CHAPTER 1

BACKGROUND PLANNING

The growing international world of home-based workers has takenthe socioeconomic world by storm. There are even humorouscartoons created about the trials, problems and successes of home-basedworkers. Scientists are turning their sights on home-based workers,and International conferences of savants are setting their intellectualsights on the yeas and nays of this broad-based work revolution. Why?Because working at home has become so widespread that we can jokeabout the implications of working at home and generally share thehumor or pathos expressed by a relatively new technological and socialphenomenon. At the same time, however, we can also lament that solittle has been made public about how to make working at home morecomfortable for the home-based worker.

This book is designed to stick its ergonomic thumb into thisinformation gap and help the reader make arrangements to supportand facilitate comfort while working at home. Even if you agree withMark Twain who said, "I do not like work, even when someone elsedoes it," tasks have a way of taking over most of our waking hours. Sowhy not make work more comfortable and less tiring by using your brainto save your body?

Whether you work at home for love, for money, for your familyor just for yourself, you are on your own when planning how and inwhat ways you should arrange and perform home-based tasks morecomfortably. That knowledge challenge is where ergonomic planningcan and will help home-based workers. There is a body of helpful proveninformation about methods and performance aids to assist workers.

As early as 2005, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), under the aegis of the US Department of Health and HumanServices, reported that the third leading cause of nonfatal unintentionalinjuries among all ages in the United States was simply UnintentionalOverexertion. Now that phrase may sound like a movie title about anunhappy love affair, a verbal placebo, or a bad dream, but it is none of theabove. Unintentional overexertion is paraphrased as: working the bodyor a body part too hard, causing damage to muscle, tendon, ligament,cartilage, joint, or peripheral nerves – the common cause of strains,sprains and even twisted ankles. That conclusion meant that over threemillion accidents were caused by some kind of overexertion, 53% ofwhich occurred among adults ages 25-54. Those decades clearly includeprime working years.

In other words, unintentional pushing, pulling, lifting, or simplythe prolonged repetitive use of excessive force when using tools cause ahuge percentage of disabling physical problems – even if unintentional.While many employers have tried to indoctrinate their workers withergonomic ideas and guidance, very little of this knowledge has beendirected to home-based workers, whether employed or not.

Unfortunately, people offering 'how to' suggestions sound liketeachers, politicians, rabbis, preachers, priests, or new-fangled trainers,but that's a risk I'll take. Since I'm safe behind these printed pages, I'llrisk your intermittent frustration and continue pounding home someimportant ergonomic messages. Ergonomic adaptations are a smallprice to pay in order to escape hearing a doctor pronounce negativediagnoses into your tender ears. So what if you throw this book acrossthe room now and then. It weighs little, and throwing is a mild formof recommended exercise.

Now on a positive note, the suggestions in this book should assistany home-based worker to work at home more safely and with higherefficiency levels while feeling less discomfort and fatigue. Everyoneworks at home, whether for money, self-care, family or children ('house-apes'and 'crumb-snatchers' my crotchety old professor used to callchildren). These days it is also a socioeconomic fact that more people workat home to earn their livelihoods.

This book is not filled with diagrams or photos of postures, furnitureor tools, since these are omnipresent and available through the internet,magazines and government pamphlets. My first goal is to make thehome-based worker aware of the reasons and processes behind work-relatedphysical problems, because these problems are what make ergonomicplanning worthwhile. Many work-related physical problems can beavoided through ergonomic planning.

What is this thing called work? While job descriptions can varywildly from brain surgery to pickle sorting, one thing is certain:sooner or later work makes us tired. It can make us not only weary, butuncomfortable, pained and bored by its repetition. Work can cause us touse our bodies in ways that are stressful and cause pain. So here I takemy bow and tell you that it is possible to make ergonomic 'arrangements'to work smarter and avoid dangerous stressors that cause unnecessaryphysical strains. However, to accomplish this noble task, it is necessaryto review the biomechanics of overexertion and compare these withhome-based workers and how, when, where, and with what tools, andpostures they work. All the pieces of the work-puzzle must be availablefor review before plans can fit them into more productive ergonomicgoals.

We are all home-based workers for different reasons. You cananswer why you work at home for yourself, although your answers willprobably fall under the few categories that center on finance, self, and/or household family care. Lagging far behind is the category 'for the funof it,' if you happen to work on consuming hobbies. This workbook willnot be a song of praise for work, but more like a hopeful meditation thatyou will make working at home more pleasant and painless.

