subject: You Can Work At Your Kitchen Table. Should You? [print this page] One of the advantages of working at home is sometimes said to be that you can work at your kitchen table. It's meant to emphasize the flexibility you have when you work at home. But is working at your kitchen table really a good idea?
If you have an option, I'd recommend working elsewhere in your home. Sometimes the kitchen table really is the best choice for your situation. If you have a better spot to work, however, I'd suggest using it. There are a couple of reasons.
1. Too much in the middle of things.
The first problem with working at the kitchen table is that you're right in the middle of things. This makes it too easy to let work get in the way of enjoying your family life. It's too accessible, and too easy to stop and just do "one more thing" when you should be paying attention to other things.
It's also too accessible to any kids in the house. This is particularly true if you have little kids who don't always understand the limits you set. Kids can be accidentally destructive. We nearly lost my daughter's gingerbread house project, for example, because my son spilled water all over the kitchen table while the parts were sitting there. It's too easy to have things like that happen to your work things as well.
It's also not so good when you're trying to work. You're easily interrupted. You may be able to see what the rest of the family is doing and be distracted by the goings on. The kitchen table or other common areas of the home just aren't separate enough to give that "at work feeling" that helps many work at home parents focus on what they need to be getting done.
2. A kitchen table setup is rarely good ergonomically speaking.
Most of us don't pay a lot of attention to ergonomics while working. Many don't know that much about ergonomics. But if you want to keep working and cut down on the odds of repetitive stress injuries, you'll want to consider ergonomics, even if you feel comfortable working just about anywhere now. It takes time to get a repetitive stress injury, and they're no fun to recover from.
If you're having to bend your wrists much up or down in order to type, you're not in a healthy position. You're putting strain on your wrists.
You also shouldn't have to look up at your computer monitor. The top of the screen should be about level with your eyes. Looking up for long periods puts a strain on your neck.
While it's not easy to build the habit of paying attention to ergonomics, it's a really good idea to do so. You can save yourself a lot of pain in the long run. There's a lot more to it than these basics, but the general idea is to avoid putting strain on any parts of your body while you work. It wouldn't hurt to read up on ergonomics on your own.
