Creating Safe Work From Home Practices in Canada and How Employers Can Monitor Them Responsibly
Most Canadian workplaces didn’t grow into remote work gradually. They were thrown into it. One week people were commuting, sharing meeting rooms, and asking each other about lunch plans, and the next they were dialing in from kitchen tables, spare bedrooms, and anywhere they could find a quiet corner. What many hoped would be temporary has become a defining feature of modern employment.
Today, more than four million Canadians work from home either full-time or in a hybrid arrangement. What’s interesting is how permanent it feels now. You can tell from the way job postings openly offer remote flexibility, or how workers factor location into their work life balance with a seriousness that didn’t exist ten years ago. But something else emerged too: the realization that Canadian OHS responsibilities didn’t vanish just because the workspace shifted from an office to a living room.
If anything, they expanded—and got more complicated.
Employers didn’t lose their obligation to take every reasonable precaution for the health and safety of workers. They didn’t shed the requirement to recognize and control hazards or investigate incidents. In fact, they inherited an entirely new challenge: figuring out how to keep people safe in a place the employer cannot see, cannot control, and legally has no right to enter.
That challenge has shaped the last five years for Canadian OHS managers, and it isn’t going away.
This article explores what working from home safety really looks like now, what Canadian employers are expected to do, and how they can monitor risks without becoming intrusive or violating worker trust. Along the way, you’ll see the human side of remote work—the stories that reveal why invisible hazards are often the most dangerous ones.
The Problems You Can’t Always See
One of the most surprising shifts in remote work injury patterns is how quietly problems develop. In an office, discomfort is visible. A worker grimaces while stretching a hand. Someone rubs their neck. A colleague notices you’ve been sitting awkwardly for too long. Sometimes a supervisor simply walks by, sees a poor setup, and helps fix it on the spot.
At home, those small signals disappear.
Statistics Canada found that remote workers experienced significantly higher rates of new or worsening musculoskeletal issues. Many were using dining chairs, soft couches, or low tables not meant for day-long computer work. Add to that the lack of natural breaks—no coworker tapping your shoulder, no walk to the meeting room, no casual movement around the office—and the strain adds up fast.
The most common injuries weren’t dramatic. They didn’t come from falls or heavy lifting. They came from stillness. Hours spent hunched over a laptop. Shoulders gradually tensing. Eyes burning from prolonged screen time. These injuries escalated slowly, almost invisibly, until they became chronic.
You can imagine how someone might talk themselves out of reporting it.
- “It’s just a little stiffness.”
- “I probably slept wrong.”
- “I don’t want to bother anyone.”
- Or the classic: “I’ll deal with it later.”
A Vancouver safety manager told me about one of their employees, a high performer who never complained. She spent nearly eight months working from a wooden dining chair, convinced it wasn’t a big deal. By the time the pain forced her to speak up, she required months of physiotherapy. The claim was expensive, but the human impact was even heavier. She felt frustrated and ashamed for not saying anything sooner.
Remote work made private struggles almost invisible to the people who can help.
What the Law Expects From Employers
Every province and territory has made it clear: when employees are working from home, that space becomes a workplace under OHS law. Nothing about employer responsibilities disappears. In fact, because hazards in homes are harder to identify, documentation and proactive action become even more important.
The challenge, of course, is privacy. Canadian workers have strong privacy protections, and employers cannot simply inspect someone’s home or collect information that has nothing to do with safety. Monitoring must be reasonable, justifiable, and as non-intrusive as possible.
This is where many OHS managers feel tension. They’re responsible for hazards they cannot observe, injuries they cannot see forming, and environments they cannot physically access. They’re also responsible for maintaining trust and safeguarding privacy, especially in a time when digital monitoring tools are widely available and widely misused.
Canadian regulators don’t expect employers to supervise home offices the way they do factory floors. But they do expect employers to take reasonable steps to understand risks and to help workers control them.
Reasonable steps, in practice, look different from traditional workplace oversight. Instead of walking through a space, you walk through a conversation. Instead of inspecting equipment directly, you help workers assess their own environment. Instead of monitoring behaviour, you monitor risk factors.
