Working from home can have major health benefits, research shows
Working from home can help people eat healthier, feel less stressed and have lower blood pressure, according to a major review of the scientific literature on post-pandemic workplaces.
Yet home workers are more likely to eat snacks, drink more, smoke more and gain weight, according to the study by researchers from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and King’s College London. And employers who believe that people who work from home are lazy should think again: they are taking sick leave less often, working longer hours and working evenings and weekends.
The review, led by Charlotte Hall of the UKHSA, examined 1,930 academic articles on working from home, teleworking and other forms of hybrid and home working in an attempt to distill the often conflicting research.
Prof. Neil Greenberg, a psychiatrist at King’s College London and one of the study’s authors, said the research showed that employees and employers needed to consider working from home with the same seriousness as office work.
“Back in the day in the office, people realized that if you put everyone in the same room with no soundproofing, it was all unpleasant and you didn’t have a very productive workforce,” he says.
“Now that we have switched to a work-from-home culture, it is logical that organizations and the government ensure that people who work from home do so in the most effective way possible.”
The review, published in the Journal of Occupational Healthidentified three themes: the home work environment, the effect on employees’ lives and careers, and the effect on their health. Greenberg said the research shows there are winners and losers in many areas of working from home. The work environment depended on how much space there was at home, the equipment available and how much control employees had over their day.
People with higher incomes often enjoyed working from home more, but those with more responsibilities at home, such as childcare or housework – often women and singles – tended to be more stressed.
“Overall, people felt more productive at home,” Greenberg said. “It was especially good for creative things, but much more difficult to deal with annoying things. A lot of people were concerned about career prospects – the feeling that if you’re not in the office you’ll be overlooked.”
The health consequences were clearer. The transition to working from home during Covid was accompanied “by an increase in the intake of vegetables, fruit, dairy, snacks and home-cooked meals; younger workers and women benefited most from healthier eating,” the paper said.
One of the studies reviewed found that 46.9% of remote workers had gained weight, and another put the figure at 41%. Most articles examined showed that remote workers were more sedentary.
Greenberg said: “Managers have had to think about finding ways to support their remote workers and help create their work environment.
“There’s a great saying in science that at some point we have to stop admiring the problem and actually think about solutions,” he said. “We know a lot now. So we have to ask ourselves: ‘What is the best training for someone who wants to become a partial remote worker?’ What we don’t have to do is ask, “Would it be helpful to teach someone to do homework?” The answer is clearly yes.”
Since the end of Covid restrictions in 2022, some companies have pushed for employees to return to the office full-time, with the likes of JP Morgan requiring managers to be present five days a week.
“If companies like JP Morgan are afraid that people at home will be slack, or not doing their jobs properly, and they can’t keep an eye on them, then I think that’s an outdated concept,” Greenberg said.
Denying WFH options will mean talented workers can find other jobs, and make companies less flexible in the event of future crises, such as a new health emergency or strikes or severe weather that prevents people from reaching their offices, he added to.
“If they do it purely out of fear, they risk falling behind,” he said. “We’ve looked at a huge amount of evidence over the last few years and what our review shows is that there are ways to actually make the home working approach work well for the organization and also for the employee.”