28 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Following ergonomic

best practices amid

COVID -19

Keeping workers safe in ofﬁces,

plants and at home requires

careful analysis

By Timothy (Tim) Pottorff

“We want to always consider

the design of workstations

and tools; we want to keep

people safe; we want a good

facility layout; and we want

to be cognizant of the hu man

interaction between people,

materials and equipment.”

March 2021 | ISE Magazine 29

“When we start making changes within a pro-

cess with the laudable goal of protecting people

from potential exposures to COVID-19, we must

not forget the capacity of the human body and the

physical demands of the job.”

30 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Following ergonomic best practices amid COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world up-

side down more so than since World War II and the

ﬂu pandemic of 1918. The advantage we had in 2020

was a combination of greater scientiﬁc knowledge

and ability, combined with modern communications

that allowed millions of people around the world to

transition from working in ofﬁces to working at home. How-

ever, millions more people, particularly those in food process-

ing and manufacturing, did not have the option of working

at home during lockdowns that lasted for months and affected

nearly every person in the world in one way or another.

Here we will focus on both the work-at-home employee and

those who remained in manufacturing and processing opera-

tions, as well as provide guidance on the issues that have arisen

and best practices for mitigating ergonomics risks while follow-

ing COVID-19 best practices.

From an injury perspective, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statis-

tics reported for 2019 that more than half of the occupational

illnesses and injuries requiring days away from work related to

a potential ergonomics issue: strains, sprains, soreness and pain.

In my prior professional experiences, we found that about 40%

of both lost-time claims and severity (cost of claims) were due

to ergonomics-related causes.

From a regulatory perspective, the U.S. Occupational Safety

and Health Administration (OSHA) and occupational health

and safety executives in most countries around the world have

“general duty” clauses that require companies maintain work-

places free of recognized hazards. These workplaces include

not only traditional ofﬁces, manufacturing and processing op-

erations, but also the work-at-home environment. European

Union countries, as well as Mexico, also require companies

to conduct assessments of all work processes, tasks and work-

stations for ergonomics risks. This also includes home ofﬁce

workstations.

Within the U.S., California has a requirement within its

Injury & Illness Prevention Program Standard (IIPP) that re-

quires attention be paid to employee complaints of discomfort.

It also has the 1994 Cal/OSHA Ergonomics Standard for Gen-

eral Industry, along with the occupationally speciﬁc 2018 Cal/

OSHA Hotel Housekeeper Musculoskeletal Injury Prevention

Program (MIPP) Standard. The state of Maine requires em-

ployees receive computer workstation ergonomics training, and

New Hampshire requires companies to “evaluate all incidences

of ergonomically related injuries.”

Working from home creates problems

For employees told to work at home, “for the next few weeks”

during the early stages of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic,

many companies did little more than send their team members

home with a laptop computer and normal productivity expec-

tations. A Sept. 4, 2020, article in The New York Times reported

on a survey from the American Chiropractic Association that

92% of respondents to an April 2020 survey said that patients

were reporting more pain in their neck, back or other issues (see

accompanying article on Page 32).

An unscientiﬁc social poll I conducted resulted in about

46% of respondents saying they had ergonomics issues work-

ing from home. Respondents to a survey of the Northeastern

Illinois Chapter of the American Society of Safety Professionals

showed that 50% of those responding themselves (or a family

member) had ergonomics problems from working at home. A

teammate reported that one of his clients surveyed all of their

work-at-home employees and 47% reported they had pain or

discomfort of some level, which validates the earlier unscien-

tiﬁc numbers.

For employees working at home, the key is posture and

support. A traditional kitchen chair is not going to sufﬁce. A

neighbor of ours is an engineer with a large international com-

pany. He experienced deep vein thrombosis that required life-

saving surgery after he had been working his usual extended

hours on a kitchen chair. Thus, an adjustable chair with padded

seat, backrest and armrests is critical.

I do not recommend the “two-hour” chairs sold at many

big-box stores but do recommend that people choose a brand-

name refurbished chair at a signiﬁcant discount from the retail

price. The other thing is chair “ﬁt.” One size does not ﬁt all. I

have worked with clients ranging in size from 4 feet, 10 inches

tall to 6 feet, 8 inches.

The other working-at-home aspect is relatively easy to ad-

dress. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

well before COVID-19 induced work-at-home orders, did not

recommend that laptop computers be used as a primary com-

puting device. Rather, the CDC has for years recommended

that laptop computers be coupled with a docking station and

peripheral accessories such as monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Conference offers more

on safety standards

Author Timothy Pottorff will provide a presentation at the virtual

Applied Ergonomics Conference 2021, March 22-25. He will

be speaking on the Musculoskeletal Injury Prevention Program

standard in “Hospitality: The Industry Ergonomics and Safety Left

Behind.” To learn more or register for the conference, visit iise.

org/AEC. You can read his article on the topic from the March

2020 issue of ISE at link.iise.org/isemarch2020_pottorff.

March 2021 | ISE Magazine 31

People who wear eyeglasses with progressive lenses will need

to keep their monitors lower; people without such lenses will

want to raise their monitors so the top of the screen is about

eye level (as recommended for monitors in “regular” ofﬁces).

While laptop monitors have grown and can often be used

as primary monitor screens, there is no substitute for having

a separate keyboard and mouse. These can be purchased from

many outlets; however, I recommend a midrange option for

the keyboard. People who do not frequently use a 10-key

pad can beneﬁt from the smaller size of a compact keyboard,

which helps reduce reaches to the mouse pointing device.

