The Impact Of Working From Home On The Brain

The great working from home experiment is over a year underway now. It was back in March 2020 that so many of us were told to retreat to our homes and continue our jobs from there.

We had to bid ‘goodbye’ to the offices and instead adapt to our new normal: working in our bedrooms and living rooms, dealing with distractions, and missing out on the watercooler talk with colleagues.

What’s more, working from home provided us with the new challenge of trying to remain productive. If you want to find out some useful tips on how to do so, check out our article here.

And asides from the natural increase in home office desk sales, working from home is also having another impact.

The impact on our brains.

That’s right, our brains when working from home are a lot different from our brains when working in the office.

After all, working from home in your childhood bedroom surely isn’t great for brain development, right?

But what’s the science behind this?

The working from home boom has led to many studies and experiments being carried out to assess the change in our brains when working from home.

They seek answers to questions many of us have: how are we supposed to concentrate in our video meetings with our children screaming in the background? How is my lack of human contact impacting my socialisation skills? Is working from home doing any lasting damage to our productivity levels?

Thankfully, at Shape The Market, we thought we should collate these answers and make it easier for you.

If you’re looking to find out the impact on our brains when working from home, continue reading.

What is perhaps one of the most expected and understandable impacts on the brain when working from home is a change in mental health conditions.

Sometimes, for the worse.

With many of us now approaching the year and a half marker for working from home, it’s hard to believe that we haven’t seen our colleagues in this long.

Sure, we may have video calls and online socials. But the lack of social interactions with our workplace friends is having a negative impact on our mental wellbeing.

In fact, many employers have reported feeling concerned and worried about their employees’ mental states.

And it’s with good reason, too.

According to Nuffield Health, over 80% of people in the UK say that they feel that working from home has had a negative impact on their mental health.

Specifically, the Office for National Statistics has reported that the number of adults dealing with depression has doubled since June 2020.

Whilst this cannot be entirely attributed to working from home lifestyles, it’s likely that the change in workplace dynamics has contributed.

But why is this?

Scientifically speaking, social interactions, particularly workplace social interactions, are extremely important for our social skills and mental wellbeing.

Our brains have a very important nerve called the vagus nerve: this is responsible for 80-90% of our nervous system and state of wellbeing.

When we work from home and miss out on socialising with colleagues and speaking with people (other than the ones you’re trapped quarantining with), this nerve doesn’t get used as much.

As a result, it can almost enter a state of atrophy. The impact of this on our brains is that we feel less awake, less enthusiastic, and less happy.

Which would certainly justify many of our feelings of mental health decline.

If we’re being honest, very few people are fans of video meetings.

We’ve had to learn to adapt to new forms of communication, mostly operating over Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

And whilst video meetings do have some benefits, like only having to get dressed from the shoulders up, there are also some downsides too.

In fact, earlier this year we wrote an article about mistakes you’re likely making on a video call – like being ill-prepared, or having a distracting background.

If you want to read the article to discover what you need to know about video calls, click here.

But there are also some more serious side effects of video meetings, other than getting bored easily, that are impacting our brains when working from home.

In a study carried out by Microsoft, they looked into how our brain functions differently when problem-solving with another team member in person, and problem-solving with a team member through a video call.

Surprisingly, their EEG study found that when working remotely and having to communicate through a video call, the brain waves associated with stress and anxiety were significantly higher than the results when working in person.

What’s more, they found specifically that when a person is participating in a video call, the maximum time for this to last is only around 30 minutes.

This is because once the 30-minute mark hits, our brainwaves start to crash.

We then become less concentrated, sluggish, and less energised.

But why is this?

Well, we actually require more attention when it comes to using digital forms of communication. Whilst you might think that a video call allows you to slack off a bit, it’s actually demanding more energy and more brain functionality from you.

So when we’re digitally communicating with our colleagues and working online, we’re actually demanding more from our brain.

And, when it can’t keep it, that’s when our energy levels and brain functionality start to crash.

Working from home does come with some benefits: the commute is significantly decreased (unless you’re traveling back and forth between the fridge and your home office), and you’re able to benefit from home cooking during your lunch breaks.

But, working from home can be a diversion from the usual office hours.

Whereas in the office you’ll typically be working 9-5, working from home can sometimes see you working longer hours.

In fact, 43% of people have found themselves working longer than a 40-hour workweek.

That’s almost half!

And with so many of us working longer hours than we usually do, it would make sense why we would feel burnt out and overworked.

What’s more, working these long hours doesn’t even necessarily mean an increase in productivity either.

There have been numerous studies that have found that a shorter workweek – a week with only 4 days in work, for example – is much more beneficial for productivity than a long week.

This means that, effectively, employees are overworking themselves for very little benefit.

But just how bad is burnout, really?

Well, according to Dr. Sanam Hafeez, a New York psychologist, “your brain loses the ability to shift states easily, utilize energy, and maintain positive mood balance.”

Consequently, the performance of our work decreases and we produce work of lower quality.

Perhaps a point that will surprise a lot of people, our posture when working impacts our brain function.

Working from home has seen many of us taking to unusual places to set up a home office. Some of us are in our bedrooms, some in the living room hunched over a sofa.

It’s no surprise that home office desk sales have soared since the pandemic, with many of us having to work in places we didn’t anticipate working.

As a result of this, many of us around the country are putting our posture to the test.

Without the benefit of supportive office desks we were so used to pre-Covid, our posture and spines are recoiling and folding.

Hunched over a tiny, makeshift desk every day isn’t very good for your back.

But other than the back pain and the constant need to stretch every 2 minutes, poor posture can actually effect your brain function too.

According to Chiropractic Health Centres, posture has a direct correlation to our brains and how we’re feeling.

They claim that “this is due to the activation of the prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobe of your brain, which controls your cortical thinking, concentration and emotions.”

Meaning, that leaning over your desk for 8 hours a day is actually placing a strain on your frontal lobe and therefore impeding how you work.

Who knew that posture would impact the brain when working from home?

Whilst there are a lot of ways that working from home is negatively impacting the brain, there are some positive cognitive impacts.

We know that working from home allows you to have a reduced commute, save money on travel, and spend more time with your family, there are actually some positive impacts on the brain that working from home creates.

Primarily, that working from home creates greater job satisfaction.

In a survey carried out by Microsoft, 52% of UK employees said that they have more empathy towards their colleagues and workplace friends now that they are working from home.

It seems that with everyone having to adjust, co-workers are becoming more understanding of each other’s problems.

As well as this, 77% of workers say that they have greater job satisfaction when they are working from home.

Whether this is because they don’t have managers closely supervising them, or because they’re spending more time with their families, employees are finding greater pleasure in their work.

As a result of these positive changes, our brains are experiencing a higher rush of satisfaction and happiness.

We become more productive, positive, and engaged with our work.

Perhaps working from home isn’t so bad for our brains after all?

Working from home can see a lot of negative impacts on our brain.

Increased stress, poor brain functionality, and larger demand for energy mean that we could potentially be suffering as we’re away from the office.

However, the impact on our brains when working from home can be positive too.

Not everyone will experience poor mental health or an increase in stress when working from home.

For some people, they’ll have an increase in job satisfaction and a greater sense of happiness when they’re working out of the office.

It’s entirely dependent on the individual.

But, with businesses so desperate to move back to the office soon, it could be an issue that remedies itself.

What about your business? How have your employees been impacted by working from home?

Let us know in the comments!