The Mental Health Benefits of Working Remotely

I keep fruit and a glass of water nearby to remind me to pay attention to nutrition. Picking the right computer monitor or laptop, supportive chair and maybe even a laptop stand can make a huge difference. The New York Times’ Wirecutter site has some helpful ratings and recommendations for home office furniture and supplies. And project work for teams can be done more effectively with apps such as Basecamp, Asana and Trello. Imagine rolling out of bed in the morning and, rather than racing to get out the door and into morning traffic, you could go for a run or make yourself breakfast.

health benefits of working remotely

For instance, employees of color, who are more likely to report a hostile work environment and experience microaggressions (Pitcan et al., 2018), may choose to limit or even eliminate their interactions with prejudiced coworkers. A related benefit is increased equity for members of minority religious groups. Jewish and Muslim https://remotemode.net/blog/how-remote-work-can-benefit-employees-and-companies/ employees are more likely than Christian employees to experience prejudice and discrimination in the workplace (Cantone & Wiener, 2017). Christianity is often cast as the “default” religion; whereas workplaces often close during Christmas, employees of other religions must request time off to celebrate religious holidays.

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As a result, Becca says that employers and co-workers would assume she didn’t have any of her own ideas. This, and her discomfort with social situations and networking activities, made it difficult for her to get recognition for her work and the value she brought to her teams. Before the pandemic, 3.9 million workers decreased greenhouse gas emissions by the same amount as removing more than 600,000 cars from the road for a full year. By allowing employees to work remotely, you don’t have to worry that you’ll lose any of your talent when they decide to move to another city or even another country. They can continue to work just as they did before, so you won’t have to give up on them and start fresh with another team member. Many organizations spend years building the perfect teams of dedicated and talented employees.

health benefits of working remotely

Getting work done around the clock is particularly important for companies with a large customer service base that needs to be online non-stop. Productivity also gets a boost with this type of arrangement, as a second team can pick up right where the first team left off. Sondra is a versatile writer and editor with expertise in copywriting and reporting for a diverse set of clients and industries. She utilizes well-honed research and storytelling skills to quickly and consistently generate fresh ideas and perspectives. Sondra is recognized for her ability to locate authoritative sources, meet tight deadlines, and maintain a distinct voice while matching the tone of a given publication or brand.

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Lynne, as a mother to two young children, used asynchronous teaching to schedule her work around their needs, including online schooling schedules. Both of us have been able to schedule most of our work to match our availability, needing only to work around synchronous meetings. Similarly, working from home can weaken the “maternal wall” (Crosby et al., 2004), or the lower salaries and likelihood of promotion for mothers compared with women who do not have children. Further, even women who are pregnant and not yet parents face prejudice and discrimination in the hiring process (Morgan et al., 2013) and in the workplace if they are already employed (Williams & Boushey, 2010). By helping women avoid disclosing their pregnant or parental status, working remotely can reduce biases in hiring, performance evaluations, and pay and promotion decisions. One well-documented advantage of telecommuting is that it improves job satisfaction (Bloom et al., 2015; Gajendran & Harrison, 2007).

Overall, 39% of respondents reported having regulations on WFH in their employment contract. Contrary to our expectations, the availability of a company agreement on WFH showed associations with a higher number of stress-related symptoms. The COVID-19 pandemic is having a far-reaching impact on lives worldwide. The consequences for the world of work are drastic, and, at the same time, the pandemic is serving as a catalyst for new forms of work and accelerating digitalization. The aim of this study was to increase knowledge about the circumstances under which working from home (WFH) is beneficial to employees’ health and job satisfaction.

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They’ll provide feedback, support, and advice as you build your new career. You can develop digital collaboration abilities by familiarizing yourself with common tools and software used to link remote employees, including applications for sharing work files such as Google Drive, Dropbox and Box. In our quest to prove to employers how productive we are — sometimes to help prevent a layoff or furlough — it’s easy to lose track of time. Pedro Marques Quinteiro studies how teams work in space-analogue situations to predict and improve future work in space stations.