In a recent NPR article, Rhitu Chatterjee examines a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report by economist Natalia Emanuel and her colleagues, who is also the lead author of a new study published in the journal Science.
“Other studies have found that workers are willing to give up 4 to 10% of their earnings in order to have the ability to work remotely,” Emanuel tells Chatterjee. “So there is a great desire for remote work.”
Despite the appeal of working from home, Emanuel and her colleagues found that these workers often felt more isolated, anxious, and depressed than those who work on-site. Speaking to NPR, Nicholas Epley, a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago who was not involved in the study, suggested that people may misjudge what is best for their well-being. A commute may seem like a clear disadvantage, he says, but the slow loss of everyday social contact can be far more difficult to notice.
Below are key highlights from the article:
- How they studied it. Emanuel’s team drew on five large national surveys, comparing workers in “remotable” jobs such as software engineering and marketing with those in “non-remotable” ones such as surgery or mechanical engineering. Chatterjee notes this comparison let the researchers isolate the effect of remote work, since no one had been randomly assigned to it.
- Isolation jumped. Workers in remotable jobs saw a 58% rise in hours spent alone compared with their non-remotable peers, and a 72% rise in the odds of going a whole day with no human contact. Emanuel added that they were not making up for it later either, with even their after-work time with friends falling.
- Mental health slipped. Those remotable workers reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression on a standardized questionnaire, made more visits to mental health providers, and used more prescription psychiatric medication, Chatterjee reports.
- Living alone made it worse. Chatterjee highlights the toll was sharpest for remote workers who live alone, who saw the biggest jump, 83%, in days spent with no social contact. Prof. Nicholas Epley told NPR that their rise in mental distress was almost twice as large as for those living with family.
- Why connection matters. Prof. Epley points to a long line of research showing that isolation harms both mental and physical health, including immune and cardiovascular function, and that the quality of a person’s relationships is the strongest predictor of well-being. Prof. Gillian Sandstrom, a psychologist at the University of Sussex, reportedly told that human connection and belonging are things people genuinely need in order to thrive.
- Not a return-to-office order. Chatterjee is careful to note the findings do not mean every office should force everyone back. Prof. Epley suggests employers instead make in-person time worth it, ensuring people who come in actually find coworkers and connection there. Prof. Sandstrom, who works from home herself, recommends building deliberate human contact into the day, like walking, seeing neighbors, and keeping up hobbies that put her around other people.
The takeaway is not that remote work is better or worse than office work. Instead, the article suggests that people need to be intentional about creating opportunities for social connection, whatever their work arrangement.
Acknowledgements: This summary was generated using AI writing tools as part of my AI Explorations process. For more, see the original articles linked below