The Wellness Connection with Fiona Kane

The Effect of Working from Home on Mental Health (Is Remote Work Ruining Your Well-Being?) | Ep 110

• Fiona Kane • Season 1 • Episode 110

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Working from home has become the new normal for many of us, but how is it really affecting our mental wellbeing? This episode unpacks the complex psychological impact of remote work, revealing surprising statistics about burnout, isolation, and productivity in home-based workers.

I dive into the research showing that 41.6% of remote workers report declining mental health, while paradoxically, many others rate their happiness higher than their office-bound counterparts. The key difference? Personality type, environment, and personal habits. Introverts often flourish without the social demands of an office, while extroverts may wither without human interaction.

This episode offers practical strategies for protecting your mental health while working remotely. Whether you're struggling with remote work isolation or trying to optimize your home office setup, this episode provides the psychological useful insights. Your mental wellbeing shouldn't be sacrificed for workplace flexibility – learn how to create a remote work routine that genuinely supports your psychological health.

Learn more about booking a nutrition consultation with Fiona: https://informedhealth.com.au/

Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/

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The Beat of Nature

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Fiona Kane:

Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast with Fiona Kane. Today I'm actually going to be talking about the effects of working from home on your mental health. Now, we do know that obviously, for many of us over the last few years, with the COVID pandemic and all of the things that ensued, many of us had to work from home. Some of us still do work from home and some people do a bit of a mixture, where they work from home sometimes and they're in the office other times. But it has really affected our mental health and, look, for some people it's been a good thing and some people less so. I suppose it depends on the individual. What we do know is I was looking up the data here, right, and they sort of said context matters. So introverts might thrive while extroverts could struggle. And that's true because extroverts rely on getting energy from other people, whereas introverts actually get quite drained from other people. So they certainly, if you are an introvert, you might find working from home a lot easier. You're not spending expending all that energy with other people, whereas extroverts kind of would really struggle with that because they're not getting that energy from other people. But some of the other things I'm just going to sort of tell you a little bit of the data here. So the prevalence of burnout so, according to Gallup data from 2021, fully remote workers experienced burnout very often or always, at a rate of 29%, compared to 25% for on-site workers. So it was more in people who were working from home workers sorry, so it was more in people who were working from home. The other thing was they looked at the mental health decline and they found that 41.6% of remote workers reported a decline in mental health, 45% felt less healthy mentally while working from home and 50% reported disrupted sleep patterns and poorer mental health well-being. Now, this was actually done, a survey done during the COVID pandemic, so obviously there's other things that might affect that as well. There's a lot of stress going on at that time for lots of reasons. So then there was another one in regards to isolation and loneliness. The American Psychiatric Association 2021 survey of 1,000 remote workers revealed that nearly two-thirds felt isolated or lonely at least sometimes, and 17% were all of the time. 67% struggled to disconnect from work at the end of the day. So there's something about when you leave a premises that you can disconnect a lot easier than when it's sitting in your computer Anxiety and depression symptoms. They found 2023 US Census Household Pulse Survey, 40% of fully remote workers and 38% of hybrid workers reported anxiety and depression symptoms, compared to 35% of in-person workers. So that's sort of the negative. Now, on the positive side, they found that tracking happiness in remote workers in 2022, happiness at 7 out of 10 compared to 5.9 for full-time workers, and that was a survey of 28,000 workers, and they felt that 79% of remote workers improved work-life balance.

Fiona Kane:

So you know, it's a mixture of things, right? So it depends on really does depend on the individual and on the situation. So, for example, on the situation. So, for example, I work from home, and most of the time, I work from home. The good thing for me, though, is my office is in a different place in the home, so, whereas I do know that I have a friend that's been working from home for a lot of years now, and largely she works in her bedroom, now I think that that would be very, very hard to do.

Fiona Kane:

Work-life separation you get up and you sit in front of your computer in your bedroom, and also this is something even though you can put filters and all the rest of it there's just something too, about. I think that when you turn the world on into your bedroom somehow, so whether it's a television or whether it's the internet or whatever it is, there's something about the world into your bedroom that is not particularly healthy and so energetically that I think that would affect your bedroom, might affect your sleep as well. I don't know, but when your workplace is your bedroom and so a lot of these people too, what I do know is they get up there in their pajamas and they just sit in front of their computer and then they work for 12 hours. And you could see that, while it's convenient to not travel, so traveling can be quite stressful and challenging and the hours we spend traveling could have been spent doing exercise, other things, but that's not always the case of what people do anyway. So I suppose it depends on the situation, but I feel like if you are working from home, there are some strategies that I would recommend that you have to sort of help with your mental health.

