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Telecommuting And Its Impact On Workers Compensation And Safety
(Part 1 of 2)

Telecommuting generally refers to employees who work away from the principal office of their employer at least one or more days per week. Often, this means they are working at a home office. Many employees who telecommute do so only part of the time. They work at home on some days, but go to the office on others.

Telecommuting had its origins in the early 1980s as part of the environmental movement. Advocates reasoned that if employees worked at home at least part of each week, there would be less fuel consumed and less pollution in the atmosphere. At that time, however, computer technology was not nearly as advanced as it is today. Telecommuting consisted primarily of taking work home, doing the work at home, and bringing it back to the office a day or so later.

Electronic communication has become so effective and efficient that telecommuters no longer have to bring work home. They now can go on-line and access work via their computers. This virtual office atmosphere increases the number of employees who can do their jobs effectively via telecommuting and decreases the amount of time between the employee’s completion of a project and that project’s being available in the office — or virtual office.

Estimates of the number of telecommuters and the growth of telecommuting vary, but it appears that less than 5 million employees were telecommuting with any regularity in 1990. That number jumped to over 10 million by the mid-1990s, and now appears to be over 20 million. The continual improvements in communications technology only promise to increase this number for the foreseeable future.

The Impact on Workers Compensation

There are always two monetary considerations to any new venture: the front-end cost and the back-end cost. The front-end workers compensation cost of telecommuting is the current premium; the back-end cost, the effect of claims on future premiums

Telecommuting Premiums

The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), in response to the increase in telecommuting, has developed two new classifications:

• Clerical Telecommuter Employees — Code 8871: This new classification is similar in intent to Clerical Office Employees NOC (not otherwise classified), Code 8810. It applies only to telecommuting employees not specifically included in descriptions of other classes assigned to the policy and not covered by any other special rules. The duties of the telecommuter may include creating or maintaining financial or other employer records, handling correspondence, computer composition, telephone duties (including sales), and so on. The employee must work in a residence office, defined by NCCI as “a clerical work area located within the dwelling of the clerical employee.” Further, the dwelling must be separate and distinct from the location of the employer.
• Telecommuting Drafting Employees — Code 8871: This classification applies to telecommuting clerical employees engaged exclusively in drafting.

NCCI has taken into account the fact that many telecommuters only telecommute part of the time, coming into the office at other times. When an interchange of labor occurs between Code 8871 and Code 8810 (the in-office code for both Clerical Office Employees NOC and Drafting Employees), Code 8871 will be assigned when the employee spends more than 50 percent of the time telecommuting. However, if 50 percent or more of the time is spent in the office, Code 8810 will apply.

At this point, the rates for telecommuting clerical employees are generally the same as for office-based clerical and drafting employees. Whether they will remain the same, go up, or go down will depend on whether the losses arising from telecommuting are the same, higher, or lower than office-based clerical office employees and drafters.

So, at least for now, telecommuting should not adversely affect your workers compensation premium. That brings us to the back-end cost.

Loss Potential for Telecommuters

Current information about workers compensation claims from telecommuters is mostly anecdotal. Based on informal information, the short-term prognosis for claims is favorable. Traditionally, employers have feared that telecommuting employees will trip over the dog while watering the plants, break a leg, and file a huge claim. So far, these fears have proved groundless. In fact, the majority of telecommuting employees indicate that they would not consider filing a workers compensation claim for such an incident.

In fact, there has been a surprising lack of case law based on claims by telecommuters. There could be a number of reasons for this.

• First, claims for clerical and drafting employees are generally fewer and less costly than other employments, as is evidenced by the low rates applicable to Codes 8810 and 8871.
• Second, telecommuters are often longer-term, professional or “white-collar” employees. Such employees are traditionally less likely to file workers compensation claims.
• Third, what cases there have been have likely been decided on the facts of the individual claims, not on points of law.

On a long-range basis, however, telecommuters may be inadvertently putting themselves more at risk than those who work at their employers' offices. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) affect 1.8 million U.S. workers every year. A portion of these are occupational upper extremity cumulative trauma disorders (OUECTDs) such as thoracic outlet syndrome and carpal tunnel syndrome — disorders that can be caused or aggravated by poor office ergonomics.

While daily oversight of telecommuters is virtually impossible, you should establish guidelines for home offices or workstations. Doing so should go a long way toward minimizing the number of OUECTDs that may otherwise arise from your telecommuters.

