Admittedly, working from home comes with loads of advantages, especially regarding convenience and productivity. However, it also comes with many health risks or challenges. Unfortunately, most health risks are ignored, especially because the work-from-home culture is still relatively new. These health risks threaten work productivity and eat into your general health when left unaddressed. So, if you work from home, here are some health risks you must pay attention to or avoid.
- Work-related burnout
Over two-thirds of remote workers claim that they experience burnout symptoms when working from home. Work burnout causes a state of physical or emotional exhaustion. It can also lead to a loss of personal identity and a sense of reduced accomplishment. While work burnout isn’t a medical condition, many experts agree that it is behind other conditions like depression. Some signs or symptoms of work-related burnout include an increased mental distance from the work and a lack of desire to give off your best. It could also lead to forgetfulness, a lack of concentration, and procrastination. Additionally, you could become irritable and witness a drop in work quality and productivity.
- Musculoskeletal pain
If you spend countless hours behind your work desk, you may be at risk of experiencing musculoskeletal pain. This pain mostly affects the tendons, muscles, ligaments, joints, and bones. And what puts you at risk? It could be using an unsupported chair, poor desk setup, bad angles, and so on. But also, simply sitting for long hours with breaks can put your spine, lower back, and neck at risk of experiencing musculoskeletal pain.
The way out of this is two-fold. First, ensure that you create a health workstation setup. Adjust your desk and chair heights to ensure that you sit upright instead of crouching. Also, your knees and hips should be at 90 degrees angle as much as possible, and your computer should be about an arm’s length away. Secondly, take regular breaks if you have to sit for hours. For example, you can get up after every 20 minutes to walk or stretch before resuming work.
- Dental health issues
According to experts, working from home can affect your oral health if care is not taken. First, job stress can cause you to indulge in unhealthy habits like jaw clenching, biting your nails, teeth grinding, or chewing on your pens and pencils. Hard clenching and bruxism transfer excess stress to the teeth, especially the roots. And this usually leads to fractures in the teeth or their roots.
Therefore, speak to your dentist about any oral health concerns that you may have, and consider the available treatment options. For example, if you’re experiencing tooth loss or damage, there are many dental implant services you can take advantage of such as All On Four Jupiter dentistry among others. Remember that stress in your homeworking environment can also encourage the consumption of high-sugar energy drinks and unhealthy snacks. Such habits are detrimental to your dental health. That is why it is important to stick religiously to basic oral care practices like brushing and flossing daily.