Safety and Health Week – Working from Home Health and Safety Resources
How are you adjusting to working from home?
Many workplaces, including McMaster University, have temporarily enabled working from home for those employees that are able to do so to slow the spread of COVID-19. Working from home has become the “new normal” overnight. For some this may be an ideal work arrangement, but for others, working from home presents significant challenges.
While working from home employees may feel isolated and crave the social interaction found in the traditional office setting. Some employee’s even report feeling extreme loneliness which can be damaging to your mental and physical health. The University’s employee and family assistance provider, Homewood Health, offers support to yourself, other employees and family members as a result of the questions and possible anxiety that has arisen from working at home. For employees that do not have access to Homewood Health benefits, a new resource, Wellness Together Canada, has been developed by the Government of Canada and provides free online resources, tools, apps and connections to trained volunteers and qualified mental health professionals.
Work-life balance is vital to an employee’s well-being. During this time, work-life balance is more challenging than ever as employees juggle childcare, homeschooling, eldercare and working from home. McMaster’s Organizational Development team offers a variety of sessions intended to help employees succeed in their personal and professional lives. As Well, additional wellness sessions will be offered by EOHSS during Safety and Health Week.
The sudden shift to working from home can present problems regarding proper workstation set-up. In addition to the Home Workstation Self-Assessment Checklist, EOHSS has made available ergonomics information and videos that allow employees to continue to work productively and consider proper home workstation ergonomic set-up.
Your home should be a safe place for you and your loved ones and free of hazards that can cause injury. Employees are expected to designate an adequate and separate workstation in their home. EOHSS has created a Home Safety Checklist to ensure employees are working at a safe and healthy dedicated workstation. Please note, the assessment is of the workstation only and is not reflective of the safety of the home in its entirety.
If you are working from home, please take time to review the working from home resources for both managers and employees found on the Human Resources Services COVID-19 website.
If you have questions or concerns regarding working from home, please contact EOHSS at eohss@mcmaster.ca
Employee Well-being, Health & Safety, Learning & Development