Have We Considered that it’s not Remote Work that Causes Mental Health Issues, but a Culture That Makes it Harder?
Years ago, I wrote something about the health issues that appear to be more common among night owls:
It may not be staying up late that’s killing us, but getting up early when we aren’t morning people, because the rest of the world believes that early risers are successful.
The thing is, when the entire world is designed around getting up early, and your natural body clock doesn’t match that, you might suffer when trying to live that way.
I was reminded of that recently, when we saw the recent headlines about a study showing that remote work causes mental health issues. I work remotely. I have much better mental health because of it, not worse. So, I had questions, starting with a simple one.
Does working remotely create mental health issues, or does working in a workplace that punishes you for it cause mental health issues?
Working remotely should benefit mental health. No commute, more control over your time, easier access to family, and to doing things in the community after work since you’re not spending an hour each way away from your community, not sitting in an open office with terrible fluorescent lighting, etc.
Statistically, however, it appears to do the opposite. I wonder why. But then I read things like this, and I start to see some connections:
Remote Work Is Causing a Silent Mental Health Crisis, and Forced RTO Won’t Fix It
“[N]o idle chitchat with a barista, no hello from a co-worker, no smile from a passerby at the grocery store,” the study noted. “As a result, the rise of remote work translated into large increases in overall time spent alone.”
This makes no sense. I just talked about how we would have more time without the commute, but you’re telling me remote workers spend less time in public? And then I remembered, when I’m not doing these things, why don’t I go to coffee shops very often, or have these kinds of little interactions?
Because I’m in fucking meetings all day and then doing actual work most of the night. That’s not a remote work issue; that’s a workplace issue.
We could create a workplace where people could work from the coffee shop and interact with other humans in person. Where they didn’t spend so much time working that they could use that saved commute time to attend community events. We just don’t. Instead, we expect remote workers to be available all the time; we tie them up in meetings for 5-6 hours a day because that’s how we “keep an eye” on them, and still expect them to hit all their deliverables.
So I’ll ask again: Is the mental health crisis among remote workers because of all the ways they are punished for working remotely?
Follow these topics: Mental Health
