For the first two weeks, Kathryn Benjamin worked from her sofa. When hunching over her laptop started to hurt, the 34-year-old marketing manager moved to a high-top table wedged in the kitchen of her tiny London flat. She bought a bar stool to sit on.
In theory, that was better. But it turns out not having your feet touch the floor is “actually really uncomfortable,” Ms. Benjamin says. Her neck and back ached. In September, she gave in, finally ordering a proper desk and task chair for almost $400 and moving the bed belonging to her longhaired dachshund, Ralph, to make room.
“I think I was in denial,” she says. “I was sitting at a bar stool for six months.”
It’s been a long time since employers around the world abruptly sent their staff home, and workers are feeling it. What was once a creative workaround or show of resilience—plop a monitor on your ironing board, take a conference call in your car—has become an ergonomic nightmare.
