Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health

science.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 212 posts

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

#141

Post by ajkjk »

SoftTalker wrote: post #79
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…

IDK I quite enjoy being home alone with no human contact. Interacting with other people is so tiring, and there's not much reward in it for me. Being with other people is stressful.

What I feel like cannot be missed if you're paying attention is that other people suffer from it. Whether individual mind it or not doesn't disprove the general observation.

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

#142

Post by stringfood »

tpmoney wrote: post #114
crab_galaxy wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I think you’re both correct but I also think you’re talking about most people‘s definition of an acquaintance.

But then what is a friend? If a "friendship" ever ends, does that mean it was never a friendship at all? I've had very good friends, people I've shared houses with, helped move, been to their weddings and they've been to mine. And it's easily been 10 years since we last saw each other or talked. We even still live in the same city as far as I know, but our lives have taken us down different paths, and we've each been…

A friend by definition is someone you at one point spent over 12 hours a week socializing with closely and had at least 7 major bonding moments over a one year period. After that vesting period you are allowed to drop to just 6 hours a week and 3 major bonding events yearly for the next 2 years. After that you can run the friendship in maintenance mode using the momentum gained and simply reach out for lunch once a year. But if you miss a once a year lunch 2 years in a row, or if your current group of friends grows twice in size in a single month, that work friend will be put into essentially a PIP. You inform the friend of the need for increased socialization and let him know if a major bonding event does not occur, or if a decrease in rate of friend acquisition does not happen, he will be terminated and sent his remaining funds via an ACH check.

It's been this way for years

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

#143

Post by nextos »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #137
nextos wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, there's also another factor about not having to be tied to a geographic spot, housing costs. In EU, even relatively good IT salaries are mediocre when you factor in monthly rental. A simple one-bed apartment can easily take 50% of your net income. Having freedom to move, even within a particular country, allows reducing that 50% to something more sustainable.

It never ends on HN, does it? These wild claims about "[i]n EU". I puke each time I see that phrase. The EU is enormous . There is no way that a "simple one-bed apartment can easily take 50% of your net income" in any mid-sized EU city, or an hour outside a large EU city.

My statement obviously referred to major cities, which is where most IT jobs are, as I indicated remote work allows you to leverage cheaper locations.

Take for example Oxford. A typical rental will be around £1,600 pcm. The median pre-tax salary is around £50,000, which converts to around £3,100 net. So, the apartment is actually more than 50% of your net income. Some programming jobs will pay a bit more, but you get the idea.

Another example, in Barcelona, a median net salary is less than a median rental. IT will pay better, but expect to spend around 40% of your net salary. I could also bring up Stockholm or Copenhagen and, unless you are in very senior IT jobs, it's going to look very similar.

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

#144

Post by throwaway2037 »

Mwntalhwalth wrote: post #91

Wfh since long before covid (15 years) . It will 100% burn you out slowly while you think you are better and stronger than it. Feels good at the beginning likely b.c your current job is super toxic and your away from your boss but there are many factors largely due to isolation that will settle in. To survive wfh you need to concentrate heavily on early morning sunlight, walks throughout the day, yoga, acupuncture, b…

    > blue light glasses at night time
And avoid seed oils, right?

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

#145

Post by throwaway2037 »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #22

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…

    > I'm fortunate as hell to participate in an organization that forces me to interact, fairly intimately, with others, on an almost daily basis.
Sounds cool. What org?

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

#146

Post by chrisbrandow »

tchalla wrote: post #42

> Our results suggest that remote work substantially increases isolation and worsens mental health, particularly for those living alone. Another angle - people don't know how to deal with isolation if not their work. Remote work has accelerated an aspect that we already knew existed. Social systems are tied ONLY around work which is not healthy.

Working alone at home is far more novel and unusual than any arrangement of work and socialization that has existed in the last 500 years

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

#148

Post by zwaps »

nextos wrote: post #143
throwaway2037 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It never ends on HN, does it? These wild claims about "[i]n EU". I puke each time I see that phrase. The EU is enormous . There is no way that a "simple one-bed apartment can easily take 50% of your net income" in any mid-sized EU city, or an hour outside a large EU city.

My statement obviously referred to major cities, which is where most IT jobs are, as I indicated remote work allows you to leverage cheaper locations. Take for example Oxford. A typical rental will be around £1,600 pcm. The median pre-tax salary is around £50,000, which converts to around £3,100 net. So, the apartment is actually more than 50% of your net income. Some programming jobs will pay a bit more, but you get…

In UK and Spain, computer engineers earn the median income?

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

#149

Post by diiaann »

It became clear to me that just a little bit of socializing during the work day goes a long way.

I have a partner that I live with but he often works long hours in person so I can sympathize with someone living alone.

With remote work, I hated the feeling of having every human interaction be very transactional all day. As a result, I felt more pressure to make plans during the weekday with remote counterbalance how completely some days felt.

In the office, you'd usually have some friendly chatter, running into people in the hallway, getting a snack, or waiting for a meeting to start. And most of the time, that was more than enough to not feel a sense of malaise.

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

#150

Post by verve_rat »

chrisbrandow wrote: post #146
tchalla wrote: post #42

> Our results suggest that remote work substantially increases isolation and worsens mental health, particularly for those living alone. Another angle - people don't know how to deal with isolation if not their work. Remote work has accelerated an aspect that we already knew existed. Social systems are tied ONLY around work which is not healthy.

Working alone at home is far more novel and unusual than any arrangement of work and socialization that has existed in the last 500 years

Retired people have had to deal with this. I assume it is less of a problem in multi-generational homes.
Post reply on HN