Be patient and soon enough you will learn what ergonomic reallymeans. In all its colorful masquerade costumes, you already knowwhat work is, and how much of your life it shapes. The suggestionsmade should be especially helpful for the increasing number of personswho work-for-pay at home, either as self-employed or sub-contractedemployees through outsourcing programs sponsored by companies andorganizations.

Why bother? Because home-based workers are usually left on theirown to perform repetitive tasks in whatever environment they have,and with whatever tools they can scrounge to use. Or perhaps you are avolunteer dedicated to programs of an admirable humanistic nature. Orperhaps a dust-hating overly zealous housewife? Or a frustrated male TVChef? Or compulsive gardener? Whatever their age or sex, ergonomicplanning applies to all home-based workers and their co-residents. Thatrule includes the five-year-old you've temporarily assigned to care foryour three-year-old while you hide in the bathroom for five minutes – theonly peaceful escape hatch with a door.

If you work at home for love or money, you are responsible forplanning your work patterns, as well as arranging the rooms and toolsin and with which you labor and rest. Even when self-employed orworking as a sub-contractor, it is not likely that some boss will sendtrained work evaluators to your residence to assess safety or ergonomiccompliance. Let's be frank, home-based workers are and will remainmostly on their own. Moreover, they may also be responsible for helpingtheir co-residents, whether children, teenagers, or over-the-hill parentsand grandparents. The multi-generational residence profile is also onthe rise.

Perhaps you don't need to be convinced that good ergonomicplanning will be helpful, but do you also know that it can help avoidaccidents and improve work quality? While few statistics are available toprove that last conclusion, since there's no legal way to research home-basedqualitative out-put, common knowledge and peasant cunning(just joking) tell us that fatigue and body overuse increase accidentpotential. Remember the old saw (based on actuarial statistics) that mostaccidents happen at home? Home-based accidents might well occur lessoften if home-based workers follow ergonomic guidelines and becomeaware of faulty body postures or tool usage.

So what does that adage about most accidents occurring at homemean today? It means that besides the traditional housewife, farmer,rancher or retired person, more home-based workers need to learn howto work safely on their own. Being a home-based worker, whether paidor not, can be a two-edged sword of freedom and responsibility; therefore,he or she must learn how to fence ergonomically.

Current computer-based technologies, including being online,Skype, virtual private networks, video-conferencing and Voice overIP among other peripherals, collectively support a virtual explosionof home-based telecommuting jobs; however, computer-based workalso requires repetitive motions and static postures over extended timeperiods, and strain injuries occur to the body parts involved. Assemblylines are not entirely extinct; they have been transformed into otherforms of repetitive-action work.

Well-arranged home work stations, well-designed ergonomic toolsand furniture, as well as appropriate work habits applied collectively willminimize accidents and alleviate overuse/abuse of the body. Ergonomicsdoes not promise the millennium or that fatigue and pain will meltaway, but it does suggest that if its guidelines are followed, discomfortand frustration from daily work will lessen.

While assembly lines are not part of home employment, unlessyou have several children (no joke intended), the computer-culturehas enabled and fueled an increase in home-based employment that isstartling in scope. This trend is projected to increase dramatically. Beingon-line and hooked-up not only to data, but also to other persons andplaces, combined with the capacity to research, write and send reports,communicate or buy and sell, are all made possible by computers andattendant technologies. Since many work-related tasks can be as easilydone at home as in an office or factory, a significant number of personsworks part or full-time at home instead of in traditional work sites.

It is difficult to obtain accurate empirical data or statistics regardinghome-based employment due to privacy issues, but also because thesedata constantly change. OSHA (the Occupational Safety and HealthOrganization) is not geared to impinge on the privacy of homes to assesssafety and health work factors; however, one thing is certain: currentstatistics of home-based workers are soon obsolete as new incrementstake their place.

As early as 2005, a report from the US Bureau of Labor Statisticsnoted an increase in home-based employment to 15% of the workerpopulation, and projected sharper future increases. Even then, 30%of all workers in management, professional and related occupationsreported working at home at least a portion of their work week. Otherindustrialized information-based countries also report and predictnotable increases in home-based telecommuting workers. Essentially,other than agricultural, educational, public-service, travel or someindustry jobs, predicted increments in home-based employment are aproven socioeconomic trend. By 2008, 2.5 million employees stated theyworked at home on their primary jobs; but by 2010, 9.4 million reportedworking from home on their primary jobs.

