Two thirds of employees think remote working is damaging their mental health, according to anonymous workplace app Blind.
Although many have said that the shift to remote working could have a lasting impact on the way we work, with a new emphasis on flexibility and a move away from office-based working, working from home is also having an impact on employee mental health.
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Difficulties differentiating home and work life, the pressure to be “always on” and a lack of social interaction or support from employers may be having a negative impact on some employees’ mental health.
A poll from a Google employee on Blind, which has 3.6 million users, asked “Is WFH hurting your mental health?”. The poll had 9726 responses from professionals, and 66% said that working from home was hurting their mental health.
According to Blind, employees working for Yelp, Facebook, Paypal and Yahoo were most affected at 80%+, and those employed at Snapchat, Workday and T-Mobile were least impacted, at less than 55%.
An engineer working for Microsoft responded with their experience of working from home, saying that “the extended working hours and no line between home and work are certainly hurting”.
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By GlobalDataHowever, for some, remote working may have significant benefits, with a survey from Adzooma revealing that 39.9% of respondents enjoy the flexibility working from home brings, whilst 37.6% said the lack of commuting, followed by 13.4% who said they like having the space to concentrate.
While 60% of people surveyed said they would like to work from home if they had the choice, 63.6% of respondents admitted that they miss aspects of working in an office.
It is clear that organisations must take both the positive and negative aspects of remote working into consideration when deciding how to move forward.
Mental health charity Mind recommends that employees maintain a positive work/life balance, check in with team members regularly, take advantage of technology, establish new ways of working, encourage team members to create a wellness action plan and encourage team members to use support tools available.