Fiona Kane:

Now, if you do need other people around, if you do need to talk to other people, there's a couple of different strategies you could use. One could be if there is a chat, a work chat, that you can be on where you can chat to people, or it might even be, if it allows, depending on the situation, to actually have some phone chats with some people. It might just be every day, even if it's just like on your break. On your break you sort of say, hey look, let's both have coffee at our 11 o'clock break and can we just have a quick chat. And you might just have a quick phone chat, zoom chat whatever, facetime whatever. But that might really be beneficial for you if that's a colleague that you really get along well with and you just want to talk to someone and you just want to have a bit of a laugh with someone.

Fiona Kane:

So sometimes what people might do is they might actually I know that this is something I've done within the networking group I'm in. Sometimes they have working groups together where what we will do is we will say, okay, I've got to get some stuff done. I've really got to between 10 and 12 today. I'm going to make sure I get. I'm going to write my blogs or I'm going to do whatever. It is going to get stuff done. But what we've done before is we've got together on Zoom to do it.

Fiona Kane:

So while you might be on Zoom and you might turn off your audio, whatever, and you might just all be doing your own thing, but we're all there together doing it. So there's other people there and, of course, because there's other people there, you can chat if you want to or you can ask for help. You can sort of jump in and say, hey, I'm stuck. You know, I'm writing this blog and I don't know what heading should I use. Whatever it is, or does someone know how to use this or fix that or whatever it is? So sometimes we will do the thing where, as a group, we work together but we're actually all working individually. So we're still all working separately at home, but we're together as a group doing it, and there's something about that that gives you a feeling of a camaraderie, a feeling of not being completely alone, right?

Fiona Kane:

So there might be different strategies like this that you can use, where you still are connecting with some other people, or you still are talking with some other people or seeing their face and having a bit of a laugh with them in your coffee break or something, so you still feel like you're connected of a laugh with them in your coffee break, or something. So you still feel like you're connected Like. It might also mean, depending on where you live, you might be able to go for a drive or for a walk and go to the shops or something, but just talking to the lady at the cafe across the road or at the supermarket or whatever make a point of actually talking to someone when you go out, even if it's like, hey, the weather's nice today, or even if you're just smiling at people when you go for your walk. But there's just something about just humanity seeing other people talking to other people that can be really really helpful for some people. So it sort of might be that the other thing would be to be aware of taking breaks, even if the break is standing up and sitting down. So it might be you get, if you can get, a desk that's like a stand up, sit down desk. I haven't got one of those yet but I do plan to get one soon because I wanted to try that but sort of just changing position, because changing position is really helpful, because if you're sitting down for 8 to 12 hours a day in one position and you go to get up, you will find that that's not going to be really really helpful physically or mentally for you.

Fiona Kane:

So the other things I suppose to look at are things like the normal things we would do to get ready for the day. So if you were going out, you would get dressed, and I would really recommend that you do this. Now you might find that once upon a time I worked in the city every day and I wore a suit every day. Now you might find that that's over the top. You don't want to do that, but I would still recommend you get up and you have a shower and you get dressed. So even whatever dress looks like, but just not your pajamas right, and even if it's a little bit dressed, a little bit nice, but get dressed.

Fiona Kane:

There is something about as human beings, there's something about these rituals that actually make us feel better. So when you get up and you have a shower and you get dressed and for some people it might mean putting some makeup on whatever feels right for you, and it might be putting on some nice clothes or even just a nice top if you want to look nice to your colleagues, whatever it is. But there's just something about that. It's the kind of whole make your bed theory that when we kind of get up and we get moving and we have these rituals, we do feel good about ourselves. You feel a lot better about yourself when you're clean and you smell nice and your hair is clean and you've washed your face and you've put on a nice shirt, than you do when you're just sitting around in your pajamas and you smell for overnight because you've been sweating, whatever. Okay, there's just something about that that makes a difference of how we feel about ourselves, how we hold ourselves. You hold yourself upright, you know. So there's something that just psychologically makes a big difference when we have rituals and we get ready for work.

Fiona Kane:

And also, if you're saving time from not doing the driving, well, what could you be doing in that time? Now, it might mean that you're getting more sleep, because you don't get as much sleep when you're doing the driving. It might mean you're going for a walk in the morning or in the afternoon or at lunchtime. So there's different things that you can do. But what are the things that you can do that support your health? So, say, you're not doing the driving or the catching the train, well, what are the things you can do?

