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working from home sparks new health issues: study
new research found working from home resulted in more neck pain and depression.
'i quit': 23 per cent of employees say they will quit 'on the spot' if forced to return to the office full-time
a recent angus reid poll found that most canadians prefer to continue working from home, and plan to look for jobs that allow them to do so.
many people have come to appreciate the flexibility of working from home and aren't ready to go back to office life. getty
roughly 40 per cent of people in canada are able to carry out work tasks from their homes, according to statistics canada, and most of those people have been working remotely since march 2020, with the start of the pandemic. now that covid vaccines are widely available and restrictions have started to lift in most of the country, many employers are asking workers to return to their offices, even as cases start to rise again.
but many people have come to appreciate the flexibility of working from home and aren’t ready to go back to office life. an angus reid poll released this week found that more than half of canadians who currently work from home said they would start looking for a new job if they were asked to return to the office. and 23 per cent would be so opposed to the idea that they would quit on the spot, they said.
these numbers have gotten higher since the summer, the poll points out. back then, a similar poll found that 39 per cent of people said they would have no problem returning full-time to office work. now, that number has dropped to 29 per cent.
many of those who like working from home said that it has made their lives easier without damaging their productivity or relationships with co-workers. thirty-five per cent of people who work from home say they have work-life balance, compared to only 21 per cent of those who work outside of the home. remote workers are also more likely to report a better relationship with their partner (32 per cent, compared to 21 per cent of those who don’t work from home).
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and many remote workers feel they’ve been just as productive at home, if not more than in the office: four in five poll respondents said their productivity level is either “good” or “great.”
wfh less likely in the atlantic provinces
interestingly, there’s some provincial variation between people who work from home. people under 55 living in ontario or quebec were more likely to say someone in their household worked from home, while the same group was less likely to work from home in manitoba, saskatchewan and the atlantic provinces.
courtesy of angus reid
there was also a financial aspect: many retail and service jobs, which can’t be performed remotely, tend to be lower-paying. only 25 per cent of people making salaries between $25,000 and $49,000 per year said someone in their household works from home, compared to 69 per cent of people making over $200,000.
health impacts of remote work
working from home, of course, isn’t without drawbacks. many people who used to walk, bike or commute to work are getting less exercise, and most people don’t have a work setup in their home that’s as sophisticated as the one in their office, resulting in back and neck pain. one study of nearly 900 workers in bangkok, thailand found that the main causes of physical discomfort from remote work were weight gain, neck, shoulder and back pain.
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“unless people are intentionally replacing their overall activity level and keeping up their exercise, everyone is moving a little bit less than they were,” physical therapist eric robertson told nbc news. dr. david binder of the spaulding rehabilitation hospital told harvard health that he’s seen “increased complaints of neck and lower back pain in the last year, often in the context of sitting for extended periods of time with increased work at home.”
there are also health drawbacks to physical isolation. many people with eating disorders relied on the structure and social contact inherent in office culture as a way to curb their reliance on unhealthy eating patterns. the pandemic also increased the incidence and severity of domestic abuse, and made it harder for victims to get help.
“the nature of abuse is one of power and control… so anytime that people’s outside contacts are shut off, it puts them at significant risk,” keri lewis, executive director of interval house of ottawa, told healthing.
benefits of wfh outweigh drawbacks for some
but reports have also found that, for many remote workers, the mental health benefits of working from home outweigh the physical drawbacks. a 2021 article in psychological science argued with data from several studies that remote work reduces stress (including stress related to commuting), allows people to get more sleep, provides workers with the benefits of greater autonomy, limits the potential for workplace harassment, doesn’t force people to spend time in cubicles without windows, and allows them to spend more time with their families.
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“working from home can remove some barriers that may cause psychological distress,” the article says. “with remote work, women may be able to manage morning sickness, for example, without having to take time off or share personal information with an immediate supervisor.”
like so many other parts of employment, whether people enjoy working from home has a lot to do with their specific circumstances and the way their job functions. a bmc public health study from november 2020 found that regular communication between managers and their team members were vital, and that financial compensation for workers’ increased use of internet and energy bills could help ease the burden of working from home. but beyond those two statements, the study failed to reach any definitive conclusion.
“the health/work relationship is complex and requires consideration of broader system factors to optimize the effects of [work-at-home] on workers’ health,” the report’s authors said.
maija kappler is a reporter and editor at healthing. you can reach her at mkappler@postmedia.com
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