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by Kate Lewis for fluxo
Before you start yelling at me in defense of remote work, I am an ally. But a realistic one. While remote work structures have been great for things like less time spent commuting, more autonomy over your daily schedule, increased flexibility in general, there are also clear downsides and long term impacts.
The toll remote work has taken on mental health is not to be ignored. In a society where we’re already battling a loneliness epidemic, working from home most days isn’t helping—especially for the younger generations.
I’ve worked at companies with varying remote work structures and frequencies, and I can confidently say that being in-person at least a few days a week makes a world of a difference. Getting that face-to-face time with your coworkers is not only helpful for the actual work getting done, but that extra bit of built-in social interaction is refreshing after days spent working from your apartment. Even if you’re not the most social person, having a little time built-in with people you have something in common with (work), is healthy.
For those who don’t live with their family, remote work can be extremely isolating. The time you spend alone when you work from home amounts to days on end, so you have to be proactive about getting out of your apartment in other ways. But not everyone has the energy for that after a long day of work. That’s why that built-in time where you have to leave the house ends up being more important than you’d maybe think. (And I’m not saying it needs to be five days a week of being in-person, but a few would do us good).
A large argument around remote work is that it helps to keep our work/life ratio balanced because working from home gives us more time back from commuting, random in-office busy work, etc. While I partially agree with that, I would also caution that line of thinking as well. When you work from your bedroom or kitchen, that becomes your office. The log-off time gets pushed further and further back and you find yourself checking your work email late into the night because there’s no separation between work and home. When you work in the office, you can leave your work mindset at the office (usually, hopefully). But when the home is also the office, keeping your work/life balance in check ends up being a bit harder than we think.
So is in-person or remote work better? The easy answer is this: Hybrid. You get that flexibility and autonomy when you’re working from home, mixed in with the in-office built-in social and face-to-face time that is both healthy and necessary. For lack of a better term, you get The Best of Both Worlds with a hybrid work structure. Cue Hannah Montana.