Fiona Kane:

And the other thing, actually, too, I used to listen. Well, I used to read, actually because it was back in the days where you didn't have audio books. I read so many books when I was commuting and I actually found them to be really beneficial, and so when I wasn't commuting all of the time, I actually really missed that. So bring that back into your life. So if you were spending an hour on the train and you were able to read a book in that time, can you do that at home? Or if you can't do it, can you play an audio book while you're putting the washing on or while you're checking emails or while you're doing something else? So, sort of, bring those things back in. So it might be the music that you were listening to on the train. It might be the audio book or the book you were reading, or you might've just been listening to a podcast or whatever it is, but can you bring a little bit of that into your day, even though you're not traveling, if that was beneficial to you. Is there a way of bringing that in right? And it might be also depending on what your job is. It might be putting some nice music on in the background that you can kind of dance along to or sing along to. Whatever it is.

Fiona Kane:

The other thing, too is I would create structure. So, depending on your job, some people their job has a lot of structure around it, but other people their job doesn't so much. And I find that for me, when I've got clients booked in, I've got a lot of structure. But when I'm doing podcasting depends. If I'm podcasting with other people, there's a lot of structure. If I'm podcasting on my own, well, I could do that anytime, right, and the problem is I could do that anytime is we don't put structure around it. So I try and put structure around it. So I look at my day and I say, okay, between this time and that time I'm going to be recording podcasts, between this time and that time I'm going to be uploading podcasts or whatever it is. But I put structure around my day. So I say this time is the time I'm going to have lunch, this time's the time I'm going to go for my walk. And the reason I do that is because it keeps me functional.

Fiona Kane:

Because if we don't have structure, what we do is we perseverate or we say, oh, I'll just hang around here for a bit longer, I'll just stay in bed a bit longer, whatever it is, and that's not good for your mental health because what happens is you don't get things done. And that's not good for your mental health because what happens is you don't get things done. You feel bad about yourself because you didn't get things done or you cause yourself stress because now you're overwhelmed and you've got to get all things done really quickly in a small amount of time. You don't get time to eat well or go for a walk or whatever it is. So if you don't have structure in your job, create structure in your job. Even if you are the boss, you can create structure and you will find it makes a big difference when you have structure in your day.

Fiona Kane:

There's an old saying that if you want to get something done, give it to someone who's busy to do it. And that's absolutely true. Busy people get stuff done. And I've had this conversation with I remember having this conversation with a client a while ago in regards to her days, because she had gone from like full on busy, busy job where she was just constantly on the go, and then she all suddenly she had free time and she had no structure and it was actually not good for her mental health. She was getting nothing done. I mean nothing, she wasn't even getting out of her pajamas, sort of thing, health, she was getting nothing done. I mean nothing, she wasn't even getting out of her pajamas, sort of thing.

Fiona Kane:

And so I said to her and she was in a space where she did need to defrag and she did need to rest for a while, so I wasn't sort of going to go overboard with this, because she really did need the rest but I said, you know what? What I want you to start doing is I want you to start planning something that you're going to be doing every day. And I said, whether it be you're going to go shopping. But I specifically said to her I remember now, because she lived near a cinema and she really wanted to go to the movies all the time and never got to go. So she finally had time to do this and it was only a short time in her life where this was going to be available. So I said what I want you to do is I want you to look at the cinema schedule and I want you to plan on Tuesdays, whatever day it is. Okay, that's the day I'm going to the cinema. Okay, what time is the movie on? The movie is on at 11.15. All right, so now you know the movie is on at 11.15, you've got things to get done, so it means that you have to get the washing done before that so you can have it hanging out before you go to the movies. It also means that on the way to the cinema, maybe there is a place that you need to go to the post office or you need to get something else done, so you get something else done while you're on the way to the cinema. When you finish the cinema, maybe you need to pick up some shopping before you come home.

Fiona Kane:

Right, and just what it did is it kind of encouraged her to be doing two or three things in a day, not overwhelming, not overdoing it, but because she had a time. Hers was a cinema time. It could be a time of catching up with a friend or whatever it is, but it's just. Or it could be a meeting time. But when you have something on your schedule, then what you do is you plan around it, right, and so you create some sort of structure when you've got nothing on your schedule. As human, there's something about that that, when we've got nothing on our schedule, we don't seem to be able to achieve anything. When we put something on our schedule, we can. So there is a lot to be said about rituals and schedules and things like that. That can make a really big difference.

