Last spring, more than one million Finns switched to remote work due to the coronavirus pandemic. Remote work will become increasingly common in the future, but research-based evidence on its overall burden is not yet available. Improving the conditions of remote work will support the health, work ability and well-being of the workforce.
Launched this January, the Working Conditions of Home Offices (ETERGO) study comprehensively examines the burden of remote work.
“This new study is highly innovative. For the first time, we are examining the conditions of remote work as a whole, taking into account physical and cognitive ergonomics, communality, and indoor air, and their associations with recovery from work, work ability and health,” says Postdoctoral Researcher Maija Leppänen from the Indoor Environment and Occupational Health research group at the University of Eastern Finland.
“Our objective is to carry out measurements and surveys to chart the indoor air conditions of home offices, including their room temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide content, pressure ratios, chemical pollutants and ventilation. We will also investigate the cognitive requirements and load factors of remote work and examine whether they differ from the conditions in the workplace.”
The study will be carried out in collaboration between the Indoor Environment and Occupational Health research group at the Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the Occupational Health and Ergonomics team at the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition. Expertise in cognitive ergonomics will be available from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. The project is funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund and the participating organisations.
Examining working conditions at home and in the workplace
The researchers will analyse employees’ working conditions at home and compare them to the same employees’ working conditions in the workplace.
“We are looking to include 70-100 home offices and their equivalents in the workplace. In addition to the university, we also have the City of Joensuu as our partner, and subjects for the study will be recruited from among the employees of the university and the city,” Leppänen says.
Employees’ offices will be studied in terms of their indoor air and ergonomics by conducting measurements and surveys. Surveys on cognitive ergonomics and strain will be conducted three times during the project.
“The participants will have an opportunity to participate in an online training of cognitive ergonomics. This intervention will use the Finnish Institute for Occupational Health’s online training for better flowing brain work. The training, to be completed independently by the participants, includes videos, reading materials, assignments, tests and discussions.”
The aim of the online training is to understand the characteristics and nature of brain work, to identify obstacles to and promoters of smooth brain work, to learn how to control workload factors and to streamline work, to discover tools the working community can use to streamline brain work, and to try in practice things that improve cognitive ergonomics.
“By identifying possible problems in remote work, we can also look for solutions to them. At the same time, we will develop guidelines for the self-identification of factors hampering remote work, and for improving well-being at work,” Leppänen says.
For further information, please contact:
Postdoctoral Researcher Maija Leppänen, tel. +358 40 355 2893, maija.leppanen (a) uef.fi