It’s less about watching and more about facilitating safety.
The Human Hazards of Remote Work
When remote work first exploded, most employers focused on ergonomics. They imagined awkward chairs, laptops at poor heights, and cramped spaces. And they weren’t wrong. But the deeper risks were psychosocial.
Isolation, for example, can creep up on people. A worker who isn’t physically around a team can feel cut off in ways they don’t always articulate. Long periods without meaningful contact can contribute to anxiety, depression, and burnout. CAMH research found remote workers were more likely to report symptoms of emotional strain, not because they disliked working from home, but because the lack of separation between work and life caused stress to accumulate without relief.
Then there is the issue of work creep. Many remote workers start early, skip breaks, and stretch their days long past the time they would have left an office. They don’t always do it because they’re overwhelmed. Sometimes they just feel guilty stepping away. The result is chronic fatigue, eye strain, headaches, and long-term discomfort.
Environmental hazards also simmer quietly in the background. Poor lighting leads to eye strain. Inconsistent temperature control affects concentration. Electrical overloads from multiple devices plugged into a single outlet create risk of fire or shock. Pets, children, housekeeping items, or clutter can create trip hazards during the workday.
And there are more difficult realities. Some workers live in situations that are not ideal for long-term remote work. They might share tight spaces with roommates. They might have caregiving responsibilities that pull them in conflicting directions. Some face domestic or interpersonal stress that the workplace simply cannot see.
A single check-in could reveal that someone’s working environment is affecting more than just their productivity—it’s affecting their health, their mental wellbeing, and their ability to work safely.
The Question Every OHS Manager Asks
“How do we monitor remote safety without invading private life?”
Workers don’t want cameras aimed at their living room. They don’t want employers tracking keystrokes or screenshots. They don’t want supervisors appearing to question how they spend each moment at home. And the law supports those concerns.
But workers also don’t want to be injured. They don’t want chronic pain. They don’t want to feel cut off or invisible. In truth, most remote workers appreciate support when it’s offered respectfully.
The trick is monitoring the environment, not the person.
And that begins with shifting from “oversight” to “partnership.”
Starting with Conversations Instead of Surveillance
The employers who are most successful at managing remote safety approach it through dialogue.
One OHS director in Calgary told me about their first attempt at monitoring home office hazards. They asked workers to carry their laptops around and show their entire workspace on camera. The response was immediate. Workers felt uncomfortable, exposed, even embarrassed. Participation dropped, and the process backfired.
They tried again—but this time they treated the worker as the inspector.
They created a guided questionnaire that focused on physical comfort, lighting, posture, equipment, break habits, and any pain or discomfort. Workers could choose to share a photo of their desk if they wanted, but it was not required. Virtual consultations focused solely on equipment and posture rather than the rest of the home. Employees controlled what they revealed.
That small shift changed everything. Participation skyrocketed, and the tone of the program changed from oversight to support.
Workers felt respected, and employers gained the hazard visibility they needed.
Making Safety a Shared Responsibility
Monitoring remote work safety becomes much easier when workers understand their role in it. Many organizations now begin remote work arrangements with a simple conversation about responsibilities. The employer provides training, equipment, and support, but the worker agrees to maintain a safe workspace, report hazards or discomfort early, and follow recommended practices.
Some workplaces add a reminder that if a worker is regularly experiencing pain, strain, stress, or fatigue, they must treat it as a safety signal rather than something to push through. One OHS manager described how this single expectation dramatically increased early reporting and prevented several costly claims.
Workers don’t hide discomfort when they feel encouraged—not judged—to talk about it.
The Most Effective Way to Monitor Safety at Home
It isn’t a tool.
It isn’t software.
It isn’t a dashboard.
It’s a blend of consistent communication, clear expectations, and thoughtful support.
Most organizations now begin monitoring with a remote work policy that outlines what a safe setup looks like, how workers can report hazards, and how the employer will help them. This policy sets the tone and creates a shared understanding right from the start.
From there, the real monitoring happens through regular check-ins. These aren’t performance conversations. They’re wellbeing check-ins, the kind managers used to have informally in hallways or during coffee breaks. A simple “How are you managing your workload?” or “How are you feeling physically?” often opens the door to issues that would otherwise stay hidden.
