All work and no play makes remote workers an unhealthy bunch

One of the biggest changes to daily life under the pandemic has been to the way we work. As coronavirus restrictions led to office closures and working from home policies were implemented, there were a few causes for celebration. Gone were the days of forking out for an overpriced sandwich, forcing down the terrible office coffee, or getting home way past dinnertime due to frequent delays on public transport.

While a move to remote working has eradicated the commute – giving workers many hours of their days back – it has essentially brought the office home, leading to the blurring of boundaries between work and personal lives. As per the Office of National Statistics, the proportion of working adults who did any work from home in 2020 increased from 27 per cent in 2019 to 37 per cent in 2020.

New research from the insurance firm Aviva, which surveyed 2,000 employees from large companies across the UK in February 2020, August 2020 and March 2021, has found that the increasingly ambiguous boundaries between work and home are starting to have significant implications on people’s overall health.

In the year since the beginning of the pandemic, there was a 53 per cent rise in the number of workers who have neglected their personal health because they are too busy at work. Two in five people said they feel concerned about burnout, while 48 per cent said they either always, or often check their emails outside of working hours.

Debbie Bullock, wellbeing lead at Aviva, described the current climate as an “age of ambiguity”. “Elements of our lives which were previously certain are overlapping and changing beyond recognition. The concept of work itself is becoming increasingly fluid as the world evolves faster than ever before,” she said.

Aviva’s findings are in line with separate research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which showed that levels of presenteeism, showing up for work even while unwell, has been higher in the last year.

Rachel Suff, a senior policy adviser at the institute, attributed the rise to a failure by employers to combat the risks of an “always-on” culture. She said employees need to be encouraged to have firm boundaries between work and home and should be educated on potential health risks from not switching off.

“Managers should encourage people to take regular short breaks during the day and role model healthy behaviour by not sending emails out of hours,” she said. “In particular, line managers need training and guidance so they’re aware of how to support people’s wellbeing, including spotting signs of presenteeism or mental ill-health. They should also ensure workloads and deadlines are realistic,” she said.

Aviva’s study also showed that the impact of the changing work-life culture is felt differently among different age groups, genders and personality types. Women were more likely to experience a negative change to their work/life balance during the pandemic, mostly due to a primary care role looking after children or parents, while the youngest group surveyed (those aged 18-24) are most likely to report their mental wellbeing as either “bad” or “very bad”.

The study also identified employee personality types. Those who are classed as “resilient completers” are organised, disciplined and confident, but can struggle in changing, ambiguous work situations and therefore may be the employees struggling most in the last year. “Impulsive worriers” are less organised and resilient but work well in a free-flowing environment where flexibility is valued more than discipline.

The third category of workers, “apprehensive achievers”, are determined and disciplined in their work and although well-prepared for perceived potential problems, struggle under high pressures and new challenges. The only group of workers who were likely not thrown by the changing work culture during the past year are “spontaneous survivors”, who thrive in “high-pressure but informal work settings” where detail and planning are not priorities.

The threat of “burnout” from changing work habits during the pandemic is now being realised by major companies, with women-led dating app Bumble announcing this week that it will be giving all of its employees a fully-paid week off in June. In a now-deleted tweet, one Bumble executive, Clare O’Connor, said the holiday had been granted to deal with staff’s “collective burnout”.

Tagging the app’s founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, in the post, she wrote: “@WhitWolfeHerd gave all 700ish of us a paid week off, having correctly intuited our collective burnout. In the US especially, where vacation days are notoriously scarce, it feels like a big deal.”

Bumble’s news follows in the footsteps of other companies, such as LinkedIn and Mozilla, which also announced paid leave for their employees in recent months. Starting 5 April, LinkedIn’s 15,900 full-time employees were granted a collective week off to recharge and destress. Tequila Hanson, the platform’s chief people officer, told CNN that giving everyone time off at the same time meant individuals wouldn’t be “inundated by emails, meeting notes and project requests piling up in their absence”.

One trade union, Prospect, which represents more than 150,000 workers across the UK, recently launched a campaign to call on the government to introduce a “right to disconnect” for employees outside of office hours. This hopes to solve the problem of workers feeling the need to reply to emails after their work day is finished.

The campaign comes after one of its surveys found that 66 per cent of people would support a “right to disconnect” amendment being added to the UK Employment Bill. Mike Clancy, general secretary of the union, said employers need to recognise that an “always on” culture will have a long-term impact. “This is a problem which will ultimately result in lost days, decreased productivity, a demotivated workforce and burnout,” he said.

Aviva’s Debbie Bullock said employers can play a “major role” in guiding their workers through this time by “promoting healthier habits and incremental shifts in attitudes and actions”. “However, one size does not fit all when it comes to employee support, and it’s vital businesses speak directly to peers to uncover and address individual concerns by offering tailored support,” she said.