Fiona Kane:

The other thing I would say as well is be aware of the space that you're in and if there's anything you can do to improve how it looks, so it might be cleaning up your space, it might be cleaning up your papers If you are working in your bedroom, if that's unfortunate if that's the case, but if you have to do that, make your bed. Even if you've got a filter and no one's seeing it, you see it. So make your bed if you're in that room all day, because that might be really stressful for you. If you have to, or if you can a painting or a picture, a photograph, whatever put a picture somewhere in the room. That is a nice picture, something that makes you feel good. So it might be a picture of an animal, it might be a picture of your children, it might be a picture of the beach. Whatever it is is, but just something positive in there.

Fiona Kane:

But do think of your space as well. Are you getting fresh air where you're sitting? Is there a way to get fresh air in that room? Do you maybe need to have a fan or something on just to kind of get a bit of air flowing? You know all of those things. But just think about your space and even just like the ergonomics right, are you sitting in a chair that supports you, or do you need a stand up desk? But all of the things that can really support you physically and mentally when you work from home. So I would just encourage you that if you are someone who's working from home or want to work from home, make plans.

Fiona Kane:

So if you suddenly now have more free time because you're not traveling, then what are you going to use that travel time for? Use it for something useful. So it might mean to get more work done, so that your life is easier and that you can spend more time with the kids when they get home. So it might be okay. Instead of that travel time, I'm going to get more work done and that means I can spend the whole afternoon with the kids. Or, if I get more work done, I can have half a day off each week. So it might be something like that. It might be. I'm going to use that to go to the gym or to go for a walk, or I'm going to use that time to prepare some really healthy food, to make sure I've got some healthy breakfast and something healthy for my dinner and for my lunch, whatever it looks like. But use that time productively. So say now I've got an extra two hours, three hours, whatever it is in my day, because I'm not traveling actively. Choose what to do with that time and do something that works for you, whatever that looks like, actively.

Fiona Kane:

Create a schedule. If you don't have one, create one, because a schedule makes all the difference with our human brains. It's just something about a schedule that works a whole lot better for us than when we kind of go, oh yeah, I'll get it done. When I get it done, we get to the end of the day and we didn't get it done right.

Fiona Kane:

The other thing, too, is any kind of rituals. I find rituals really, really beneficial. So it might be the ritual, like I said, chatting to your friend in your break or having maybe doing working in a team on a Zoom meeting together, where everyone's just doing their own thing, but you're all there, so you kind of just feel like you've got someone around, walking or driving to your nearest cafe or shop or something, just so that you see someone and talk to someone throughout the day, or shop or something, just so that you see someone and talk to someone throughout the day. Maybe you can even go and work at a different space one day, so it might be at your local library or at a workspace that you pay for. A friend of you can ask online. A friend might have an office where they have a space spare for a couple of hours, whatever it is, but you might find just picking up your laptop and going to that space depending on your job, what that looks like, that just being in a different space might make all the difference. Even a different space in your home might make all the difference if you've got that opportunity With some people.

Fiona Kane:

It might mean, like I know that the mentor I used to work with, shandu. She often because she works over the phone, she often just shifts outside. She lives in the Blue Mountains so she shifts outside and she's sitting outside with the birds and things and sometimes that's ideal, right, so she's not inside all of the day. So there might be ways of shifting yourself to the library, to a friend's house who's got a nice balcony that you can sit on or a room that you can use. It's just a different room to the one that you're always in, whatever it is. But sometimes being able to just shift yourself to a different space can make a difference.

Fiona Kane:

If you can't shift yourself to a different space, like I said, do something in your space that shifts your space. So a plant, a pitcher, something like that, a fan, open the door to get some air, whatever it looks like, but something you can do in that space that makes you feel better in that space and makes you enjoy being in that space or gives you a bit of a different perspective. So those things can make a difference. But do make sure you speak to a human at least once every day, especially if you live alone. So if you live alone and you are working from home, you really do have to make sure you're talking to other people. Sometimes, even if you're an introvert, it's still good for you to talk to some people some of the time.

