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working from home has become a cornerstone of Australian work culture, but it is having an impact on mental health Still widely debated.
Can working from home boost your morale? mental healthIf so, how many days a week is best, Whose well-being benefits most, And is it because there is no traffic,
These are among the questions we set out to answer in our new study, which is based on long-term survey data from more than 16,000 Australian workers.
We found that working from home improves the mental health of women compared to men.
what we did
We analyzed 20 years of data from national household, income and labor dynamics Australia (HILDA) survey, which allowed us to track the work and mental health of more than 16,000 employees.
We did not include the two years of the COVID pandemic (2020 and 2021), because people’s mental health then could have been affected by factors unrelated to working from home.
The data allowed us to track people over time and examine how their mental health changed along with their commuting patterns and work-from-home arrangements.
Our statistical models removed any changes induced by major life events (for example, job transfers or the arrival of children).
We focused on two things to see if there was any impact on mental health: commuting time and working from home.
We also examined whether these effects differ between people with good and poor mental health, a new feature of our study.
Traveling affects men and women differently
For women, commute time has no impact on mental health. But for men, longer commutes were associated with worse mental health, whose mental health was already stressed.
The effect was minor. For a person in the middle (close to the median) of the mental health distribution, adding half an hour to their one-way commute reduced mental health by about the same amount as a 2% drop in household income.
Hybrid working was best for women
Working from home had a profound positive impact on women’s mental health, but only under certain circumstances.
The greatest gains were recorded when women worked primarily from home as well as spending some time (one to two days) in the office or on site each week.
For women with poor mental health, this arrangement led to better mental health than working exclusively on site. The benefit was equivalent to a 15% increase in household income.
This finding matches an earlier study, which found that the same type of hybrid work arrangement improved job satisfaction and productivity.
About the authors
Jan Kabatek is a Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.
Ferdi Botha is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.
This article is republished from Conversation Under Creative Commons license. read the original article,
The mental health benefits for women were not simply the result of saving time on travel. Since our analysis included individual commutes, these benefits may reflect other positive aspects of working from home. These include reducing work stress or helping them balance work and family life.
Light or occasional work from home had no apparent impact on women’s mental health. The evidence for full-time working from home was less definitive, primarily because we observed relatively few women doing so.
For men, working from home had no statistically reliable effect on mental health, either positive or negative, regardless of the number of days they worked from home or on-site.
This may reflect the gendered distribution of tasks in Australian households, as well as the fact that men’s social and friendship networks tend to be more work-based.
What is the main message?
Workers with poor mental health are most vulnerable to long commutes and are likely to benefit most from work-from-home arrangements. This is partly because people with poor mental health already have a limited ability to cope with stressful events.
For women with poor mental health, working from home can be a huge boost to their well-being. For men with poor mental health, reducing commute time may also help.
However, employees with stronger mental health appear to be less vulnerable to both commuting and work-from-home patterns. They may still value flexibility, but the mental health impacts of their work arrangements are lower.
What next?
Here are our recommendations based on our findings.
If you are a workerInstead of assuming there’s one best approach, keep an eye on how different patterns of commuting and working from home affect your well-being. If you’re struggling with mental health, plan your most demanding tasks for days when you’re working in an environment where you feel most comfortable.
If you are an employerOffers flexible work-from-home arrangements, especially for employees who struggle with mental health. Consider hybrid models that involve both home and office hours, as these seem to be the most beneficial. Consider workload and commute time as a factor in health discussions. Avoid having the same return policies for everyone in the office.
If you make public policyInvest in reducing congestion and improving public transportation capacity. Strengthen frameworks that encourage flexible working arrangements. Support access to mental health services.
Jordy Meekes and Roger Wilkins also co-authored the research study mentioned in this article.