Work From Home Ergonomics: A Practical Home Office Setup Guide

What makes a good work from home setup?

Work from home ergonomics means fitting your home workspace to your body, and a good work from home setup lets you sit (or stand) in a neutral posture for the length of your workday. The rules are the same as in the office: HSE's good posture guidance applies "at home or in the workplace".

The core targets:

• Top of the screen level with your eyes, about an arm's length away.
• Shoulders relaxed, keyboard just below elbow height (our desk and chair height estimator gives a starting number).
• Mouse in line with your elbow.
• Seat that supports the front and back of your thighs, with a 2 to 3 cm gap behind the knees.
• Lower back supported.
• Screen and keyboard central, so you don't twist.

The main work from home ergonomics challenge is that you rarely have adjustable furniture. The rest of this guide is about hitting those targets with what you have. To check your current setup, start with the home workstation self-assessment.

How do you set up a laptop for working from home?

A laptop is the root of most home-working discomfort. When the screen is at a good height, the keyboard is too high, and when the keyboard is right, the screen is too low and your head drops forward.

HSE's guidance for prolonged laptop use is to:

• Use a separate keyboard and mouse, so the screen can be raised on a laptop riser or similar, or
• Use a separate display and treat the laptop as the computer only.

A stack of sturdy books works as a riser. Raise the laptop until the top of the screen is at or slightly below eye level (the screen height calculator works out the exact height), then type on the external keyboard at elbow height.

If you can't add a keyboard yet, at least avoid long sessions with the laptop on your lap, and take more frequent breaks.

How do you make a kitchen table work?

Kitchen and dining tables are often higher than office desks, and dining chairs have no adjustment. Work through it like this:

1. Raise yourself to the table. HSE suggests a cushion to raise your seated position if needed. Your elbows should end up at about table height.
2. Support your feet. Once you've raised the seat, your feet may not reach the floor. Use a footrest, a sturdy box or a stack of books. CCOHS says a footrest should support both feet flat and firm.
3. Support your lower back. OSHA suggests a rolled-up towel or a removable cushion as a temporary lumbar support. HSE also mentions a cushion for extra back support.
4. Raise the screen. Use a riser or books so the top of the screen is about level with your eyes.
5. Clear the leg space. Avoid sitting at a table corner or leg that forces you to twist.

Our full ergonomic desk setup guide explains why the order matters: chair first, then work surface, then screen.

Where should a home office go in the house?

Pick the spot for posture and light, not just for a nice background on video calls.

• Light. OSHA recommends placing the monitor perpendicular to a window. Facing a window means bright glare behind the screen; having the window behind you puts reflections on it.
• Space. You need room to push your chair back and move your legs.
• Separation. If possible, choose a place you can step away from at the end of the day.

HSE also lists stress and mental health and the working environment as things employers should consider for home workers, alongside equipment.

Do you need to buy an office chair?

Not always. HSE says home workers may not need office furniture or equipment at home to achieve a comfortable, sustainable posture, but employers should check that their own equipment is suitable.

If you do buy one, OSHA's priorities are an adjustable seat height, a backrest that fits your lower back, a seat depth that doesn't press into the back of your knees, and a five-leg base with casters. Try chairs before you buy where you can. The adjustment steps are in our proper sitting posture guide.

What does work from home ergonomics mean for employers?

In Great Britain, HSE's home-working DSE guidance sets out the main points:

• The DSE Regulations can apply to people who work at home long term or routinely split their time between home and the workplace (hybrid working).
• Workers are DSE users if they use DSE daily for continuous periods of an hour or more. The rules don't apply to occasional or short-period home use.
• Where the rules apply, employers should carry out a DSE assessment. In most cases they don't need to visit; workers can self-assess if they've had suitable training, such as how to use an ergonomic checklist.
• If someone works both at home and in the office, the assessment should cover both.
• Workers can't be charged for equipment the assessment shows they need.
• Employers must provide training on using the workstation, good posture and good working practices.
• Arrangements should be reviewed, especially if workers report aches, pains or discomfort.

HSE's employer overview adds that employers have the same health and safety responsibilities for home workers as for anyone else, and should talk to workers about their arrangements, since home working may not suit everyone.

The HSE DSE workstation checklist (CK1) is a free starting point for a home assessment.

Running home assessments at scale

For a distributed team, a typical approach to work from home ergonomics is a short training session, a self-assessment for every home worker, and follow-up by a trained assessor for anyone who reports discomfort or answers "no" to key questions. ViveLab's free workstation self-assessment is built for that first screening step. It flags issues for review; it does not replace the assessor.

How should you structure breaks at home?

Breaks are the part of work from home ergonomics people forget most. Home workers often take fewer breaks than office workers, because there are no walks to meeting rooms or coffee runs. HSE says short, frequent breaks are better than long, infrequent ones: 5 to 10 minutes every hour beats 20 minutes every 2 hours. Breaks should let you get up and move, or at least stretch and change posture. These neck, back and wrist stretches fit into a five-minute break.

Simple habits that help:

• Take phone calls standing or walking.
• Put the printer, water or coffee in another room.
• Use a timer. The 20-20-20 rule gives your eyes a regular break, and the same reminder can prompt you to stand.

What if you use a second screen at home?

Many home workers add a monitor next to the laptop. CCOHS splits multi-screen setups by how you use them:

• If you use both screens equally, put them in front of you with the inner edges touching and angle them into a gentle semicircle.
• If one screen is your main one, put it directly in front of you and place the second screen to one side, angled toward you.

In both cases CCOHS says the screens should be about an arm's length away and at the same height. If the laptop is the second screen, raise it so its top edge lines up with the main monitor. Our guide to ideal monitor height covers bifocals and wide screens too.

What are the warning signs your home setup isn't working?

Watch for:

• Neck or shoulder ache by mid-afternoon.
• Tingling or aching in the hands or wrists.
• Tired, dry or sore eyes, or headaches (see what helps an eye strain headache).
• Low back ache that improves on non-work days.

This article is general information, not medical advice. If symptoms persist or get worse, see a clinician and tell your employer, since it may also mean the workstation needs reassessing. Our guides to repetitive strain injury and eye strain remedies cover those symptoms in more detail.

Next steps

Good work from home ergonomics is built one change at a time. Run the home workstation self-assessment, fix the laptop setup first, then work down the list. For the full office checklist, read our guide to computer workstation ergonomics.