An overview of the emotional impact of working from home (WFH)
What one year of pandemic has taught us
One year has passed since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, on the 11th of March 2020. While a lot has changed since then, one challenge is still the same: people are constantly juggling with their emotions in the context of recurring restrictions and social distancing regulations all over the world.
Among all scenarios, being emotional can represent a challenge if you are working from home (WFH) for most of your time. With being emotional we mean the experience of emotions - pleasant and unpleasant - which we most likely all know, as human beings and as remote workers.
Luckily, researchers could not help but study the emotional implications of WFH during the pandemic. So, while our lives have not gotten back to normal, at least we can find some pieces of learning by looking back at the past year, which might help us navigate this time of uncertainty. Here are the main research findings since the pandemic started.
1) An emotional mix
While working from home, you might feel torn between the happiness of working from your sofa and the frustration for being stuck in it. Remember: you are not alone in that. Remote workers tend to have contrasting feelings towards being forced at home. Most people express overall positive emotions (trust, anticipation and joy) connected to WFH - at least according to a data collection made on Twitter (1) . At the same time, research reports a whole range of psychological struggles connected with being stuck at home, among which: feeling more stressed, anxious, nervous, isolated (2) - socially and professionally.
2) The ingredients for your mental wellbeing
As you might have noticed yourself, WFH can be the greatest experience - rolling out of bed just to start your work day on your couch, so cozy - as well as your worst nightmare - also rolling out of bed just to start your work day from your couch, so depressing!
According to a cross-country study run in 2020 (3) , the flavour of your experience depends on different factors in your life. Among these are your individual traits, your support network, the physical space you work from, your eating and sport habits. Staying physically active, eating healthy, having an adequate, ergonomic working space contributes to your mental wellbeing. Also, having a strong support network from your colleagues and your managers seems to make a difference. As being physically isolated might impair the trust within the team, nurturing those work relationships seems to positively impact remote workers’ mental wellbeing.
3) A double-edged sword
It seems very clear that being a remote worker during the pandemic can have quite strong advantages and challenges at the same time. Staying home allows individuals to be more flexible with their schedule - maybe to spend more time with their family, or manage their own working hours and commitments. This might explain the positive feelings that many remote workers seem to hold. On the other hand, WFH also means having more blurry boundaries between work and everything else. When this happens, people tend to feel more stressed and overwhelmed because it seems that one could always get more things done - answer this one more email, finish that presentation, read that article. Flexibility and overwork seem to be two sides of the same coin (4).
For this reason, it is essential to find strategies that allow us to benefit from the opportunities of being a remote worker, while limiting the negative effects which may come along with it. All things considered, here are a few highlights on how individuals and communities are adapting to uncertainty and coping with emotional challenges.
Moving forward: becoming more resilient communities and individuals
According to the last research findings, it seems that the pandemic allowed remote workers to experience both benefits and challenges. On an emotional level, this means that different remote workers might have different emotional experiences, depending on different factors (as we have seen above). So what is the common ground between these different experiences?
One answer to this question is that we have all become more resilient. Psychologists define resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress (5) . Undoubtedly, these are stressful times we are living in. While different people have been differently affected by the change of circumstances, we are all striving to adapt to the new reality. Both as individuals and collectives we have found ourselves in need of regulating our social and emotional systems.
We have learnt to accept that distress and anxiety are normal responses to a situation as threatening and unpredictable as the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, we have also understood that quarantine measures have a negative impact on mental health, especially when they are not adequately integrated in how individuals make sense of their life. Research investigating resilience suggests that the more in control individuals feel towards a stressful situation, the better they will cope with it. (6) Therefore it is of huge importance to empower individuals and communities with a sense of control.
Companies which have adapted their working methods to implement remote work are an example of how communities engage in regaining control. By doing so they have become more resilient, and less vulnerable to the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic.
As individuals, a way to move forward is by focusing on four core elements that contribute to our wellbeing: connection, wellness, healthy thinking, and meaning. (7) Good advice on strategies to foster all these elements has been spreaded everywhere. (8) From our side, creating connectedness became a lifestyle. We encourage people everywhere, and especially remote workers, to invest time and energy into building bridges with colleagues, chatting with friends and family, and opening up with someone of trust about life’s struggles.
Nowadays, more than ever before , it is important to prioritize genuine connections and seek trustworthy and compassionate relationships, in which our feelings and needs are validated. And remember: if you ever feel like you are not able to function properly, ask for professional help. All of the above will support us in building our own resilience, allowing us to navigate changes and uncertain times with more ease.
——————————————————————————————-
Article requested by Alreal Consulting and written by Marta Vera-Cruz and Valentina Bianchini from Connecting with Empathy.
Connecting with Empathy supports individuals, teams, and organizations in improving their relationships by shifting their communication style. They facilitate group processes that foster connection, empathy, and the emotional well-being of individuals and groups. In their Facebook page you can find out more about their work.
—————————————————————————————-
References:
Dubey & Tripathy, 2020
Chung, Heejung and Seo, Hyojin and Forbes, Sarah and Birkett, Holly (2020) WORKING FROM HOME DURING THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN: Changing preferences and the future of work. University of Kent
Xiao, Becerik-Gerber, Lucas & Roll, 2020
Chung, Heejung and Seo, Hyojin and Forbes, Sarah and Birkett, Holly (2020) WORKING FROM HOME DURING THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN: Changing preferences and the future of work. University of Kent
American Psychological Association. (2020, February 1). Building your resilience. http://www.apa.org/topics/resilience/
Vinkers CH, van Amelsvoort T, Bisson JI, et al. Stress resilience during the coronavirus pandemic. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2020
American Psychological Association. (2020, February 1). Building your resilience. http://www.apa.org/topics/resilience/
For example here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/mar/19/from-keep-fit-to-sex-how-guardian-readers-have-boosted-their-mood-during-the-pandemic
