Impact of Work from home on physical and mental well-being 

(Lerksirinukul, 2020)


What is Work From Home?


Work From Home (WFH) is a concept or alternative way of work that could be performed from home and enables employees to use information technology to do their job. This kind of work gains popularity during this pandemic era because it gives the opportunity to deal with new normal life. Despite its popularity, actually, work from home is not a new concept. WFH concept was first mentioned by Nilles (1988) known as “telecommuting” or “network”. Other than that, Gajendran and Harrison (2007) also referred to WFH as remote work, flexible workplace, and e-working which all those words describe WFH as a work that could be performed elsewhere besides primary or central workplaces using electronic media to communicate through the organization (Butakhieo, 2021).


The Impact on physical and mental Well-being


(Millard, 2020).

Work From Home provides some prominent benefits for employers, employees, and also society. The advantages of WFH especially increase productivity and job satisfaction, reduce commuting time, organizational cost, travel cost, and turnover rate, and it also helps mitigation of air pollution due to less traffic congestion. Aside from the beneficial effects, WFH also has some issues about its effect on the mental and physical of workers. There are some kinds of physical issues like musculoskeletal (discomfort, injury), cardiovascular (chest pains, blood pressure), digestive, eye-related (burning, blurry, fry), fatigue and tiredness, headache, etc. Whereas types of mental health issues were related to anxiety, depression, sadness, insomnia, low motivation, mood swings, etc. Those issues appeared related to lifestyle and home environments such as physical activities and food, and occupational environment like workload, communication in organization, or difference workstation, and home office environment such as noise, air quality, etc.  Based on studies that were held by Yijing Xiao et. al. (2021), around two-thirds of respondents reported having one or more physical issues and nearly three-fourths of them experienced at least one mental health issue.  There’s also that woman has a higher risk of depression while WFH during pandemic due to household chores and other activities (Xiao et al., 2021). 

Conclusion 

Work From Home as the alternative concept of work, gains its popularity due to new normal conditions. WFH offers a flexible work concept performed at home and another advantage.  Besides that, WFH got some issues according to the mental health and physical of workers. Those issues might be caused by the worker's environment such as their lifestyle, work pressure, and physical condition at home that lead them to experienced one or some issues that were mentioned before. 


Reference 


Lerksirinukul, P., (2020). Work From Home or Anywhere, share with your boss What to communicate - how To increase physical and mental energy for employees. [Online] Available at: https://www.salika.co/2020/04/28/covid-19-how-to-manage-well-being-and-motivation-people/ [Accessed 10 August 2021].

Mustajab, D. et al. (2020) ‘Working from Home Phenomenon as an Effort to Prevent COVID-19 Attacks and Its Impacts on Work Productivity Duta’, The International Journal Of Applied Business, 53(9), pp. 1689–1699.

Vyas, L. and Butakhieo, N. (2021) ‘The impact of working from home during COVID-19 on work and life domains: an exploratory study on Hong Kong’, Policy Design and Practice, 4(1), pp. 59–76. doi: 10.1080/25741292.2020.1863560.

Xiao, Y. et al. (2021) ‘Impacts ofWorking from Home during COVID-19 Pandemic on Physical and Mental Well-Being of Office Workstation Users’, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 63(3), pp. 181–190. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002097.

Lerksirinukul, P., 2020. SALIKA. [Online]
Available at: https://www.salika.co/2020/04/28/covid-19-how-to-manage-well-being-and-motivation-people/
[Accessed 10 August 2021].

Millard, E., 2020. Everyday helth. [Online]
Available at: https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/your-work-from-home-survival-guide-for-self-care/
[Accessed 11 August 2021].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Comments

  1. Work from home helped the organizations to continue their business operations through this pandemic situation. Therefor it is extremely important as you described in the article. It was Convenient, Flexible and reduced the Work-Life balance conflicts. But there can be drawbacks such as Technical Devices unavailability, Internet connection Problems, Disturbances from Kids and Elders.

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  2. Timely article and there is many debates around this subject.
    Work-from-home policies have been adopted as part of a broader public health strategy aimed at preventing the spread of an infectious illness. Although this solution was implemented quickly, it is probable that WFH will stay in place for some time, and organizations will use it to manage the required physical separation requirements to avoid future COVID-19 outbreaks. Working from home may have both good and bad consequences, depending on a variety of systemic variables, including the demands of the home environment, the degree of organizational support, and social ties outside of work.

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  3. Timely important topic Pradeep.As most of the countries have been implemented fully lockdowns due to the COVID – 19 outbreak, the only alternative to organizations to perform their duties is WFH which adjusting their work activities toa different location but maintaining their goals and responsibilities. If there is a suitable work space at home, WFH is the safest and most productive way to perform duties in a crucial time and in regular time. 

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  5. There isn't a single solution to improve remote working and mental health experiences. Adjust your daily workflow and practices to match your lifestyle and stay the course. When you're aware of the causes, it's much easier to address and fix the issues impacting your happiness in your remote role.

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  6. Staffs have had to familiarized to new ways of working. According to Buffer’s 2021 of Remote Work report:
    • 41% of new remote workers say the major change is how they cooperate and communicate with their coworkers.
    • 22% say the main change is their location (Home).
    • 20% said their work hours are what have changed the most.

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