Home-Office Ergonomics

Most companies that permit telecommuting do not provide the necessary equipment or set up the home offices for their employees, relying instead on the telecommuters to acquire and set up their own equipment. But work-related accidents are compensable whether they occur in an office at the employer’s premises or an office at the employee’s home.

Your offices have probably been set up with ergonomics in mind. Many companies even hire ergonomists to minimize the chances of their employees suffering OUECTDs. The same attention to ergonomics should be applied to your telecommuters.

Your telecommuters should have a dedicated workspace, both to qualify as clerical or drafting telecommuters and to help them separate work from home. The long hours that they spend there can be physically stressful. To reduce this stress, the workspace should be comfortable. Whether you provide the home-office equipment or rely on your telecommuters to provide their own, you will maximize their productivity and minimize their injuries if their home offices are set up to provide that comfort. Here are some guidelines you should give your telecommuters to help them design their work areas properly.

Computer Ergonomics

Much of telecommuting involves working with computers. The primary risk factors associated with any computer activity, including those of the telecommuter, include:

• repetition;
• awkward posture;
• forceful exertions;
• prolonged static sitting;
• eyestrain and fatigue; and
• work-surface contact.

Many of these risk factors can be, in effect, neutralized by working in a neutral-posture position. Neutral posture is the seated position that places the least amount of stress on the back, shoulders, neck, arms, hands, wrists, eyes, hips, and thighs. When seated in the neutral-posture position, the ear, shoulder, and hip should be in a vertical line so the back is as upright as possible. The wrist and elbows should be at the same height so that the wrists are straight and the forearms are parallel to the ground. Elbows should be resting comfortably at the side of the body. The knees and hips should be at approximately the same height so that the thighs are parallel to the ground. The knees and elbows should be bent about 90 degrees, and the feet should be flat on the floor.

Chairs

The office chair is the most critical piece of office equipment that your employees have. If you do choose to make an investment in home-office equipment for your telecommuters, this is where you should spend your money. This one piece of furniture can help reduce many of the stresses encountered at their telecommuting workstations, provided they select a well-designed chair. A properly designed chair can provide proper back support and allow them to adjust themselves easily to less stressful postures.

The chair should have a lumbar-support system, one both vertically and horizontally adjustable. It should also be easy to adjust the chair height up and down. Padding on the chair should be both adequate and breathable. These are the most critical features of a good, comfortable chair.

Look for the following design criteria when selecting an office chair:

• seat-height adjustments between 16 and 20 inches;
• contoured lumbar support 12 inches wide and 16 to 20 inches high, with the center of the lumbar support 6 to 10 inches above the seat pan;
• seat pan a minimum of 18 inches wide and 15 to 18 inches in depth;
• seat pan with rounded edges, able to tilt from 0 to 10 degrees backward and 5 degrees forward; and
• five-point star swivel bases and casters.

Armrests on the chair are appropriate only if they do not interfere with movement at the workstation. Ideally, armrests should be adjustable both vertically and horizontally. A locking backrest is comfortable for those times when the employee wants to lean back and talk on the telephone or when the employee wants to lock it in the upright position while working at the computer.

Workstation Adjustments

While nice, an adjustable-height workstation is not critical, provided that the chair can be used to adjust the employee to a neutral posture at the workstation. The important aspects of a workstation are leg clearance and the height of the work surface. Leg clearance is critical to comfortable posture while seated. Workstation height should be between 20 and 26 inches. Height to the home row (“asdf”) on the keyboard should be between 23 and 28 inches.

Begin at the Nonadjustable Point

If the workstation does not have an adjustable-height work surface, employees should make adjustments to the chair and the monitor starting from some nonadjustable point on the desktop. Usually, this is the home row of the keyboard.

• The height of the chair should be adjusted so that the employee’s arms are in the neutral position.
• Then, the height of the monitor should be adjusted so that the top of the screen is about eye level or slightly below (but no more than 15 degrees below). This will keep the chin level and reduce stress on the neck and shoulders. Keeping the monitor slightly below eye level may keep tear ducts active, which prevents the eyes from drying out.
• Next, the employee should check legs and hips to make sure they are at right angles, with the thighs parallel to the floor.
• Last, the lumbar support at the back of the chair should be adjusted so that the employee’s lower back is supported in the upright position.

Undoubtedly, some employees — the tall and the short — will have run into a problem by now. Either they will have run out of leg before their feet hit the floor, or they will have too much leg and feel like their knees are directly under their chins.

