Employees in numerous occupations must decide whether to work entirely or occasionally from home. During the pandemic, many people appreciated this flexibility and saw it as a working “staycation.”
Others were itching to return to the office because they felt like they had been thrown under house arrest. According to research, the more an employee lives from the office, the more stress and loneliness remote work is associated with.
Fortunately, many organizations can modify professional plans to enhance efficiency and take into account employee personality.
Remote Work: Independence Not Isolation
Mindset counts when it comes to the alleged emotional cost of working remotely. Mladen Adamovic looked into how a worker’s cultural background affects how much teleworking reduces job stress.
He concluded that telework only lessens workplace stress with workers who do not think that telework will lead to social isolation after studying 604 teleworkers from various countries. Additionally, he discovered that workers who scored well on individualism have favorable opinions on the efficiency of telework.
People who frequently travel for work but have a large offline social network will find this research particularly compelling. It’s true that some digital nomads prefer physical solitude over social isolation in order to find a quiet place to work when traveling.
Others, though, try to keep in-person connections for both personal and professional reasons. This inclination is connected to productivity, according to research.
Managing Mood
James A. Breaugh and Maria A. Spilker investigated how to manage the sensation of professional isolation experienced by distant workers. They began by realizing that, despite workplace loneliness being an important and understudied field of inquiry, loneliness has been the focus of a large amount of research in other contexts.
Spilker and Breaugh studied 244 telecommuters and their supervisors to explore seven theory-based determinants of feeling lonely. They discovered, among other things, that workers’ emotions of isolation were adversely impacted by whether or not they had the option to work remotely because having that option gives them a sense of control.
Additionally, they discovered a positive correlation between distance from the home office and feeling isolated, as well as a correlation between feeling isolated and a telecommuter’s need for affiliation, the degree to which the worker engaged in telework, and how far the worker lived from their primary place of employment.
Plans to Personalize Professional Employment
When it’s feasible, employers who use remote workers should think about including an in-person requirement in the job description to provide employees the chance to benefit from the camaraderie and social value of their coworkers.
Employers can also discuss the benefits of living close to the place of business with both present and potential employees so that they have a greater chance of regularly joining a live team of coworkers.
Taking steps to look after members of the professional team both professionally and personally can improve mood, morale, and productivity because content employees work harder.