Adapting needs to employees’ specs

In industrial settings, we want to always consider the design of

workstations and tools; we want to keep people safe; we want

a good facility layout; and we want to be cognizant of the hu-

man interaction between people, materials and equipment.

With COVID-19, many companies installed various plexiglass

guards and barriers to limit the movement of droplets between

people unable to work more than 6 feet apart. The key to good

ergonomics design, however, is to avoid the conundrum of

solving one problem yet simultaneously creating another. Bar-

riers and guards improperly designed and/or installed will in-

crease the risk for future work-related soft tissue injuries and

illnesses.

Two key anthropometric considerations in the science of er-

gonomics are the hand reach distance from the center of the

body (not the belly) and the height of the point of operation

of the hands, i.e., “where” the hands are when they are per-

forming “work.” Some areas where process engineers and de-

signers frequently fail is when they design for themselves or an

“average”-sized person. The goal of applying anthropometric

data in process design is to accommodate as many people as

possible.

My late professor at Kansas State University, Stephan Konz,

would show diagrams of people of various shapes and sizes

during his ergonomics lectures that I remember to this day.

We want to design forward reaches for the smallest people and

work heights for the tallest people.

Unfortunately, when we start making changes within a pro-

cess with the laudable goal of protecting people from potential

exposures to COVID-19, we must not forget the capacity of the

human body and the physical demands of the job.

Many best practices for COVID-19 involve health screen-

ings and temperature checks. But if the temperature checks are

being performed by a person with a hand-held scanner, the risk

for potential ergonomics-related shoulder rotator cuff issues

may arise due to the extension of the arm (posture) and the fre-

quency (repetition) of scanning dozens of employees checking

in before their shift. Usually repetition is not a huge issue un-

32 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

less coupled with force exertion, an awkward posture, extended

duration or another ergonomics risk factor. But coupling an

extended arm posture with frequent repetition may deﬁnitely

manifest in an upper extremity soft tissue disorder.

Barriers and guards are used to separate people, but the chal-

lenge is to avoid forcing employees to contort their bodies

while performing their jobs, which they often do in places that

have not previously paid close attention to good work design.

Many places added a requirement for employees to wear

gloves. The use of gloves is another “classic” ergonomics risk

factor. Gloves that are too small or tight are going to restrict

blood circulation and can cause nerve compression. Gloves that

are too large, bulky or loose will reduce a person’s gripping

ability. This will then require the person to apply even greater

hand forces to accomplish a job task.

I strongly encourage companies making any modiﬁcations

to processes or equipment due to COVID-19 or any other rea-

son to engage in an independent ergonomics assessment of the

existing process and/or plans for future modiﬁcation or opera-

tion. Only when a company’s key leaders know exactly how

employees will interact with a new or modiﬁed process can

they be conﬁdent they have reduced the risk of work-related

illnesses and injuries. 

Timothy (Tim) Pottorff is a principal at QP3 ErgoSystems, an in-

dependent ergonomics and safety consulting company with national

and global capabilities. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in

industrial engineering from Kansas State University. He is a Certi-

ﬁed Industrial Ergonomist (CIE) and holds the Associate in Risk

Management (ARM) designation. He has authored numerous ar-

ticles, including previous contributions in ISE, and has presented

many topics at professional ergonomics and safety conferences, includ-

ing the Applied Ergonomics Conference. He is an IISE and Applied

Ergonomics Society member.

Following ergonomic best practices amid COVID-19

Tips to make home ofﬁces more ergo-friendly

Since March 2020, ofﬁce workers around the

world suddenly were forced to function outside

of their ergonomically designed professional

workplaces by adapting to kitchen tables, sofas,

beds and other home furnishings not created

for daylong shifts. A Sept. 4, 2020, article in

The New York Times, “The Pandemic of Work-

From-Home Injuries,” chronicled many of the

maladies they faced and possible remedies from

ergonomic and health experts.

Laptops: The portability of laptops means

many people work on them in various settings

not ideal for their posture. Most resting places

either cause the user to look down at the screen,

if lowered, or raise their hands to type, if elevated.

Both options put pressure on the spine and neck. The remedy: Add an external keyboard and mouse with a docking station. That

allows the user to elevate the monitor, perhaps with a stack of books, and raise the screen to eye level.

Chairs: Many kitchen chairs or recliners violate the idea of “neutral posture” – hips slightly higher than the knees, arms relaxed

at the side, neck relaxed and straight, forearms parallel to the ground and feet resting on the ﬂoor. The solution: If the chair is too

high for your feet to comfortably rest on the ﬂoor, use a footstool or other platform to rest your feet. If it’s too low, make it higher

with pillows or cushions.

Work breaks: Increased time on smartphones is another culprit, leading users to look down as they text or tweet. That puts

pressure on the neck and spine, New York chiropractor Karen Erickson explains. The solution: Take frequent breaks to rest eyes

and muscles. Scott Bautch, M.D., president of the American Chiropractic Association’s Council on Occupational Health, suggests

setting a timer for every 15 to 30 minutes as a reminder to move. He suggests frequent “microbreaks” of ﬁve seconds to change

posture or change eye direction; periodic “macro breaks” of three to ﬁve minutes that include deep breathing or stretching your

shoulders; and at least 30 minutes of exercise.

“It doesn’t always take that much,” said Dr. Michael Fredericson, professor of orthopedic surgery at Stanford University. “It’s really

the simple things. Get out. Take a walk.”