Getting up right before the meeting starts and joining the rest of your colleagues all while making a cup of coffee or perhaps, waiting for the toast to be done and then spending more time with the family later in the evenings: seemed like the work-life balance was actually possible and beneficial with this utopian dream.

After 18 months of the pandemic, studies and surveys present a more nuanced view of the psychological and physical effects of remote working.

One thing is for certain: working full time from home has received a boost from the pandemic across different parts of the world.

Statistics may have reduced since then in areas where vaccination rates have increased and infection rates have decreased, but they remain much higher than before the outbreak.

Ineffective communications

Through recent studies, there is an increase in providing evidence of the consequences of working from home, such as a Microsoft research published in the journal Nature Human Behavior. The technology powerhouse that commissioned the study will transition to remote work in March 2020. From December 2019 to June 2020, the study examined data and correspondence from about 61,000 employees.

Undoubtedly, while working from home has indeed increased productivity, communication and collaboration between departments decreased.

Employees, in particular, spent less time in direct one-on-one conversations and instead relied more on emails or text messages. According to the authors, this causes employees to become disconnected and obtain less knowledge to be shared, and ultimately, this could have a negative influence on output and creativity.

The study, according to Hannes Zacher, an industrial and organizational psychologist at the University of Leipzig, shows only one side of the coin.

“While the Microsoft analysis provides a somewhat passive perspective, there is also data that demonstrates that the opportunity to work from home may be favourably embraced by employees – but only within a limited framework.”

Practicing shift schedules

As a result, research shows that working from home one to two days each week is excellent for employee satisfaction and productivity. Think of it as shift work, for example, you’re coming into work twice or three times a week, and the next week you’ll work from home. This will also ensure that companies are able to keep the number of present employees in the office low to reduce the chances of spreading COVID-19.

It would be feasible to converse not only online but also face-to-face in such a framework.

“From a psychological perspective, a video call is still preferable compared to an email.” In the long term, however, it cannot replicate face-to-face talks, particularly when it comes to trusting each other, working strategically together, or resolving disagreements.”

Zacher began surveying over 1,000 workers on their physical and mental wellbeing at the end of 2019. The start of the pandemic turned it into a long research: participants have been polled regularly since March 2021. The psychologist gathered data on the effects of the corona pandemic on the working world.

“Extroverts were happier and more comfortable than introverts before the pandemic took place,” Zacher says. He claims that this time has been reversed.

“The situation was more stressful for extroverts, while introverts coped better.” Reserved individuals, in particular, find formats such as video calls more enjoyable. This is in relation to the silo mentality where individuals prefer not to share details with different divisions of the same company.

Simultaneously, Zacher and his colleagues observed that teams separated into subgroups more quickly – an observation that corresponds to one of the findings of Microsoft’s study.

“A potential fiasco between personnel in the office and those working from home,” he notes.

Management must guarantee that there are no emotions of unequal treatment in this situation.

“Managers need to be able to communicate and justify work structures in order to ensure that neither employee satisfaction nor corporate culture suffers.”

In all of the debate about remote working, it is vital to remember that the workplace is also a valuable resource: “The office works as the great leveler in which everyone has the same chances,” says Zacher.

When working from home, however, socioeconomic aspects come into play.

“Spouses without children in a spacious flat may certainly work better at home as opposed to single parents or younger employees, for example, who live in shared flats or smaller places.”
— Alice Lanzke/dpa