The Permanent Temporary

The Price of Productivity

Between 30 and 45 days are needed to return to previous productivity levels after switching to home office. This important conclusion was made in the course of a special two-year study which looked at people who switched to working remotely because of hurricane Harvey. And what about us? Did we – under the circumstances – manage to return to our previous productivity levels? And if we assume that we did so during last spring’s intro, then at what cost? Did we manage to preserve our feelings of wellbeing and health while working from home? This applies to ourselves as well as to our children as distance learning has put them in a position not dissimilar to that of office workers spending all their days in front of the computer.

Permanent Reorganization

If in the beginning working for hours at the kitchen table or on the sofa seemed cozy and using whatever we could find to create a measure of comfort seemed fun, now we realize that any of those things done over a longer period of time is very uncomfortable, and our stiff necks, painful backs, stinging eyes and heavy heads tell us that it is unhealthy too. Therefore, the quicker we reorganize our homes to create ergonomic workspaces for our family members, the better – for ourselves and for our results. Having said that, we realize that when it comes to homes change tends to go slowly and that square meters are often a problem.

Permanent Reorganization

If in the beginning working for hours at the kitchen table or on the sofa seemed cozy and using whatever we could find to create a measure of comfort seemed fun, now we realize that any of those things done over a longer period of time is very uncomfortable, and our stiff necks, painful backs, stinging eyes and heavy heads tell us that it is unhealthy too. Therefore, the quicker we reorganize our homes to create ergonomic workspaces for our family members, the better – for ourselves and for our results. Having said that, we realize that when it comes to homes change tends to go slowly and that square meters are often a problem.

As much as we associate our home with the idea of freedom, here we also forget to move, especially when concentrating on work. That is why our working space should be designed in a way that encourages change of position. This means that we must have the three essential ergonomic wellbeing elements: a high-class working chair, a desk – preferably with adjustable height and a monitor arm. The different applications and reminders which encourage us to alternate between sitting down (40 minutes) and standing up (15 minutes) are also very useful.

Clean Air

Surely nobody doubts – especially in the present situation – that air quality is paramount to health, alertness and work capacity. It turns out that homes have much bigger problems with air than modern office buildings. This is why we need to actively air our homes, making sure to do so at times when traffic is least busy. In cities with high level of air pollution it is advisable to install air purifiers at home.

As we said, if we want to have normal conditions for long-term work from home we must create separate ergonomic working configurations. But as space is limited, hybrid spaces have emerged out of the current situation. This new hybrid mode applies mostly to living rooms and kitchens. For example there is a well-established trend to place one high-class working chair at the kitchen table, which in most cases has wheels so that it can easily be removed when appropriate.

Light is very important to the home office and ignoring this fact for any prolonged period of time can have grave consequences for our health and productivity. A high class desk lamp – like a good working chair – is not something we should compromise with. And let’s not forget that good light is also very important for video calls.

Neither is suitable for our personal spaces at the moment, writes Kyle Chayka in her essay on the place where we want to live and work at present. Our connections are virtual, so our personal space should have the following characteristic that is priceless at a time of social distancing – it should not be anonymous but rather a well textured sanctuary which reminds us that there is a real physical world out there, that there was “normal“ before and there will be again. Kyle believes that “As tuberculosis shaped modernism, so COVID-19 and our collective experience of staying inside for months on end will influence architecture’s near future“. How exactly this will affect the home office remains to be seen.