These conversations help employers identify risks before they appear in claim files. They also create a sense of connection that keeps remote workers from feeling invisible.
And on the practical side, hazard assessments done by the worker—guided by clear questions—offer insight into ergonomic issues, environmental factors, and work habits. When employees feel safe being honest, these assessments become some of the most valuable monitoring tools you’ll ever use.
Why Equipment Matters More Than You Might Think
One of the most consistent findings across Canadian employers is that providing proper equipment prevents the vast majority of remote ergonomic injuries. Something as simple as an adjustable chair or external monitor can change posture, reduce strain, and prevent months of pain.
Workers often don’t ask for equipment because they don’t want to seem demanding. They downplay their discomfort or assume that their improvised setup is “good enough.” When employers proactively offer proper equipment, workers feel supported, and claims drop.
A Halifax insurance company once reported a 70 percent reduction in home office injury complaints after sending standardized ergonomic kits to employees. It wasn’t complex. It was simply thoughtful prevention.
Seeing Patterns Before They Become Problems
Monitoring isn’t about watching people work. It’s about watching for trends.
If several workers report similar kinds of discomfort—wrist strain, headaches, back pain—it’s a sign that something systemic is happening. Maybe people aren’t taking breaks. Maybe they’re working too long at laptops. Maybe lighting is poor in winter months. Maybe screen heights are too low.
When you see the pattern, you can intervene early.
Sometimes the solution is a quick training refresher. Sometimes it’s a reminder about microbreaks. Sometimes it’s offering an optional virtual ergonomic consult. Sometimes it’s as simple as encouraging workers to step outside for fresh air.
The point is that monitoring identifies the story early enough to change its ending.
When Incidents Happen at Home
Remote work incidents can be just as serious—and just as compensable—as any in-office injury.
In Ontario, a worker slipped on her own stairs during her lunch break and was awarded workers’ compensation because the break occurred during her scheduled workday. In Québec, a worker strained their back while reaching for files needed for work, and the claim was accepted even though the injury happened in the basement.
These cases highlight why monitoring matters. If an investigation uncovers a preventable hazard the employer never asked about, the question becomes whether the employer met its duty of care.
Monitoring is your evidence of due diligence. It shows that the employer took reasonable steps to prevent harm, even in a home.
A Story That Stays With You
A supervisor from Nova Scotia once shared a story about an employee named Sarah. She was reliable, disciplined, and always pleasant. When remote work began, she set up her laptop in a spare room and did her best to adapt. What no one knew was that she was struggling with constant shoulder pain. Her chair wasn’t supportive, her monitor was too low, and she didn’t want to sound like she was complaining.
Months went by. Meetings came and went. Deadlines were met. And Sarah got quieter. She started working later, taking fewer breaks, and pushing through the pain until she couldn’t ignore it anymore.
One day, during a routine virtual check-in, her supervisor simply asked, “How are you doing physically? How is the setup working for you?”
Sarah paused. Then tears filled her eyes.
What followed was not a performance conversation. It was a safety conversation. The company arranged an ergonomic consult, shipped her proper equipment, and helped her rebuild healthy work habits. The change in her wellbeing was so dramatic that six months later she told her supervisor, “That one question saved me.”
That story is a reminder that monitoring isn’t always about tools or policies. It’s about presence. It’s about attention. It’s about asking questions at the right time and caring about the answer.
What Good Monitoring Looks Like in Practice
Monitoring remote work safety isn’t a single task. It’s an ongoing relationship between employer and worker. When it’s done well, it feels natural. Workers don’t experience it as oversight—they experience it as support.
In practice, this means helping workers assess their own spaces. It means offering training on ergonomics and wellbeing. It means checking in consistently. It means providing proper equipment before problems form. It means listening when someone mentions discomfort. And above all, it means documenting the steps you’ve taken to show due diligence.
When employers do these things, workers feel safer. Claims drop. Productivity rises. Engagement improves. And the organization shows that it values people—not because of what they produce, but because of who they are.
Remote work changed everything, but it didn’t change that.