How to make any office setup work better for your body with what you have
Nicola Tik
Not every office setup is complete. A monitor that is missing, a mouse that is not there, a chair that is not quite right, or a laptop stand that never materialised can all affect how the body loads through a working day. The good news is that a surprising amount can be done with everyday objects and simple habits to close the gap between the setup you have and the one that would work best for your body.
A laptop screen sitting flat on a desk is one of the most common sources of neck and upper back strain in office environments. The screen is almost always too low, which encourages the head to drop forward and down for hours at a time, placing significant and sustained load on the muscles at the back of the neck.
Raising the laptop to bring the screen closer to eye level makes an immediate and meaningful difference. A stable stack of books, a ream of paper, a box file, or any firm object of suitable height works just as well as a dedicated laptop stand for this purpose. The top of the screen should sit roughly at eye level when you are sitting back comfortably in the chair.
The trade-off is that raising the laptop makes the built-in keyboard too high to use comfortably. If a separate keyboard is available, even a basic one, use it on the desk at the lower level while the laptop screen sits elevated. If no separate keyboard is available, the neck benefit of raising the screen has to be weighed against the wrist and shoulder cost of using the elevated keyboard, and frequent movement breaks become more important to compensate.
Using a laptop trackpad for a full working day places a sustained and repetitive demand on the thumb, wrist, and forearm of the dominant hand. It is a smaller movement surface than a mouse, which means more frequent and more precise small movements are required to navigate the same distance.
If a mouse is not available, a few habits reduce the trackpad load. Keyboard shortcuts replace a significant number of mouse actions and are worth learning for the most frequently used functions. Increasing the pointer speed in the trackpad settings reduces the physical distance the finger needs to travel to move the cursor across the screen. Taking regular breaks from trackpad use and stretching the hand and wrist gently during those breaks reduces the accumulation of repetitive strain through the day.
If a mouse becomes available at any point, even a basic one, using it for the more demanding or prolonged tasks and reserving the trackpad for lighter use distributes the load more evenly.
A built-in laptop keyboard places the hands and wrists in a position that is determined by the laptop size rather than by what suits the individual body. For many people this means the wrists are held at a slight upward angle and the elbows are closer together than is comfortable for sustained use.
Keeping the laptop as close to the body as possible, rather than pushing it to the back of the desk, reduces the forward reach required and brings the elbows closer to a right angle. Taking regular breaks from typing, shaking the hands and wrists out gently during those breaks, and varying the tasks being done so that sustained typing is broken up by reading, thinking, or other less hand-intensive work all reduce the cumulative load on the wrists and forearms through the day.
A chair that does not provide enough lumbar support, sits at the wrong height, or simply does not suit the body using it is one of the most common equipment gaps in shared office environments. As covered in the hot desking article, everyday objects can substitute for missing adjustability in most cases.
A folded jacket, a firm cushion, or a rolled towel placed in the curve of the lower back provides lumbar support where the chair offers none. A cushion on the seat raises the sitting height if the chair cannot be adjusted upward. A bag, box, or footrest under the feet supports them if the chair height needed for the desk leaves them dangling.
None of these substitutes are as precise as properly adjusted equipment, but each one meaningfully reduces the postural load that a poorly fitting chair produces, and the combination of two or three small adjustments can add up to a noticeably more comfortable day.
Whatever is missing from the setup, regular movement through the day compensates for more than most people expect. The MSK problems that arise from imperfect equipment are driven largely by the sustained and unvaried nature of the load they produce. Introducing frequent movement breaks interrupts that sustained load before it accumulates into significant discomfort, regardless of what the setup looks like.
A brief stand and gentle movement every thirty to forty minutes, even just standing up, rolling the shoulders back, and taking a few fuller breaths before sitting back down, gives the neck, back, and wrists a reset that no piece of equipment can fully replicate. On a day when the setup is less than ideal, more frequent and more deliberate movement breaks are the single most effective compensation available.
The VIDA hot desking assessment uses your webcam to give you a personalised read on how your current setup is affecting your screen height and distance, which is particularly useful when working with whatever happens to be available. It takes only a few minutes and takes the guesswork out of knowing what is and is not working for your body on any given day.