3 Reasons Why 'Working From Home' Isn't All It's Cracked Up To Be

The 'work from home' life seems dream-like to many, but this dream is laden with cracks. Here's why.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | July 10, 2024

Imagine a life where you reclaim your time, working hard yet stress-free in your own space. At home, you can meditate or exercise without the hassle of commuting, enjoy great coffee whenever you like and have healthy lunches and snacks at your fingertips. No more dealing with uncomfortable office temperatures or poor lighting.

The stress of a corporate open office setup fades away, and you no longer wake up before dawn to sit in traffic for hours, nor do you spend your evenings stuck in the same gridlock.

Expensive, unsatisfying lunches and fake office niceties have become things of the past. Instead, you find yourself healthier and happier, with more time to spend with your spouse and children. While this scenario sounds quite appealing to some, others living the same reality may disagree.

The shift to remote work, initially welcomed with enthusiasm during the pandemic, has significantly transformed the way people perceive work. While remote work offers numerous benefits, it also conceals drawbacks that can affect people's well-being and productivity.

1. Blurring Work-Life Boundaries

Working from home offers incredible flexibility, allowing individuals to set their schedules and work from any environment. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for parents, enabling them to structure their work around family needs. However, this same flexibility can blur work-life boundaries, creating challenges in maintaining a clear separation between professional and personal life.

For instance, without defined work hours, employees may find themselves working longer than intended. Distractions at home can interrupt work, stretching a six-hour task into a twelve-hour ordeal. Over time, this lack of clear boundaries can lead to decreased productivity and burnout.

A 2022 study investigated the long-term effects of working from home during various phases of the pandemic and identified three primary challenges people faced in maintaining boundaries within their homes:

• Time and place. There was difficulty in separating work hours from personal time and workspaces from living spaces.
• Care and housework. The overlap between professional responsibilities and domestic duties, including caregiving, proved to be challenging.
• Emotional, social, spiritual and aesthetic labor. Remote work folds emotional, social, spiritual and aesthetic labor into home life, leading to blurred boundaries and increased stress. Imagine a scenario where you have gotten half-ready for a zoom call, with your toddler screaming for lunch, a friend crashing at your place for the weekend and your to-do and self-care lists hanging over your head like a guillotine. This is what a bad work from home day can look like.

Women, in particular, reported higher levels of integration between professional work and domestic responsibilities, such as caregiving and housework.

One mother said, "I work on my laptop either on the couch or at the dining table. […] Our home office is used by my husband. When the kindergartens closed in the spring and the children were at home, I worked in the sauna as it was the quietest place in the house."

2. Social Isolation And Loneliness

"Perhaps empathy diminishes a little when people don't meet and are just distant faces on the screen. You can't see the reactions of others and have become more 'business-oriented,'" said another participant.

Remote work can be a lonely experience, lacking social interactions inherent in an office environment. Office settings offer opportunities for casual conversations, team-building activities and after-work socializing, which are essential for building a sense of community and belonging. For individuals living alone or those who are introverted, the isolation of remote work can be particularly challenging over a long time.

"The cheering up of coworkers has diminished as I find myself working a lot in my own bubble. In the office, I circulated to say hi and got people smiling. I also spontaneously praised others. In telework, spontaneous expression of emotions is clearly more difficult, but not completely forgotten," said one participant.

A 2023 survey conducted by Buffer asked participants about their experiences of remote work. While over 90% of respondents expressed a positive attitude towards remote work in terms of flexibility and autonomy, 23% indicated that it is a lonely experience. A February 2023 study published in Personality and Individual Differences studies also highlights the absence of a social environment and the feeling of loneliness experienced by remote workers.

Another study suggested that employees who experienced high levels of loneliness related to their work reported higher levels of emotional exhaustion, poorer work-life balance, increased minor counterproductive work behaviors, depression and insomnia. Loneliness can exacerbate feelings of isolation and stress, leading to adverse outcomes.

3. Impaired Sleep Schedule

The flexibility of remote work can disrupt sleep patterns. Employees may work late into the night to meet deadlines or handle unexpected tasks, leading to irregular sleep schedules. Poor sleep, as we now know quite well, can have severe consequences on physical and mental health—impaired cognitive function, weakened immune system and increased risk of chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.

In one study, researchers were surprised to find that remote health workers were more likely to develop insomnia than those providing in-person care during the pandemic, with women and older workers being at higher risk.

This was likely due to the added pressures of childcare and overseeing online education while working from home, which contributed to worse sleep for health workers with children. Additionally, changes in work schedules, reduced exposure to sunlight and prolonged psychological stress were identified as potential factors disrupting sleep.

"It's the reason why everyone is walking around in a fatigued state. Our circadian system is dysregulated, we're not getting enough light during the day, and then add in all the psychological stressors," explained the researchers.

While the allure of remote work lies in its promise of flexibility and autonomy, it's essential to acknowledge and address the hidden challenges that can undermine these benefits. Diving into a remote working arrangement without mentally and logistically preparing yourself can have a direct impact on your physical and emotional well-being.

Work from home not letting you sleep? Take the Insomnia Severity Index to know if you need professional help.

A similar version of this article can also be found on Forbes.com, here, and on PsychologyToday.com, here.