Working from home ‘makes you depressed’

Working from home makes you depressed, according to a new report from US economists.

The academics found a recent surge in depression and poor mental health can be explained by lonely employees missing out on social contact.

As much as one third of the increase in mental distress since the pandemic can be traced back to the rise in remote employment, according to Natalia Emanuel, at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Emma Harrington, at the University of Virginia; and Amanda Pallais, at Harvard University.

The findings challenge the idea that people who work from home are happier as they have a better work-life balance.

“Our results suggest that remote work substantially increases isolation and worsens mental health, particularly for those living alone,” the economists wrote in the paper.

“Although a large body of research finds that workers want to work remotely, our findings suggest that workers may not realise the costs of remote work for their well-being, which may take time to accumulate.”