In December of 2010, the US government passed the TeleworkEnhancement Act of 2010, to promote management effectiveness forteleworkers, to achieve reductions in transportation and environmentalimpacts, and to enhance the positive work-life balance of home-basedteleworkers. Telework typically allows workers to better manage familyobligations, and helps to maintain a more resilient work force, sincemost home-based workers state a preference for working at home. Asan aside, the government considers this act to support and comply withthe Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.

The growth of telecommunicating from home is world-wide, and hasbecome the focus of recent international conferences. For example, the,Stanford University Department of Economics and the Boston CollegeCenter for Work and Family met in Conference with several largeinternational companies on November 12, 2012. Conferees discussedthe many aspects of the home-based worker trend, and even noted thegrowth of Worldwide Work at Home Employment Agencies. In fact,many current and future home-based employees may never meet theirbosses and peers face to face, but only communicate with them in theother world of virtual sounds and photos.

Since the 1970's, when Jack Nilles, funded by the National ScienceFoundation, coined the word teleworking, intellectuals have beenstruggling to analyze or describe everything from the nature of home-basedworker output, the wording of outsourcing contracts and thebenefits of home-based work, to the problems (often legal) related tosub-contracts for worker output and ownership of equipment issues.Most Independent home-based workers have no c ontractual protectionsinsofar as this can be known currently.

After the Clean Air Act of 1990, federal and state governments werepositive and instrumental in the teleworking from home movement forenvironmental reasons. Home-based workers minimize traffic and helpemployers achieve alternative human resource and financial objectives.

As most industrialized countries become more aware of work placeaccidents and employee compensation costs, a positive internationalplatform for home-based employment is being accepted and embraced.Financially, less insurance means higher gains, and fewer workers on sitemean less space is needed. In sum, the international world of home-basedworkers is growing, and improved telecommunication options drive thistrend for employers who that find outsourcing is cost-effective.

By now, social awareness of this process has prompted humoriststo satirize this trend, and some refer to it as 'shirking from home.'Nevertheless, statistics demonstrate that the positive aspects of home-basedwork outweigh the negative ones, such as being promoted simplythrough 'presenteeism,' or being face-to-face on-site. That this trend isinternational is obvious on many fronts. Recently, CNN's online vehicle(CNNLiving) is publishing articles focusing on the pros and cons ofhome-based working, and inviting others to contribute to this on-going'community' of similar workers pertinent hints or opinions regardingtheir experiences. The import of telework is world-wide.

Although no details were available, the following statistics gatheredby Britain's Department of Trade and Industry for their annual reporton home worker accidents in one city can be seen to be humorous andhumbling. This happened as early as 2001:

"... three dozen people were sent to the hospital forinjuries associated with teapot covers; about 165 forinjuries from placemats; about 330 from toilet-paperholders, and about 13,000 from vegetables (sic); However,sponge-related accidents fell from 996 the previous yearto 787, and only 329 injuries from meat cleavers werereported," (New Scientist, June).

While there is something whimsical about pondering injuries causedby vegetables and teapot covers, the Alice in Wonderland aura of thereport is serious. The report was deemed worthy of publication as earlyas 2001, because these people were injured enough to be hospitalizedand noted in British work statistics! Although I offer few suggestionshere regarding the ergonomic handling of vegetables, sponges, ortoilet-paper holders, this book does afford productive hints about otherprocedures.

It is assumed that employers will continue to support home-basedworking and outsourcing trends for economic reasons: it considerablyreduces employer overhead; increases worker productivity (proven insome countries); is easier to recruit high demand workers; reducesworker stress; helps clean air compliance; reduces the costs of work-relateddisabilities; reduces absenteeism; and accommodates workerswith disabilities or conditions like pregnancies and child bearing.Ouch! What about male mid-life crises? While I find it almostwhimsical that working at home is said to reduce absenteeism, I'llaccept that as a corollary to injury by teapot covers and unintentionaloverexertion.

This list of positive employer economic gains through telecommutingwas partly suggested by riskVue, the webzine for Risk ManagementProfessionals who seek to address the positive and negative factors ofoutsourced telecommuting. In sum, teleworking is here to stay.

On the negative side, medical insurance, homeowner policies,liability exposures and contractual ambiguities (if they are even offered)also obtain. Moreover, it could happen that companies might one dayincur problems of compliance with OSHA's work safety and related airquality regulations which, according to informal research, are too oftenhonored in the breach.