Due to the Corona pandemic, many people have become acquainted with working from home. Before the corona pandemic, only 4% of employees in Germany were still working from home. In the first lockdown in April 2020, that number had already risen to 30%. At the end of January 2021, a quarter of all workers worked exclusively or mainly from the home office.

The home office has rapidly increased in popularity due to the Corona pandemic. 70 percent of Germans now support a legal right to work from home.
The role of the employer

For many employees, working from home offers the opportunity for a better work-life balance and more flexible working.
For companies, however, this presents a new challenge to find employment law, organizational and technical solutions for working from home. According to the Labor Ordinance (Arbeitsstättenverordnung) the employer is obliged to make provisions for furnishing the home office such as laptops, screens but also the furniture.

The website werktsrechte.de explains what a home workplace must meet:

If you mainly work sitting, then you should definitely buy a height-adjustable desk if you have a home office. The office chair should have several adjustment options and encourage good posture. This way you can avoid back pain and a stiff neck. Do not place the table and chair directly in front of the window, but parallel to it so that the sun and light do not dazzle while working.

Employees should pay particular attention to the following when it comes to chairs and desks in the home office:

Office chair:

• Seat height corresponds to the back of the knee
• Firm contact with the backrest and at least two finger widths from the front of the seat to the back of the knee
• The armrest corresponds to the height of the elbow above the seat
• The back supports the back and follows every movement

writing table:

• Minimum  72 cm high
• Dimensions worktop 160 x 80 cm
• Printers and other vibrating equipment should standonanother tabletopstandaardstand
• enough legroom
• anechoic surface
• tiltable if necessary

Get enough exercise:

It has been clear for several years that sitting still for long periods of time leads to health risks. As soon as we sit down, the body goes into standby mode. The electrical activity in the leg muscles is turned off. Fat-burning enzymes go down, blood sugar rises, calorie consumption drops to 1 per minute. In other words, sitting makes you fat. After two hours of sitting, the 'good' cholesterol, which protects the blood vessels against arteriosclerosis, drops by 20 percent.
There have been warnings about these health risks for years. A study by the National Institute of Health Research at the University of Leicester combined the results with nearly 800,000 participants worldwide and concluded that prolonged sitting clearly increases the risk of diabetes II, cardiovascular disease and the risk of premature death. The links between prolonged sitting and cancer are also attracting attention. A study commissioned by the US government has shown that prolonged sitting permanently slows gastrointestinal activity and that 10% of all cases of colon and breast cancer can be attributed to prolonged sitting.
A disadvantage of working from home is that this lack of exercise increases even further. People no longer have to travel to work and to speak to a lecture they pick up the phone or send an email. It is important to make up for this lack of exercise by exercising during the day if possible.
Thanks to the smartphone it is nowadays easy to see how much people move; a pedometer or a step counter (climbing stairs) is standard on the iPhone. This makes the lack of movement quickly clear. The WHO recommendation is 10,000 steps per day, which we all should at least move. By working from home, this is quickly reduced to only 1500 steps per day.
This can be compensated by scheduling a long afternoon walk as standard. Doing exercises at set times where all muscles in the body are activated can help (please note this is not about intensive sports): https://www.teamgeist.com/blog/5-uebungen-fuer-bewegung-im- home office/

We now know that sitting too much can pose a high health risk. To counteract the health risks of the sitting marathon that many of us take on a daily basis, the type and duration of sitting is essential. Sitting stiff for hours in particular damages our back enormously. The more dynamic we sit and the more we move in the workplace, the better it is for our health


Sources;
https://www.arbeitsrechte.de/home-office/
https://de.statista.com/themen/6093/homeoffice/#dossierSummary
https://www.gesundheitsmanagement24.de/home-office-bewegungsmangel/  Broschuere_Gesundheitsrisiko_Sitzen_AGR_web.pdf