions on social stressors, rumination, and physical symptoms. Multilevel analyses of up to 391 daily measurements revealed that more intense social stressors predicted more rumination, as well as physical symptoms. Rumination anteceded higher physical symptoms. A test of the indirect effects showed a significant indirect path from social stressors at work via rumination to physical symptoms. Hence, it was found that social stressors and rumination contribute to the ongoing health crisis in the social work profession. These findings advance our understanding of the stress mechanisms in social work, as well as point to individual and organizational aspects that occupational health prevention programs should consider.