Take this test to check whether your home office is working right for you
YOU WILL BE MORE PRODUCTIVE and suffer less burnout if your home office is set up correctly, according to a new scientific study.
The first-of-its-kind study conducted in the Netherlands showed that workers who had higher levels of satisfaction with their home office set-up—including both environmental factors such as temperature and noise, as well as hardware items such as office chairs and screens—tended to have higher self-reported productivity and a lower propensity towards professional burnout.
In this article we will look at the Dutch analysis and suggest ways in which you might like to check out your home office set-up and see how it measures up to the standards set out in the analysis.
“The physical climate of the home office plays a key role in work-from-home productivity. Different home offices are likely to lead to different willingness to work from home and work-from-home success,” according to the authors of the study, Martin Stroom, Piet Eichholtz and Nils Kok.
Up to now, many of the studies relating to working from home have looked at factors such as whether a particular job is suited for remote work. For the first time, however, this study looks at the physical environment as well as such aspects as your desk set-up, office chairs and screens.
Let's look then at how your home office rates against the work office.
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Physical Environment
• Is your home office well ventilated? The researchers place a strong emphasis on the quality of the air in a home office. They emphasize that a higher level of air ventilation in the office during the workday is statistically linked with higher productivity and a lower propensity to burnout.
The authors comment: “The physical climate of the home office plays a key role in work-from-home productivity. Different home offices are likely to lead to different willingness to work from home and work-from-home success.”
People working at home close their windows more often than they did before the pandemic lockdown, the researchers say. Combined with CO2 data, working at home often leads to worse indoor air quality, they add.
• Does your home office provide adequate natural lighting? Working under artificial light all day every day can be harmful in a number of ways and is likely to make you less productive.
If this is the case, you might consider moving your office to a part of your house or apartment that offers natural lighting, even when it is cloudy outside.
“Suboptimal air and light quality, temperature, and noise have all been shown to negatively affect productivity and increase sick building symptoms, such as headaches, in the office,” the researchers point out.
• Another factor to consider is the temperature in your home office. Is your home office kept cool during today’s heat waves sweeping across the country? Working in an office that is too hot will make you tired, irritable and unable to work productively.
If your home office does become too hot, you might consider buying an inexpensive portable air conditioner, such as the one shown below which is selling fast. It is not as expensive as you might think and works effectively.
Improve the air quality in your office with this air purifier
Portable air conditioner for home office
Of course, temperature also is important in the winter. You should be able to work in warmth. If you have no available heat sources, you might want to look at a space heater if your home office becomes cold.
• Noise is another factor to consider. Is your home office close to a busy street that is continuously noisy?
• Are your family members or pets a disruptive influence? Do people interrupt you when you are concentrating intensely? Such interruptions can mean that you can lose up to 15 minutes of work time as you recapture your thoughts and return to where you were in terms of work.
In the words of the research team: "Having a partner seems good for productivity, if they are not constantly present at home during working hours. For children, a predictable, strong, and linear relationship emerges: burnout tendency increases and productivity decreases when children spend more time at home during working hours.
"Interestingly, having a dog increases the burnout score significantly."
Dedicated office
Your home office needs to be a separate area. Working on a small desk in your bedroom, for example, is unsatisfactory.
Ideally your home office is in a separate, fairly large, room where you feel as though you are at work and not as though it is an appendage of your regular home life.
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is important when working from home, too. Most offices today equip their workers with the best chairs when it comes to ergonomics. You need to do the same when working from home.
Many people working from home simply use a chair that they have had in the house for a long time. But sitting for long hours in a chair that is not fit for work can lead to all sorts of physical problems.
You might want to buy one of the reasonably priced office chairs in our bizbazaar and ditch a chair that might be making you tired and robbing you of productivity.
Your desk
Arrangement of your desk is vital.
For many people an untidy and disorganized desk can lead to lower productivity. To help you, we have prepared a list of items to make your desktop more productive.
HERE IS A TABLE prepared by the research team. It compares the levels of satisfaction reported by people working from home with those of working in the office.
You might like to check out how satisfied you are with your home office in terms of these factors following the guidelines we have outlined in this article.
