The rise in remote work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has substantially increased time spent alone and worsened workers’ mental health, according to a new study based on survey data from more than 500,000 Americans. In evaluating remote employees’ mental health, the analysis moves beyond the main consequence of remote work more typically evaluated in studies to date: worker productivity. The study’s results suggest that “the shift in work location to the home carries measurable costs at the population level,” Emma Zhang and Rourke O’Brien write in a related Perspective. After the pandemic led to many people working from home, the results of studies evaluating the mental health impacts on employees were mixed. To understand remote work’s effect on human well-being better, Natalia Emanuel and colleagues analyzed data from five nationally representative US-based surveys that together spanned more than a decade and included 568,000 respondents. They compared workers’ experiences before the pandemic (2011 to 2019) with experiences from the post-peak period (2022 to 2024), excluding the acute pandemic years of 2020 to 2021. The authors found that workers in jobs amenable to remote work experienced substantially larger post-pandemic increases in time spent alone, worsened mental well-being across multiple measures, and increases in the use of mental health services and prescriptions. These effects were particularly pronounced among individuals living alone. Noting a limitation of their study, the authors said, “Given that our data end in 2024, we cannot fully capture long- term adaptations among remotable workers.” If workers made changes, such as cultivating social networks outside of work, they may not yet have reaped the full benefits by the time of the study, they added. “Across a range of remote work arrangements, both individuals and organizations may want to prioritize making remote work less isolating by, for example, coordinating in-office days for hybrid workers or encouraging informal interaction, even online,” Emanuel et al. conclude.

 

Data is available for the creation of data visualization images. For more information, please contact Natalia Emanuel at natalia@nataliaemanuel.com

National governments and multilateral institutions face the difficult challenge of reconciling economic development and environmental goals. Often one appears to come at the expense of the other.

Scams are now one of the most common crimes in the world. In the most recent issue of PSPI, real-life accounts are used to illustrate how pervasive and indiscriminate fraud can be.   

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, early age–onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) was associated with improved overall survival compared with average age–onset colorectal cancer; however, treatment delays were independently associated with worse survival among patients with EOCRC. Language barriers could be a potentially modifiable risk factor associated with delayed treatment and may provide an opportunity to improve timely care and outcomes in EOCRC. 

IMDEA Networks has been granted funding for four projects under the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU), reinforcing its position as one of Europe’s leading research centers in 6G innovation. This year we have a 50% success rate in the proposals, and we participate in 20% of the projects selected in the call.