Working From Home is Taking a Toll on Mental Health
As if we didn't have enough to worry about. Working from home can be a good thing, but with kids doing school at the same time and constant snack temptations, it can cause stress too.
The good news is, about half of the people who are working at home say there has been no impact on mental health one way or another. Maybe they've been working home for years or maybe it's a new adventure, but either way, they're getting along just fine.
About 33 percent say they're having a rough time of it for three reasons.
1. It's hard to separate work from personal life. Even if you're planning to be disciplined and work from 8 to 4, the kids will probably need help getting on Zoom for school and they'll have questions about assignments, and there's laundry and lunch and episodes of Tiger King to be distracted by. It all blends together and that can cause stress.
2. Home is more confining and it's harder to get enough exercise. At the office, it's easier to walk up and down the hallways all day, take the stairs, walk to the car, and the house has smaller square footage and less opportunity for movement. Home gyms and virtual exercise programs rock right now so we can keep up the calorie burn.
3. Communicating with coworkers has become more difficult. There's too much ceiling in the Zoom frame and pets have been taking center stage a lot, and it's not quite the same as being able to walk down the hall to a conference room meeting. And are the co-workers really there? We've been hearing some people have put themselves on video loops to act like they're there. Hard to communicate, yes.
We might be working at home for a while, so we've got to find ways to make the best of it. It's kinda fun to work in pj's and no makeup if we want, right?