All this week I have been working from home. That’s because it is the end of term at university and several rooms near my office are being used for exams. To avoid disrupting students, those of us with offices close to the exam rooms decided to work from home all week.
Like many people, I work occasionally from home. Most of my work is in the office, but now and then I stay at home. The past five days have been different, with the entire working week spent in my home office. That has advantages. It is next to the kitchen, so drinks and snacks are within easy reach. It also means the daily commute does not stress me, and my travel expenses have plummeted. Fantastic.
But hang on a moment, this working from home malarkey is not all good. For a start, it can be lonely. I’ve been home alone much of the week as my wife has been out working. Secondly, my step count has plummeted, so my watch keeps reminding me to be active. And as if that were not enough, I sat so long looking at the screen that I ended up with a headache. In the office, of course, I would move around much more.
This is an issue highlighted in a new study published in the past week in the journal Science. The research was led by the Federal Reserve in the USA, together with economists from Harvard and the University of Virginia. The study examined almost 600,000 people and specifically excluded the COVID pandemic years to ensure the data were not affected by those circumstances.
The results are stark. Working from home leads to significant loneliness and associated mental distress. The researchers concluded that “our findings suggest that workers may not realize the costs of remote work for their well-being”.
This coincides with a discussion I had last week with a colleague about working from home. I pointed out that one of the troubles people have when at home, rather than in the office, is the lack of social contact. Human beings are social animals. We are not built merely to exchange files and attend video calls. Much of what makes work productive happens in the informal moments: the quick conversation, the shared joke, the chance encounter, the moment when someone says, “While you’re here, can I ask you something?”
The problem is that increasing numbers of people are working from home. A six-year analysis from 2000 to April this year shows that although the number of people who work solely from home has fallen after the pandemic, the number of hybrid workers has increased. Indeed, nowadays most people do a job that involves working from home some of the time. Only around 40% of jobs are office-based full-time nowadays.
For businesses, this is a problem. Research has shown that when people work remotely, they are less creative. In turn, this reduces our ability to innovate when we work remotely from the rest of our team. Other research suggests that remote and hybrid work can reduce the kind of spontaneous interaction that supports innovation. Just when the world’s economic and political situation means we need to be creative and innovative, businesses have reduced their ability to do so by sanctioning excessive home working. And that’s before you take into account the need for innovative and creative solutions to deal with the impact of artificial intelligence on business.
Research from Arizona State University also suggests that remote working is worse the higher up the organisation you go. This study of CEOs found that those who worked from home performed worse. The businesses they led ended up with lower performance, reduced valuations, and poorer reviews from staff.
Senior staff may argue that working from home gives them more family time and that technology allows them to be flexible and productive. However, over eight years ago – before the pandemic – I pointed out that this kind of thinking is allowing the technology to control the business rather than us.
Working from home does indeed appear to improve individual productivity. We can get on without interruption, and we are less stressed. But that boost to individuals appears to come at a cost to the business as a whole.
That seems to have been realised by many companies that are now revising hybrid work arrangements. However, as more companies force people back to the office, it appears that our love for working from home is leading to remote working going “into the shadows” or “under the radar”.
The question, therefore, is not why people love working from home, but why they dislike the office so much. Even though the desire to be social is significant, many offices are decidedly unhomely. Old equipment, poor lighting, and a lack of comfort will make people prefer home to the office. If your business wants people to return to the office to boost creativity, innovation and productivity, rather than setting rules, perhaps it is better to consider the working environment and radically change it.
