Employees love working from home. But do they have the same benefits as commuters? A new study says no

Remote work has experienced a spectacular rise in popularity since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a new study suggests that this practice has made employees feel more socially isolated, more anxious and depressed compared to those who work physically in an office or other work environment, writes National Public Radio (NPR) on Monday.

• A study from Romania also points to the negative effects of telework, such as social isolation and health problems

“Other studies have found that employees are willing to give up 4-10 percent of their income to be able to work remotely,” said Natalia Emanuel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and lead author of the new study, published in the journal Science. “So there is a great desire to work remotely.”

However, she and her colleagues found that people with “remote” jobs (working at a distance) experienced an increase in the number of hours spent alone during the workday and more visits to mental health providers. In self-reports, they also rate their own mental health negatively.

How is working from home changing us?

The study's findings suggest that “people may be making the wrong choices” when it comes to their well-being, said Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, who was not involved in the study.

This is probably because “it's very easy to admit that the commute is a nuisance and the traffic is terrible,” compared to anticipating how the loss of social benefits at work will affect us in the long term, the professor said. His own research has shown that people “underestimate how well things will go when we make the effort to interact with others,” he added.

Nicholas Epley says that Natalia Emanuel and her colleagues who worked on the new study found a way to answer a question he is often asked: “What effect does working from home have on us?”

“Everyone wants to know how does this change things? And usually the answer is we can't really say,” he explains. “We can't really say because people weren't randomly assigned to work from home or not, like in an experiment”

“Remote” jobs vs. the “non-remote” ones

To get around this problem, Natalia Emanuel and her colleagues analyzed data from five large national surveys of American workers, both in jobs that allow remote work, such as software engineering and marketing—so-called “remote jobs”—and those whose work cannot be done remotely (“non-remote jobs,” such as surgery or mechanical engineering).

The authors of the study found that employees with jobs that allow remote work recorded a 58% increase in hours spent alone, compared to people with jobs that require physical presence. These workers also saw a 72% increase in the odds of spending their entire day without having any contact with other people.

“Not even a hello to the bartender, not even someone checking the ripeness of an avocado at the store,” Emanuel said. “Simply no human contact.”

Those who work remotely don't make up for this lost social connection by socializing after work, she added. “We even see a decrease in time spent with friends after work compared to people in professions that don't allow for remote work.”

Several psychotropic drugs

People who work from home also have an increase in symptoms of emotional distress, as assessed using a standardized anxiety and depression symptom questionnaire.

These people also had more visits to mental health providers and used more prescription psychotropic medications.

All of these effects were worse for teleworkers who live alone. For example, they saw the biggest increase – by 83% – in the odds of spending their days without any social contact.

“Also, the increase in mental distress is almost twice as great for those living alone as for those living with family,” Professor Epley observed.

It's no surprise, he adds. Dozens of previous studies have documented the negative impact of isolation and loneliness on our mental and even physical health.

“Being alone compromises the functioning of the immune system and the cardiovascular system,” Epley pointed out.

Studies have also documented that the most important factor that can predict well-being and happiness is “the quality of social relationships,” the professor said.

“Psychologists believe that this sense of human connection and belonging is absolutely essential to us as human beings, and that we cannot thrive but suffer if this need is not met,” says psychologist Gillian Sandstrom of the University of Sussex, author of Once Upon a Stranger: The Science of How 'Small' Talk Can Add Up to a Big Life.”

While the new study's findings are important, Epley notes that they “do not suggest that every office or employer should force everyone to come to work.” However, employers should take into account that remote working affects the mental health of employees and should find a way to make office work “more attractive to people”.

As many organizations begin to bring their employees back to work after the effects of the COVID pandemic have passed, Epley suggests, they should make sure that those who come to the office have other colleagues there. “What they bring to the workplace that is rewarding is the social interaction, the social connection,” he says.

And for those still working remotely, Sandstrom, who often works from home herself, recommends making an intentional effort to seek out daily human interactions, as she does.

“I get out of the house every day. I go for a walk, see my neighbors, pet some dogs,” she says. “I have my activities that I do. I play tennis. I have hobbies that mean I see other people.”

What a study from Romania shows

A similar study, but related to the situation in our country, analyzed the answers of 1,098 Romanian employees. Entitled “Telework Implications on Work-Life Balance, Productivity, and Health of Different Generations of Romanian Employees”, the study tracked the effects of telework on: work-life balance, productivity, physical and mental health, and generational differences.

The study was published in the scientific journal Sustainability in 2022.

The main conclusions reached by the study are the following:

• Most respondents reported greater flexibility and better time management;
• Many have perceived an increase in productivity, due to the reduction of time spent traveling and the ability to organize their schedule.
• At the same time, negative effects have been reported such as social isolation, the difficulty of separating professional life from personal life and health problems associated with sedentary lifestyle and increased time spent in front of screens, regardless of whether it is laptops, desktop computers or mobile phones.

The authors of the study are Ioana Simona Ivasciuc, Gheorghe Epuran, Daniela Roxana Vuță, Bianca Tescașiu, researchers from Transilvania University in Brașov.

Employee working from home laptop. Illustrative image. PHOTO: © dotshock | Dreamstime.com