How's your home office looking?

With the growth of telecommuting, safety in the home office is an issue for employers and workplace safety organizations worldwide, who are trying to unravel the legal and social implications of bringing home offices into line with general workplace standards.

But what of the self-employed freelancer? Should home office safety be an issue for the likes of us? You bet.

The image of the harried freelancer, surrounded by computer equipment, books and papers perched on the kitchen table, trying to meet a deadline, is a familiar one. But the safety issues it raises deserve a closer look.

Electrical Safety

Where is all this equipment plugged in? Does it have its own line and a multi-outlet unit with kill switch? Or does it erupt from one of the wall plugs in a mass of piggyback double adaptors resembling some monstrous electronic cancer, spewing electric cables over the benches and floor?

This kind of arrangement would not occur in a well run workplace and would incur fines if it did. It presents both fire and electrocution hazards, not just to the freelancer but also to the freelancer's family—including the children.

Making sure your electrical connections and equipment are safe is vital. Get an electrician's advice on this and make sure there is a kill switch in case of an accident. Losing a file on your computer is less traumatic than losing a family member.

Uncluttering the Filing System

Speaking of files, there is a common hazard most writers never think of.

Paper doesn't look dangerous, but it can present a major fire hazard if not properly contained.

I once worked in a newspaper office where the modular desks were set about a foot from the walls. Over the decades, journalists dumped old newspapers and dead copy into this space. One day, a new workplace safety broom from HQ came down to inspect us and had a conniption when she saw the "storage bin." She scolded us for working next to a major fire hazard.

Other things bothered her as well. The upshot of it was that we were relocated to a safer environment. But the general untidiness of the office was something we journalists should have prevented by storing the stuff safely.

A good filing cabinet doesn't just keep your papers in order, it also keeps them out of harm's way. Investigate the paper storage options that are best for your situation. Cardboard boxes are probably not the best option, but you can get a wide range of inexpensive cardboard storage boxes and file and magazine holders that will not only improve safety but will also make you more efficient. A lost document can be just as damaging to your career as a fire.

Keeping Hazards Out

Now it's time to have an overall look at your working space. Does it help or hinder your safety?

The best solution to home office safety is to have an area clearly defined as your home office. Working from the kitchen table may be romantic, but it creates a muddled situation in which accidents are more likely to happen. While you are lost in thought or pounding at the keyboard, you may forget something left on the stove. For work at home, time in the kitchen should be time in the kitchen—time at work should be time at work. Keep them separate, and you won't suddenly be summoned from your muse by smoke billowing out of the stove.

If it has to be the kitchen, at least separate your workplace from rest of the room with a fold out screen and make sure your work area has its own electrical outlet.

Protecting Your Eyesight

Which leads us to another important, but often overlooked problem of the workplace—does this text look blurred to you?

Adequate light is an important—most of us have suffered sometime or other by working in dingy conditions. In an away-from-home workplace, you can complain to your boss and demand better light. At home you might be prepared to overlook a less that adequate lighting arrangement—but this isn't advisable. If natural light is restricted, have a good desk lamp and make sure it is secure on its own shelf, not perched on the monitor or clinging to the tiny shelf space left by the printer or the fax.

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

As a freelancer, you have no one to answer except yourself when it comes to a safe office environment. The best safety rule is prevention.

Ask yourself how you feel when you get up from the desk. If you sustain a repetitive strain injury in an away-from-home workplace, there are regulations to protect you. But working at home, with yourself as boss, you need to look after your own safety to ensure that you will continue working free from injury.

Ergonomic office equipment is expensive but well worth it in the long run. You will spend a lot of time at your computer, so you need to ensure that that won't result in your having to spend a lot of time recovering. Try out office chairs and desks before you buy them. Some designs may simply not be suitable for you so you need to find the one that fits.

If you have to make do with ordinary furniture, try to correct problems by examining where the discomfort affects you. For example, you may need to raise your feet to overcome tingling-in-the-legs syndrome caused by an uncomfortable chair. If that happens, try putting a footrest under the desk. If your back hurts, experiment with pads and cushions for better support. But, the best solution is to put a correctly designed chair and a desk of the right height on your home business wish list.

Mice Can Be a Health Hazard

Having a desk of the right height can help you avoid repetitive strain injury and back pain, but you also need to look at the equipment on the desk.

Using a mouse and a keyboard can lead to long-term injuries caused by strain, so investigate ways to reduce that strain. Try changing hands with your mouse occasionally and arranging the mouse pad so that your wrist does not rest on the edge of the desk. Any numbness or tingling that results from holding the mouse too long is a warning. Stop, flex your fingers, take a break.

I use a "mouse pillow," which has proved very effective. It's simply a small beanbag, which stands in front of the mouse pad. My wrist rests on it whenever I use the mouse. It cushions my wrist against strain and allows it to relax while I use the mouse. I bought mine in a store, but they would be easy to make.

A well designed keyboard can also reduce strain and injury. And my personal tip is never use touch typing. Carpal tunnel syndrome seems to afflict touch-typing journalists I've worked with much more frequently than us hunt and peck writers, probably because we keep stopping to locate the keys.

Get Your Butt off that Chair

Do your knees fell like they are locked in a vice when you stand up? There is only one answer to that, I'm afraid, and that's regular exercise away from the keyboard.

Once you become your own boss, you may turn out to be a real slave driver. I know many freelancers who work at home and who simply won't let up on themselves—working hours that would be intolerable in the workplace.

The only time they get up from their desks is to grab a cup of coffee and a donut. As your own boss and your own union rep, you have to negotiate something better for yourself than that if you don't want to end up trying to meet a deadline from a hospital bed.

Try changing the coffee and donuts to mineral water and apples. It's not easy (trust me!) but start with just one coffee break and then work your way up. You don't have to give up on coffee altogether, but less is better, and the best way to avoid the donut and cookie syndrome is not to have them in the house. Just look at them on the shelves and think, I slaved to get that check for this? Buy yourself some aroma therapy instead.

The best tip of all is just not to sit there all day. Make it a practice to get up every hour at least, walk around, stretch and exercise a bit, and have a chat to someone, even if it's only your reflection in the mirror. Stagger your workday so stuff that can be done away from the computer can be taken out into the garden (not to the couch in front of the TV!) or the local park. Get a dog. Walking an excitable young pup is the best exercise I know. If you have kids at home, schedule some active playtime into your day. In less time than you think, you will see positive benefits in the way you feel, and the way you work. A safe workplace, and a refreshed body, mind and spirit, will do more to help you meet those deadlines than all the coffee in the world.