Remote work raises isolation and mental health risks

Remote work remains one of the most popular changes to American work life since the pandemic, but new research suggests the flexibility many employees prize may carry hidden costs for mental health.

A study published in the journal Science by Natalia Emanuel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, found that remote work is associated with more time spent alone, worse self-reported mental well-being, more visits to mental health care providers and increased use of prescription psychiatric medication.

“We found that remote work increases time spent alone, worsens mental well-being across multiple measures, and increases the use of mental health services and prescriptions,” the study states.

The findings complicate a widely held preference among workers. Polls have consistently shown that employees value the ability to work remotely, often citing better work-life balance and higher job satisfaction. Emanuel told NPR that other studies have found workers are willing to give up 4% to 10% of their earnings for the option to work remotely. “So there is a great desire for remote work,” she said.

Remote work expanded sharply after COVID-19 hit. The share of U.S. workers working remotely rose from 7% in 2019 to 28% in 2023, according to the research cited by CBS News.

To study the effects, Emanuel and her colleagues analyzed five large national surveys of American workers across different occupations. They compared people in jobs that can be done remotely, such as software engineering and marketing, with workers in jobs that generally cannot be performed remotely, such as surgery and mechanical engineering.

Over a roughly 10-year period before and after the pandemic, workers in remote-capable jobs saw a 58% increase in hours spent alone compared with workers in non-remote-capable jobs. NPR reported that they also saw a 72% rise in the likelihood of spending an entire day with no human contact.

“Not even like a wave to a barista, not somebody also checking for ripeness of the avocados at the grocery store,” Emanuel told NPR. “Just no human contact at all.”

The study found that workers did not make up for lost workplace interaction by socializing more outside of work. “When work became more isolated, people did not substantially compensate by socializing more outside of work hours,” the authors wrote. Emanuel told NPR researchers even saw “a decrease in spending time with friends after the work day relative to people in non-remotable occupations.”

The effects were stronger for remote workers who live alone. According to NPR, they had an 83% increase in the likelihood of spending a full day with no social contact. Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business who was not involved in the study, said the increase in mental distress was “almost twice as large for those living alone as for those living with their family.”

The researchers found remote workers reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression, visited mental health care providers more often and used more psychiatric prescription drugs. CBS News reported that researchers did not see a similar rise in the use of other drugs, such as statins for high cholesterol.

Epley said the findings may reflect a gap between what workers can easily anticipate and what they experience over time. “It’s very easy to recognize that the commute is a pain in the neck and the traffic sucks,” he told NPR, compared with anticipating how missed social connections at work will affect well-being later.

Still, he said the study does not mean every employer should force workers back to the office. Rather, he said organizations should recognize the mental health toll and make in-person work more socially rewarding. “What they’re providing that’s rewarding at work is social interaction, social connection,” he said.