Study Links Working Remotely to More Stress and Insomnia

Medical Xpress reported: “Working outside an office may spare you from commutes and interruptions by colleagues but it also makes you more vulnerable to unpaid overtime, stress and insomnia, the UN said Wednesday. A new report from the United Nations International Labour Organization studied the impacts of working remotely, with technological advances continuing to revolutionise conceptions of the workplace. Based on data taken from 15 countries, the ILO found that employees were more productive while outside of a conventional office but noted it also brought risks of ‘longer working hours, higher work intensity and work-home interference.’ The report drew distinctions between employees who regularly work at home, highly mobile people constantly working in different locations and those who split time between an office and another site. All three of those groups reported higher stress levels and more incidents of insomnia than those who always work at their employer’s premises. For example, 41 percent of highly mobile employees said they felt some degree of stress, a figure that was 25 percent for office workers. A full 42 percent of people who always work from home or from multiple locations reported suffering from insomnia, compared to 29 percent for people who work at their employer’s site.” (medicalxpress.com)