San Carlos CEO reveals tips to set up a healthy home office

Many people have done some kind of work from home for years. But what used to be maybe checking emails after work or catching up on some loose ends, is now doing the heavy lifting of their job at home.

And for many of those people, that “home office” may be nothing more than a computer on the counter. Which is fine if you’re just going to check work emails. But if you’re planning on spending eight hours of work from home, you might want to rethink your work station.

“Most people at home have a laptop, a phone, the kitchen table and a wooden chair, which was OK in the beginning. It’s OK to be on the couch, watching TV, checking your email,” said Nick Moshiri, CEO of Egrodirect, a San Carlos-based company that helps businesses and individuals find the correct ergonomic office furniture for either the office or the home.

“(But that setup) is not for eight hours of serious work,” Moshiri continued. “A few days, a few weeks, maybe it’s OK. But after about three weeks, pain starts cropping up.”

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, quoted on its website that a 2013 Bureau of Labor Statistics said Musculoskeletal Disorders “accounted for 33% of all worker injury and illness cases.”

In other words, a poorly designed home office could be detrimental to your health. Common MSDs include: Carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis and lower back pain.

But not all home offices are created equal. Moshiri said like people themselves, ergonomic solutions are just as varied. What works for one person may not work for another. Moshiri said most of his business pre-pandemic came from employers, who wanted to make their employees as efficient as possible and would hire Moshiri’s company to help customize each employee’s work station.

Nearly 85% of that market disappeared with the pandemic, Moshiri said, but his company quickly pivoted and is now working with a lot more individuals who are really now only working from home full time.

Moshiri said his company had already been working in the private sector as he allowed many of his employees to choose whether to work from the office or the home. When many chose to work from home, the experience learned in setting up his own employees ergonomically allowed him to quickly move to the individual home office when the shelter-in-place orders came down.

“Because of [the changes in our company] we were ready. We were prepared,” Moshiri said. “We quickly reached out to the home market since we had all the details (about setting up home offices).”

Different solutions for different people

Now that many are working from home, they should be looking to make their home office as ergonomically efficient as possible. Moshiri said there are simple, economical ways to accomplish this, or you can go whole hog and load up with thousands of dollars of equipment.

“Each person is totally different. Every situation is different. It’s not just ‘Buy a chair,’” Moshiri said.

There are several easy ways to upgrade your work station at home. One of the easiest is to find the right height-adjustable chair. The same goes for sit-stand desks, but users should be careful about finding the right desk and chair.

“They don’t know how high a chair should be or the height of the desk,” Moshiri said. “They go buy a sit-stand, height-adjustable desk from wherever, they come home and they’re, ‘Yea! This is the best thing!’

“But what they don’t know is the desk has to come to a certain height (to be ergonomically correct).”

Moshiri said the ideal height of most sit-stand desks is between 23 and 25 inches high.

“Some don’t come lower than 28,” Moshiri said.

Furniture for all budgets

In addition to being properly fitted for a chair and desk, Moshiri said there are some simple adjustments that can easily be made. For instance, the top one third of the computer monitor should be at eye level. Simply changing from a laptop desktop computer can make a difference, moving from a small screen and cramped keyboard to something more ergonomical.

“Working with a laptop is much worse than a standard monitor and keyboard,” Moshiri said.

Some of these solutions can be as cheap or expensive as a user wants. Moshiri said if you don’t want to change from a laptop to a desktop computer, then you could add peripheral equipment to plug into your laptop.

“If you have a laptop, bring the screen up and then buy a simple keyboard and mouse and plug it in,” Moshiri said.

Solutions don’t have to be expensive, either. On the Ergodirect website, customers can choose from three different settings — affordable, workhorse and premium — which allows potential customers to choose equipment in the price point they want.

But there are simple, no-cost strategies as well. Books, boxes and other common household items can be incorporated into the home office and while they may not look flashy, they do get the job done.

“If your desk is too high, you can raise the chair you’re using and then put a box under your seat,” Moshiri said, adding you can use books to raise your monitor to the right height, or use a box as a footrest to make sure your hips are at a 90-degree angle while sitting.

“It doesn’t matter how it looks or if it’s not the newest. We have solutions you don’t even have to spend money on,” Moshiri said. “You need the right height of chair and the right height of keyboard and (if you do) you’ll be OK for about a year.

“These are the things you need to know and pay attention to.”