Remote Work Loneliness and Isolation

Working from home is immensely popular, with most of us willing to sacrifice between 4% and 10% of our salary to do so. But a new study published in the journal Science has found a downside: People who work remotely are more likely to face increased anxiety, depression and social isolation, NPR reports. They’re also more likely to see mental health providers and take psychiatric medication.

Natalia Emanuel, an economist at Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the main author of the new study, said she and her colleagues found that workers in “remotable” jobs like marketing or software engineering experienced a 58% rise in hours spent alone compared to people who worked with others. Those working remotely also had a 72% rise in chances of spending their entire day without human contact.

“Not even like a wave to a barista,” said Emanuel. “Just no human contact at all.”

Perhaps worse, remote workers were also less likely to socialize after work. “We even see a decrease in spending time with friends after the work day relative to people in non-remotable occupations,” Emanuel told NPR. The jump in mental distress was also twice as high for those living alone as for people living with their families, researchers noted.

Remote workers were even more vulnerable to psychological distress if they lived alone, and 83% more likely to spend their days with no social contact than non-remotable workers. “It’s very easy to recognize that the commute is a pain in the neck and the traffic sucks,” compared to anticipating how missed social connections at work will impact us down the line, says Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. (He was not was not involved in the study.) His own research has documented that people “underestimate how well things will go when we actually reach out to connect with other people.”

Gillian Sandstrom, an associate professor of psychology at Sussex University, notes that psychologists believe this feeling of human connection and belonging is just absolutely crucial to us as humans, that we cannot thrive, we suffer, if we don’t have that need met.” Since she frequently works at home, she makes sure to take walks, talk with her neighbors, play tennis and engage in other activities that bring her in contact with other people.