With the pandemic turning our lives upside down, the concept of working from home has become widely popular. We must continue our lives despite the hardships life throws at us. This is why most companies resort to making their employees work from home so they will be protected from contracting the virus as well as to obey the curfews and quarantine rules imposed by the government. However, this also has brought up some questions both of technological and psychological nature. A lot of workers experience stress from having to deal with technology and stare at computer screens every day. There are some reasons that act as catalysts to increase this situation.
Does Working from Home Increase Stress?
Employees do experience a high level of distress and loneliness when they are working from home. Research done by the United Nations stated that 41% of workers who work from home have expressed that they are highly expressed while only 25% of on-site workers reported the same. It indicates that there is a significantly high level of stress connected with working from home.
Cognitive stress and emotional exhaustion are also experienced by the workers while performing their duties at home. This stress would lead to a lack of efficiency in business performance. To find a solution to this unfortunate situation and explore ways to work efficiently, we must have a clear idea regarding the causes of why a great deal of stress is brought to workers by working from home.
What Causes Stress While Working from Home?
Even though many workers do experience distress while working at their residences, the underlying causes might differ from one individual to the other.
Having Distractions
Not every employee lives alone. Children, spouses, parents, roommates, and other people also live in the same household as the workers. Many of them also stay at home due to the pandemic situation, or retirement. When someone works from home, they are easily distracted by others and also feel a responsibility to respond to others and not completely ignore them. Home also includes creature comforts that a worker feels tempted to indulge in while working. As an example, if a worker is feeling down or upset, they have to tolerate that and carry on working at the workplace. But at home, they can do something that makes them feel better, like petting a cat or playing video games. This would delay the amount of work done by a worker per day which will negatively affect productivity as well.
It is Difficult to Set Boundaries at Home.
This could mean a lot of different things. At home, it is hard to separate work from domestic life. The family members sometimes need the help of the worker to complete a task. They feel obliged to help their family. If they didn’t, that could make the family members frustrated or annoyed as well.
However, this has another side too. Isolation from friends at the workplace can cause emotional instability. Researchers agree that in a highly stressful workplace, it helps to have social interactions with other workers to maintain a successful working environment. This also helps solve some problems and enhance results.
Also, when working from home, the boundaries between work and home start to blur. When working at a workplace, employees can usually adjust to the concept of “out of sight, out of mind”. But with WFH (Work from Home), the workers feel that they have to be available 24/7, and there is no separation between work and regular life. This causes many employees to stress about their work.
No Reinforcements and Benchmarks
Having no reinforcements or comments from their superiors like managers, make the workers nervous about the progress of their work. When there are no clear definitions of a deadline, the comments from the managers or team leaders at the workplace, whether it is positive or negative, help the workers get an idea of a time frame, the amount of work they should be doing, and whether it is going on the right direction or not. Workers worry that if they are not doing enough work and if they are doing it wrong and have to start over once they submit the work they completed from home. This is a severe cause of stress in a WFH situation.
Lack of Physical Exercise
Even though the frequency of working at a workplace can be higher than at home, working from home can be very monotonous. Traveling back and forth from a workplace, getting together with friends at the end of the day, and shopping is some of the activities people do while working at a workplace. At home, people are less active, and mostly just sit around at the computer. The lack of exercise can affect both mental and physical health. It would make workers tired at night, resulting in insomnia, which will affect their work the following day.
The above are some common stressors of the WFH environment. With the recent upscale in the number of workers reporting stress while working from home, strategies for handling the stress are becoming popular and often searched for.
How to Handle Stress and Work Efficiently in a WFH Environment?
With a few simple tricks and strategies, workers can reduce the stress of working from home.
Creating a Space Dedicated to Work
Even if you do not have an office room, creating a specific space to do your job can help you create the illusion of “leaving work”. It is helpful to resist the urge to curl up and work from your bed because then your mind cannot distinguish the work and normal life. The workspace will help you set the work and home boundaries.
Reducing Distractions
Turning off notifications on your phone and computer that are not work-related helps you focus more on work. Also, you can listen to music that relaxes you. Noise-canceling headphones are also a good way to avoid distractions but you have to be careful when using them because there can be emergencies you might be oblivious to, because of them.
Keeping in Contact with Friends
Staying in touch with your friends is a great way to reduce stress. You can arrange a regular video chat or a call with your friends from work or others and have a socially-distanced gathering and talk about your days and how your life is going. Friends can really help you go through tough times and close relationships help keep us sane. Humans are social animals.
Some other things you can do are,
- Getting comfortable with saying ‘no’ to non-work-related things
- Getting enough sleep
- Creating a routine that has a definitive beginning and end to the workday
- Don’t miss your meals
- Stay hydrated
- Try yoga or exercise inside the house
Wrapping Up…
Following these steps will help you balance your work and home life while working from home. It does not have to make you a stressful person. Working from home can be quite relaxing if you adapt correctly, you can spend more time with your family and pets and be there when they need you. So, all the best to you to be the best self you can be and work effectively while enjoying the comfort of your home while also contributing effectively to your work.