The Case Against Working From Home

It’s not that hard to come up with a list of advantages of working from home.

You save hundreds of dollars, if not thousands, on gas by foregoing the twice daily commute. You’re often better able to balance your work life and real life. There are countless fewer interruptions. And the dress code is certainly a lot more relaxed.

Many companies have also found that employee productivity has been higher during the pandemic when they worked from home. But a study by the neuroscience team at the University of Cambridge shows that working from home full-time carries some risks as well.

The primary risk of working from home, especially for single people, is isolation. And the lack of social interaction that many of us get at the office or in the field can impact the brain’s structure.

The brain, argues the research team, is specifically evolved to support social interactions. And being part of a group increases satisfaction and well-being.

The study mapped the brain regions of nearly 7,000 people, finding that the regions that are utilized during social interactions are strongly linked to those that support cognition, including the ones that help us focus; that assist with memory, emotion and motivation; and that help us regulate our emotions.

What researchers found was that social isolation could be an early indicator of people who were at an increased risk of dementia. In fact, in a follow-up with the almost 500,000 participants 12 years after the initial study, those who were socially isolated had a 26% increased risk of the disorder.

That sort of isolation, of course, was more than just working from home. But it points to the potential cognitive risks that come with avoiding the office entirely.

Gallup, meanwhile, conducted a less scientific, but still noteworthy survey of more than 15 million employees a decade ago that looked at, among other things, the importance of social interaction at work. The results found that people with a “work wife” or “work husband”—someone they consider their best friend at the office—are “seven times as likely to be engaged in their jobs, are better at engaging customers, produce higher quality work, [and] have higher well-being.”

And if your company prides itself on having a team-based culture, a 2017 Harvard Business Review study found that those who work remotely often feel less like a member of that squad. A lack of close contact, the study found, is harmful to the formation of trust, connection and mutual purpose.

The potential problems of working from home are compounded for women. Bank of England Policymaker Catherine Mann, speaking at an event for women in finance late last year, noted that as workers return to the office, women who continue to work from home may find their careers begin to stall.

Those comments dovetailed with Deloitte’s global Women @ Work survey, which found that 51% of women are less optimistic about their career prospects today than they were prior to the onset of COVID-19.

And younger workers actually don’t want to work from home. A national work-from-home survey conducted by economists at three universities found that under 25% of people in Generation Z (in this case, defined as workers in their 20s) would work remotely full-time if given the option (over 40% of the people aged 50 and above said they would). And LinkedIn found that 20- to 24-year-olds were the least likely to apply to remote roles in a study of job applications on that site.

How come? They crave that office community, especially those who have moved to a new city. That offers both a social outlet for them as well as a place to learn from peers and their manager.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt, also, that 11% of couples said they met as coworkers or through mutual coworkers.

Sometimes, the best case against working from home is the most basic one.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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