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Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health

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Re: Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health

#21

Post by gxs »

antonvs wrote: post #19
gxs wrote: post #12

It’s hard for me not to be cynical When the city of San Francisco is handing out tax breaks to companies for forcing RTO in shitty Bay Area infrastructure and Paul Graham loudly and proudly calls wfh communism, it’s hard to not take these findings with a grain of salt Even if true, I am positive the solution isn’t to stuff people back into offices and rob them of the little leverage they got during covid

> Paul Graham loudly and proudly calls wfh communism I missed that. Deets?

He tweeted this a while ago

Re: Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health

#22

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

I think that it's pretty difficult to do an empirical study, here. The culture makes a big difference. I feel as if Americans can do remote "better" than other cultures, where constant human interaction is common. We already have a fairly isolated culture. That's not necessarily a good thing, though. It could be, that the increased isolation of remote is a "tipping point" kind of thing.

In the US, it already happens to retired people; especially men (my age). I know, for myself, that I'm fortunate as hell to participate in an organization that forces me to interact, fairly intimately, with others, on an almost daily basis.

All that said, there's also strong interests, that want the results to skew one way or another, and we already know that most research needs to be looked at, with a jaundiced eye (not new -people have been throwing research for decades).

Re: Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health

#23

Post by budududuroiu »

Haven't been in an office since the start of COVID. Between being lucky enough to have a great coliving setup with dope housemates, and now having access to co-working cafes in Taipei that have genuine communities, I feel more social than ever with more meaningful connections. I still commute to the cafes, for me remote working is about not having to be tied to a geographic spot in order to keep my source of income, not isolating at home.

Re: Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health

#24

Post by ubertaco »

reg_dunlop wrote: post #11
j45 wrote: post #9

Working remotely or in an office requires a routine that includes having other interests and hobbies scheduled and on the calendar.

All things being equal, if a person works remotely, apparently they're more likely to trend reclusive. At the same time, a person working in an office has the illusion of social activity. Just because a person works in an office doesn't mean they're more well adjusted socially, or more active. Just because a person works remotely doesn't mean they're a recluse. Life requires effort and being engaged. Though as a remo…

>All things being equal, if a person works remotely, apparently they're more likely to trend reclusive.

The existence of families and housemates reveals this to be a false dichotomy: either you're spending in-office time with coworkers or you don't like being around any people, seems to be the claim.

Re: Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health

#25

Post by notepad0x90 »

ajkjk wrote: post #3

> After the pandemic, workers in remote-capable jobs spent more time working alone and avoided social activities with their friends, remaining more isolated both during and after work. This pattern was most pronounced among remote workers living alone: They spent entire days without human contact and their mental distress, use of mental healthcare, and antidepressants increased acutely. One of those results which is…

this is flawed in a way, they're presupposing social contact is always positive or healthy? It is biased because it isn't looking at the mental health state of individuals prior to remote work, as well as post RTO.

Re: Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health

#26

Post by gbraad »

This is also why having a good manager is key; I worked as an engineering manager and kept a near weekly 1-1 with my engineers, not per se to socialize, but to allow them to ask questions about the tasks, implementation comments, etc. but the environment I created allowed them to talk other stuff. All my associates appreciated this mix of technical talk, but also fun discussions, etc. I am sure it help them to stay a bit more involved and sane. You can check recommendations on LinkedIn for confirmation ;-), but my whole team was remote.

Re: Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health

#28

Post by notepad0x90 »

FabCH wrote: post #5

„Our results suggest that remote work substantially increases isolation and worsens mental health, particularly for those living alone.“ I absolutely hate bad science like this. No, your results suggest that remote work IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE 2020s substantially… The USA is a famously lonely country already and it is incredibly car-oriented culture. And it wasn’t always like this and it might not alwa…

This is one reason it's hard to trust science, they start of with a bias and confirm it, but make it look like it was objective. You'd need decades of research to even come near a conclusion on something like this. "suggests" is doing a lot of the heavy lifting there, but the general public, policy makers, executives, hr, etc.. will read "it's a fact", and I suspect whoever funded this knew exactly what they're doing.
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