Why Working From Home Is Not Healthy
Right now the world is dealing with the Coviud-19 pandemic. While we are contemplating how best to deal with the virus, working from home is very much a reality. The practice is now becoming more popular. It has become a global trend. Many professionals are seeking a work-life balance and many companies are seeking to promote flexibility (Jones, et al., 2020). Not having to sit on a desk for more than eight hours forty hours a week. It can be exhausting. While working from home or remotely certainly has its pros, the cons are just as many.
Working from home is isolating. Having to stay indoors the whole day and not meeting friends and colleagues can get lonely. Isolation is a problem especially for older workers since they live alone and have no kids to distract them. According to research, social isolation increases the risk of heart disease, blood pressure, and cognitive decline among many other mental and physical illnesses. Home is a place to relax or spent time with friends and family. Working from home can take away this luxury because being busy means wanting no distractions. Therefore, even if one is not living alone, they can still get lonely and overwhelmed. Of course, loneliness has existed since the beginning of time, although, it can be torturous or chronic (Jones, et al., 2020). According to Julianne Holt, a psychology and neuroscience professor at Brigham York University, social isolation increases health risks as much as abusing alcohol or smoking fifteen cigarettes daily. She states that it is twice as harmful to mental health and physical health as obesity. More research has found evidence that loneliness increases premature mortality rates.
Working from home can make communication a challenge. Of course your coworkers and boss are not close by so you cannot just walk over to consult. So teamwork becomes a challenge since people are disengaged or out of the loop. Poor communication among remote workers and teams is common. There is inconsistency and miscommunication. Employees become overwhelmed with emails, calls, and messages. There is a lack of focus and a shared identity. When people working on the same team are not co-located, it creates a lot of miscommunication and little efficiency and performance. Managing a team is hectic especially if you do not meet them one on one. When a team is dispersed, getting the basics right becomes a big challenge. Developing team ethos also becomes a struggle in such a situation (Reshma, et al., 2015). Poor communication means that team goals and interpersonal relationships are not defined due to the lack of a face-to-face interaction because people are over-relying on emails and other alternative means of communication. The problem with relying on emails is they consume a lot of time and energy. Having to go through tens or possibly hundreds of emails and responding to them can be mentally and physically exhausting which is bad for an individual’s health and general well-being. With poor communication, companies fail to capitalize on their full potential. They also fail to maximize on efficiency and performance.
Another reason why working from home is not healthy is that it can contribute to unhealthy habits. Spending the entire day in pajamas neither boosts productivity, not morale. When we are constantly on our laptops, we forget self-care. Simple everyday routines that people do in the morning before leaving for work like taking a shower, brushing their teeth, or grooming themselves fail to become a necessity. Bad eating habits are another challenge. The dangers of eating poorly are real for those working from home (Reshma, et al., 2015). Working from a physical office is beneficial for the body and mind because it makes one active and on their toes. Working at home does not involve moving around or going for short walks. This is not good especially if a person has bad eating habits. It could lead to obesity or becoming overweight. Another bad habit is neglecting one’s health. Most people who work from home get through minor ailments without seeking medical attention. They often go for off the counter medicines, meaning they self diagnose which is dangerous for one’s well-being since the problem could be more serious than it seems. Overworking is also a challenge. Most remote workers cannot switch off when they need to. They work too much. This habit is very common among people working from home. They get too entangled in work thus forgetting to take a break (Reshma, et al., 2015). Working in a physical corporate office is better because people are allowed to take a tea break or a lunch break. However, this is not the case with working from home because there is no schedule or routine. It can be exhausting and bad for one’s health.
In addition, remote working can be very distracting. Focusing becomes a struggle where there is constant noise from family members or children playing around (Shepherd, et al., 2016). One can be distracted by pets, a television in the background, or social media since there is no one there to supervise them. One of the main distractions of working from home is kids. They tend to fight, run around or watch TV so it becomes hard to focus while trying to keep them in check. Household chores like washing dishes, doing laundry or running water are major distractions. Cell phones are another distraction. You may keep checking messages and social media. Such unhealthy habits hinder productivity.
Lastly, working from home can have a negative impact on a person’s mental health. Sometimes work can be overwhelming and with no one around to consult or to keep one psyched or motivated, it can be bad for an individual’s mental well-being due to fatigue, frustrations, stress, and loneliness. Employees will most likely be reluctant to seek mental help because of the stigma that is attached to mental illness and the fear of putting their job at risk or even worse losing their job. When one is fostering feelings of loneliness and disconnect, they lack motivation and struggle to set boundaries. This becomes a challenge because it is bad for mental health and also reduces productivity.
In conclusion, human capital is considered to be a valuable resource to the economy but when it comes to making the most out of this resource, many organizations and businesses fail miserably by losing focus. Of course, companies are looking for sustainability. But it is good to remember that employees are in fact human. Therefore, for them to thrive at work, they require support and care. Companies ought to understand how best to support their employees and acknowledge their mental well-being as a significant part of their business model. Employees also have a duty to stay professional and ethical even while working at home to maximize on productivity and efficiency. They need to have self-drive and focus. To put it simply, they need to separate work and home life to be productive.
References
Jones, C. J., Philippon, T., & Venkateswaran, V. (2020). Optimal mitigation policies in a pandemic: Social distancing and working from home (No. w26984). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Reshma, P. S., Aithal, P. S., & Acharya, S. (2015). An empirical study on Working from Home: A popular e-business model. International Journal of Advance and Innovative Research, 2(2).
Shepherd-Banigan, M., Bell, J. F., Basu, A., Booth-LaForce, C., & Harris, J. R. (2016). Workplace stress and working from home influence depressive symptoms among employed women with young children. International journal of behavioral medicine, 23(1), 102-111.