For those without enough leg to rest their feet flat on the floor, the simple solution is to provide a footrest to prevent their feet from dangling from the edge of the chair. Dangling legs can cause stress on the thighs and fatigue to the lower back. As an alternate solution, an adjustable-height keyboard tray will allow the employee to start adjustments from the floor and work up to the monitor. Another alternative is to lower the height of the workstation.

For those with too much leg and not enough room, the height of the workstation can be raised. A simple method to do this is to place blocks of wood under the legs of the desk. The blocks must all be exactly the same height so that the workstation is not tilted forward, backward, or sideways.

Body Positioning

Whether your employees use a personal computer (PC) with an independent keyboard or a laptop, they should center themselves to the keyboard to reduce stressful, awkward postures of the hands, wrists, and shoulders. If working on a keyboard, they should consider using an adjustable keyboard tray. The tray can give an additional dimension for adjusting the workstation to a more comfortable position.

The keyboard should be placed flat on the work surface. This means folding down the legs on the underside of the keyboard. This allows the wrists to be kept in a more neutral posture. Resting the palms, hands, or wrists on the sharp edges of the desk or other work surface reduces blood flow and nerve supply — thus, fatiguing the hand. To reduce exposure to contact stress, the work surface should have rounded edges. A simple method to round sharp edges is to secure a length of foam pipe-insulation to the front edge of the work surface.

Monitors

Monitors are a primary source of neck-shoulder stress and eye fatigue. Monitors should be placed at a distance of approximately 18 to 24 inches from the eyes. The monitor should be placed directly in front of the employee to avoid neck and shoulder stress from lateral head movement.

When working between documents and computers, your employees should use a document holder. The documents should be at the same viewing distance and height as the monitor. This positioning reduces stress on the neck from repetitive head movement. Repetitive head movement also requires the eyes to refocus each time the head is moved, which can contribute to eyestrain. If they wear eyeglasses, proper lenses are a must. Bifocals can be particularly problematic, requiring the wearer to tilt the head back.

Continuous and prolonged work on the computer can result in eyestrain. Following some fairly easy suggestions can reduce exposure to eyestrain. Employees should look away from the screen every few minutes at something at least 20 inches away so the muscle surrounding the eyes can relax. And they should blink! When we work on the computer, we tend to blink less, which dries the eyes.

Too much or too little light may bother the eyes. Monitors should be turned at a 90-degree angle from any windows. Employees should avoid either facing the window or having the window at their backs. Window treatments should be used and adjusted to compensate for external light sources. Employees should use task lighting over documents and writing areas. The brightness and contrast should be adjusted to levels that do not fatigue the eyes. Lighter backgrounds with dark characters are less fatiguing to the eyes. Matte finishes on work surfaces reduce reflected glare. And last, employees should clean screens regularly. Dusty screens may contribute to eye fatigue.

The Mouse

The mouse, a key component of any workstation, can contribute to physical stress. Extending one’s reach forward or reaching for the mouse on a higher surface than the keyboard can stress neck, shoulders, and wrist. The mouse and mousepad should be next to the keyboard to avoid extended reaches. If employees have keyboard trays, they should consider extended-length trays that will accommodate the mouse next to the keyboard. Alternatively, they may want to have an independent mouse tray.

The mouse should never be operated with a windshield-wiper motion of the wrist. The wrist should be kept straight, and the forearm, floated. Employees should also let go of the mouse while reading and printing e-mail and Internet documents. This allows the small muscles of the hand and wrist to relax and recover. Periodically, the mouse should be cleaned so the pointer tracks with the movement of the mouse. Another stress reducer is to develop macro or short-cut keystrokes to eliminate the use of the mouse for certain functions.

Reaches

Stress on the shoulders can be reduced by keeping frequently used items such as telephones and calculators within arms reach (16 inches). Repetitive reaches across the front of the body, behind the body, above the shoulders, and below the knees should be avoided. Another way to avoid stress is taking the occasional minibreak. For example, employees should consider locating their printers so that they have to stand up and walk to retrieve documents.

If your telecommuting employees spend significant amounts of time on the telephone, consider providing them with a cradle on the handset or, better yet, provide them with headsets. Squeezing the telephone headset between the neck and the shoulder can stress both the neck and the shoulder.

Read Telecommuting And Its Impact On Workers Compensation And Safety (Part 2)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Journal of Workers Compensation is a quarterly review of risk management and cost containment strategies published by Standard Publishing in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit our web site, www.standardpublishingcorp.com, or contact the editor at 800-682-5759, extension 222, or subscription services at extension 228.

riskVue | The webzine for risk management profesionals
February 2002