Is Working from Home Bad for You?
by Authentic Archive on Jan 23, 2011 A few years ago I worked for a company that took the health and well-being of its employees very seriously. They provided a company cafeteria that cooked fresh food and priced the food such that healthier options cost less than junk food. In the mid-afternoon there would be lines of people holding apples and bananas, many of them having just come from the large company gym or the miles of bike trails right outside the main building. The health insurance offered a number of direct discounts for good health habits and there was a large Intranet page devoted to employee discounts at local gyms and health food stores. Because this was such an ingrained part of the culture, it felt odd not to exercise or eat healthily.
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I couldn’t enjoy any of those perks, however, because I worked from home a plane ride away. The situation on the ground there was a bit different. My closet was stocked with pop tarts, Oreos, and Cheetos, and there were not miles of bike trails right outside my door. Instead, there were three places that sold milkshakes and a gas station with sugar water sold by the gallon. My onsite gym consisted of a flight of stairs that I used twice a day to walk to work downstairs to my office, and I would get a second “burn” in walking back up for dinner.
Both companies and their employees want their workers to be healthy and full of energy. The standard formula for employers is to provide incentives and in-person options for healthy nutrition and activity, similar to my experience. But another trend is rising and affecting this dynamic – the massive growth of remote work. Employees are starting to demand remote work options so that they can better organize their lives, but is working from home good for your health? If it isn’t what can both parties do to make it healthier?
The stereotypes about remote workers paint them as unhealthy, slothful, and unhygienic. An unshaven man wearing pajamas and yelling at the mailman for waking him up at 11 AM might be a funny reference to someone who works from home, but it isn’t some healthy ideal. The reality is simple: people who work from home have some clear advantages and disadvantages in the fight to stay healthy physically and mentally.
Physical Health
The perks mentioned above related to the physical health of the workers: what they ate and how much activity they did during the day. Working from home allows many physical benefits for activity because your employer now has fewer restrictions leveled at you in terms of physical presence or appearance. You can now skip the shower in the morning so that you can run at lunch, and take the 1 PM conference call before taking that shower. Because nobody is watching, you no longer have to stay seated all day, but can pace around your office while on the phone or do pushups while you wait for a meeting to start. You can avoid commuting – the most stressful for of sitting that exists outside of rollercoasters – and the stress of traffic.
On the nutritional side, you can cook more easily and since you are at home, you can crockpot or slow-marinate things that you would want to leave unattended otherwise. Because you aren’t limited to food that needs to be transportable, you can more easily plan what you eat and add more variety.
Simply put, you are more in control. But this control comes with the reality that all these things rely on you and your planning and willpower. Because nobody is watching you can exercise, or you can play video games or eat and an entire block of cheese in the early afternoon. Whether or not these lifestyles changes are good or bad for your health is ultimately up to you and how dedicated you are to your health. Unlike my previous experience, your company cannot easily incentivize you to eat the right thing or provide easy activities for you. They can, and some companies like Basecamp do provide nice perks for remote workers, you have to use them, and there will be no real social pressure to use these perks.
Mental Health
A lot of fun has been had of how unhinged an at-home worker can get after staying inside for too long. And we can all agree that although remote workers can enjoy lively social interactions as well as someone in a large office, they do have to work at it more than their co-located counterparts. Coworker relationships, serendipitous relationships, and new friendships require maintenance that isn’t automatic when you eat lunch or work in “meatspace” with others.
Isolation is a problem for remote workers, and it is a frequent reason reported in those who quit working from home voluntarily. Employers can encourage their people to seek help, but employees must work to get out more and tackle the issue head-on by not relying on our jobs to provide the sorts of small connections that we need to live a full life.
The other side of mental health for remote workers is that they have the chance for much greater freedom and autonomy in their daily work lives. They do not have to wear certain clothes, get to work at an exact time in an exact location, and they can arrange their workspace as they wish. These might seem like small things, but they can lead to powerful changes in the mentality of those who get to enjoy these benefits. Working in a cubicle with bad lighting an hour from your home makes you feel helpless, while getting to dance while listening to music at your standing desk, wearing your favorite shorts, and getting outside for a walk is the ultimate version of health: being in charge of your life.