Fiona Kane:

Right, and, like I said, other things, think about your rituals. So think about what you're eating, think about whether or not you're listening to a podcast that you enjoy or some music that you enjoy or an audio book that you enjoy or allowing time to read that. So it might be having a five-minute break or a 10-minute break every so many hours and then just sitting and reading a novel for 10 minutes while you're having a cup of tea, right? So whatever it is, but create ritual, because human beings love ritual. We love to have at least somewhat of a schedule, because that sort of just somehow we are able to function better with a schedule. If we don't have one sort of, you're just going to have to spend the whole day on the lounge and not get anything done. So think about all those things and, like I said, getting dressed, having a shower, getting dressed makes a big difference to how we feel about ourselves.

Fiona Kane:

So to just be aware that, if you are working from home, look at all the strategies that you need to do to manage your mental health while you're doing this, and also know you know if you've got options because, say, sometimes people do have an option in their job. They have an option to not work from home if that works better for them, and that's okay as well, like if there's an option to work in an office and that works better for you, do that. Or if you find there's an option to do a bit of both and that works for you, then do that. So you might find that, as long as you go in once a week, that's really good for you. You feel much more connected to your team. You really enjoy that, and but the rest of the time you just get a lot more done if you're at home and you get to be around the kids or you get to exercise more or whatever it is for you.

Fiona Kane:

So please be aware that working from home can be really good in some ways and not so good in others. You do have to have structure around it and you do have to plan for what that's going to look like for you. If we're not careful, we can end up in a real rut and end up feeling we can feel quite depressed. If you're sitting around in your pajamas, you're not eating well, you're just going through a bag of chips and not eating properly, you're not taking proper breaks, then you might find that that's really getting you down.

Fiona Kane:

So think of all the things that you would do if you were in an office. You probably would have had a shower, you would have gotten dressed, you would have gone somewhere, you would have walked somewhere or driven somewhere, so you would have had a different perspective. You would have had time to listen to the radio, whatever it is. So there are things you miss out on when you are not traveling to work. So think about that. What are you missing out on? And it might be well I'm missing out on the terrible traffic. Well, that's great, but it might be. Ash, you know what? I normally would listen to the radio and I really enjoy that. Or I 'd normally listen to an audio book or a podcast. We'll do that at home, all right.

Fiona Kane:

So just don't kind of just work from home and that's it. Think about how you're doing it. What does it look like? What does your space look like? What breaks are you having? What structure do you have and how are you ensuring that you're still connecting with human beings throughout the day, depending on how important that is to you? It's important for all human beings, but for some it's a whole lot more important than others. So do that however that works for you, but really have a think about how it's affecting your mental health and what sort of structure you need, and you might even need structure.

Fiona Kane:

Look, sometimes, if you're the sort of person that can create structure for yourself, great. If you are not, you might need to talk to. If you do have a supervisor or a boss or someone you might have to say, look, I'm not really good at creating structure for myself, can you create it for me? And they might say, all right, well, I want you to have completed this work by this time and I want you to have emailed me or sent this to me by this time. Then you can have your break and then I want you working on the next thing and I want you to message me at midday to let me know where you're up to on the such and such report, whatever it is. So create it for yourself. Or if you can't and you're working for someone else or with someone else, maybe ask them for some sort of support, some sort of check-in, some sort of accountability. So, either create accountability for yourself or, if you struggle with that, maybe support from other people to do that, if you're in a position to do that.

Fiona Kane:

But essentially, what it comes down to is know yourself, know how you work well, know what motivates you, Know how to manage yourself and your time and know what you need, because sometimes it's just putting thought into things. Because often we don't put thought into things and then we wonder why we end up in the situations that we're in. And so sometimes, when you look back, you do a bit of an audit over what's going on. You're like, okay, what do I miss about the office? Since I haven't been working in the office, I'm noticing this, this and this. What's going on? You do a bit of an audit. What is it that you're not doing now that you're doing in the office? How can you replicate that?

Fiona Kane:

Or it might actually mean that you need to go find a job that allows you to go and work in an office somewhere or in a place of wherever it is an office, a supermarket, a factory, wherever it is for you but go and work with other people. So maybe you just simply are not the sort of person that should be working from home, and that's okay as well, right? So just know yourself, and when you know yourself, you know what you need to be doing to support your own mental health. Obviously, working from home can be really beneficial or not so beneficial, depending on your personality, depending on the job, what it looks like how much support you need and how much you know if you're an introvert or extrovert. All of those things will make the difference.

Fiona Kane:

Anyway, I hope you found that useful. Now please like, subscribe, share and also review, rate and review on whatever apps or wherever you're watching or listening to this. It really helps other people find out about it. It's really important to me that more people find out about my podcast so I get to do more of it. So I hope you have a great week. I'll talk to you next week. Thanks, bye.

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