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“When work is fun, life is good. But when it is imposed on us, life is slavery,” the writer Maxim Gorky tells us. The same is true with teleworking. Indeed, one of the major criticisms made of teleworking is its harmful nature on the mental health of individuals.
According to a study carried out by the IFOP, more than 65% of teleworkers believe that since they teleworked, their psychological state has deteriorated as well as their social interactions. In addition, they feel that they are less close to their employees and less involved in team life than before the implementation of remote work. However, there are many benefits: saving time on commuting, reducing transport costs...
So what do you think of teleworking? Is it a remedy for work-related stress, or does it make it worse?
To what extent does teleworking harm the psychological state and how can it, on the contrary, be beneficial? What can I do to prevent it from deteriorating my mental health and, on the contrary, improving it?
1) Teleworking, a new fear for workers
The border between professional life and the private life of individuals has never been as fragile as with the implementation of teleworking.
Managing schedules is becoming a real challenge. How can you explain without feeling guilty to your employees that you are no longer available after 6 p.m., because you have made a medical appointment or simply because you planned to go for a walk.
In addition, during the lunch break, you are disturbed by various notification noises that remind you behind your computer. According to the study “The New Remote Work Era: Trends in the Distributed Workforce” by Vanson Bourne, 55% of workers connect outside of so-called “normal” work hours, increasing the actual working time.
Thus, more and more employees are encountering difficulties in setting a strict limit between their working time and their personal time. Remote workers very quickly feel guilty for not responding immediately when they are remote, thinking that they will be perceived as inserious employees when it comes to working remotely. Rest times are losing their quality, because remote workers are more easily anxious about not being available. According to a report by the ILO (International Labour Organization), almost 1 in 2 teleworkers wake up several times at night compared to only 29% of conventional workers.
In addition to the difficult management of schedules, there is the problem of the work environment. Indeed, not all teleworkers necessarily have an ideal environment for teleworking from home. Certainly, the company is supposed to provide the employee with the equipment necessary to set up teleworking at home. But in fact, that's not always the case.
Indeed, according to the Dares study, 38% of companies suffer from a minority of employees who experience difficulties in using equipment relating to the implementation of teleworking. In addition to this phenomenon, there is an asymmetry of power that arises from the corporate hierarchy. As a result, employees do not always dare to ask for help and suitable equipment from their superiors.
In addition to equipment, the quality of the work environment depends on the very characteristics of the home, in particular its size. For example, whether or not there is a quiet room for teleworking such as an office. If not, you then have to telework in the living room or in the dining room, which is not always ideal. Other members of the household such as children or spouse can also disrupt the work environment. According to INRS, only 67% of workers can work in a quiet place. Women, in particular, are 1.5 times more bothered by their children when they work from home than at their regular work. Brief but repetitive exchanges with third parties in the household disturb the individual in his work and are generally a source of unforeseen events in the teleworker's day, which generates an additional amount of stress.
Read also: Teleworking: how to organize your space?
Teleworking provides a feeling of isolation and solitude. Employees feel more alone at home. They spend almost the entire day at home behind their computers. Remote relationships with employees are often degraded. In addition, it is not always easy to know when your employees work from home in order to find the same days in the office.
The feeling of isolation is even stronger when remote workers have no or few friendly relationships outside of those with their office mates. According to a study by Malakoff Humanis, 40% of remote workers note a deterioration in the quality of the link with their colleagues.
Read also: Teleworking: how to maintain social ties at work? Our 4 best practices
Finally, remote working can result in a decrease in productivity for some employees. Indeed, home distractions are numerous and it is not always easy to resist them. These distractions cause a delay in the progress of projects, which generates stress and a feeling of guilt during the rest period for not having worked well.
2) Teleworking as a vector of personal satisfaction/remedy for work-related stress
Teleworking can be positive for the psychological well-being of individuals. By reducing the time associated with travel, it offers employees an average of 1 hour and 04 more per day (according to a Dalia/Statista study) that they can thus use as they wish. Among other things, this overtime allows you to go to medical appointments without having to take a half-day off. In addition, there is a significant correlation between short travel time and well-being at work. According to the Paris Workplaces barometer, employees who travel less than 40 minutes per day consider themselves happier at their work and are half as likely to consider staying in their company for more than 5 years.
Lunch breaks can be more easily shared with family members or friends than when the employee works from the office where, as a result, he feels more constrained to have lunch with his collaborators. In addition, teleworkers most often eat lunch at home, which allows them to cook and eat a diet that is often healthier than when they have lunch at their workplace, as evidenced in particular by the numerous cooking recipe ideas dedicated to teleworking on the Internet.
Teleworking reduces on the one hand transport times, but also its costs (gas and transport tickets). It also reduces the carbon footprint, because even more than 74% of employees go to their workplace by car (INSEE figures). By limiting car trips, employees are doing a good thing for the planet.
Another virtue of teleworking is the feeling of trust provided to employees. Employees who have the right to telework generally feel rewarded that their employer trusts them enough in their ability to work effectively and seriously from home. Teleworking can therefore be perceived as a form of recognition for the individuals who benefit from it. According to the National Interprofessional Agreement, it implies “a relationship of trust between a manager and each teleworking employee — and two complementary skills — the autonomy and responsibility necessary for teleworking”. It thus offers a certain form of independence and responsibility that traditional workers do not benefit from.
Finally, working from home has multiple advantages, in fact, the environment we live in is quieter, warmer and more familiar. It allows employees to enjoy their homes outside the weekends.
What should we think about it?
Teleworking, insofar as it is applied on an ad hoc basis, is positive for the mental health of workers. By working from home, employees are spared from various sources of stress. However, a balance must be put in place, teleworking is positive for everyone's well-being if a framework is defined around it. For example, it is strongly recommended to organize a remote work schedule to avoid leaving time for the unknown, a schedule that you also share with the rest of your team. In addition, some good habits can be adopted such as a quick walk in the morning to get the day off to a good start, regular breaks to get some fresh air...
A final solution is the adoption of management tools dedicated to teleworking. Among other things, this is what the company m-work offers!
So what is m-work?
m-work is a fully integrated tool for organizing and monitoring the organization of your company's remote work. With m-work, managers can promote social ties, save time by organizing hybrid work and allow employees to meet in the office.
Are you interested in the subject? Do not hesitate to contact us!
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