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.