At the end of January, the responsible federal ministry issued an ordinance due to the situation regarding working in the Corona Pandemic. This stipulates that employers must offer their employees the opportunity to work from home wherever possible. Employees, in turn, may not refuse this offer without reason. The individual employers are obliged to support them in setting up their home office. This type of work will continue even after the pandemic, according to experts.

In this context, the priority is to create a workplace that allows the necessary work to be carried out. In any case, it must be set up in such a way that the health of the employee is not damaged. After all, only around 40 percent of people who work from home have a self-contained work area, and 17 percent can create their own place of work in their home.

The rest, more than 40 percent, have to improvise. This means that somewhere in the apartment the laptop is opened and a chair is pushed in front of the table. Telephone calls are sometimes made via mobile phones, with no trace of healthy sitting and occupational safety.

The situation can have unexpected health consequences. No commute to work, no going to a meeting or the canteen, no walk to a snack bar during the lunch break, there is a lack of movement in the home office. Our back suffers the most from lack of exercise. Anyone who sits for a long time every day and does not have an ergonomic workplace at their disposal is programming back pain and back problems.

You can prevent this by doing a few simple back exercises, but above all by sitting correctly. Work equipment must be at the right height, the viewing angle on the monitor must be right, as must the sitting position. If all this is not taken into account, back pain and poor posture can occur over time.

Back pain is a widespread disease. The tendency for patients to work from home has increased by a good ten percent. This is largely due to the lack of movement. If the way to work is usually covered by bike or on foot, the office chair is often only a few meters away from the kitchen table or sofa. A crucial factor is the situation that only a few people have a back-friendly workspace at home. Stress, tension and worries lead to further complaints.

Much of the back pain can go away in a few weeks with proper exercise and treatment. Sometimes, however, constant pain is underestimated. Especially if these radiate to other parts of the body, it can be a herniated disc.

Above all, an incorrect sitting posture or sitting too much and for too long can damage the intervertebral disc. Incorrect strain on the back and cervical spine and being overweight do the rest. Of course, the age of the person also plays a role, as the elasticity of the intervertebral discs decreases over the course of life. It is important to take regular breaks in the home office and to ensure exercise and relaxation. An ergonomically designed workplace is the top priority.

In order to obtain certainty about the cause, affected persons have the opportunity to be examined by a specialist. A contact conversation at an appointment in the internationally recognized spine center Apex-Spine brings certainty. With a professional diagnosis, consequential damage can be avoided at an early stage and targeted treatment can be initiated.