Is working from home bad for your health?
Having a career in nursing has predominantly taken me into the hospital/clinic environment and for the first seventeen years, in uniform too. In November 2023, I was offered a job with a private medical company, which was an entirely remote job. This was a whole new concept for me, having been used to going to a place of work and then leaving it at the end of a day. When I first accepted the role, it seemed to me like a huge novelty! I started to count the minutes I would save from the usual commute in rush hour traffic and the extra minutes in bed I could get. The idea that I just had to walk downstairs to my desk seemed so effortless.
This novelty began to wear thin two years into the role! However, as is my attitude to any work or role, I soldier on, rinse and repeat, as it were! I had started to realise that working from home wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Once a convenience, an effortless routine from getting up to starting work, now became a struggle. I started to realise that there was no boundary that separated work from home. My desk was less than two metres from my sofa, and when I finished my sessions, although I could turn off my computer, I couldn’t turn off the psychological “connection” to work.
I began to associate all my home routines with work because there was no physical separation. A the beginning I didn’t envisage this to be a problem, my enthusiasm about convenience clouded my judgement. Work became home. Home became work. I even tried to solve the problem by moving the desk and computer up to our spare room, so that the sitting room was free from the association of my job. What happened instead, was that when I went to bed at night, I could almost hear a constant “hum” of the computer next door, like it was mocking me, reminding me that I was but a few feet away from its pull.
Aside from the physical dynamics of the remote job, over time I began to crave human connection. Often you don’t realise what’s missing, until it’s gone! I had underestimated the importance of socialisation, and being around people. On a typical working day, I might see and talk to 32 patients, either via video link or phone. However, they are not in front of me. There is simply no substitute from the in-person connection. Furthermore, I never met any of my peers/colleagues in real life. For all I know I could have been working for avatars, there was no opportunity to see any other staff.
This didn’t start to affect me at the beginning. It was a very slow but powerful realisation of loneliness that eventually took its toll on my mental health. I started to feel like I was losing my connection to the world. I only spent one day a week out of the house, at my 9-hour session at local surgery. I started to look forward to this the way you would to a social event because it involved getting “ready”, travelling to, and travelling back from a place where there were people, where there were conversations and life. On a weekend, unless I planned to be outdoors, I experienced the familiar “cabin fever” that the working week was causing. If I didn’t plan carefully six days could pass where I hadn’t left the house, and this was unhealthy, both physically and emotionally.
As humans, we naturally crave and need connection, companionship and social interaction. While the world is rapidly becoming more digital, and artificial intelligence is finding its way into every interaction, there is no replica for human-to-human communication. We read body language, we sense the emotional state of another person, using all our senses. When I consulted with patients from home, I lost many of those essential skills. Reading energy, connecting on a spiritual level, is lost on a video call, or phone conversation. Even if I spoke to 32 patients, I could still finish my day feeling isolated. het
Last month I applied for a job in a GP practice, approximately 12 miles away, and I was successful. After a period of isolation, and loneliness, being accepted and having my skills and experience validated had a huge impact on my mental health. For so long, I had hidden myself away, not least because of working from home, but also because of changes in my life. I hadn’t realised just how much of myself I had lost, how dimly my light was shining. When I sat in the interview, with two doctors and their practice manager, something inside woke up. It didn’t feel like an interview, it felt like minds coming together, ideas being exchanged, experiences being celebrated. I left that room, and as I drove home, I had an intuitive confidence. I didn’t even question whether I had been successful. It felt like that didn’t matter. The experience brought me back into the world. A crowd of three had shown a genuine interest towards me, they had held space for me and I felt alive.
Two days later I was offered the job. There has been a tangible shift ever since, in my heart, my mind and my physical world. After being a confined to home, in a job where there were never discussions with other colleagues, or a celebration of minds, I was looking forward to becoming part of a team. As I write this, I have now left the remote job, packing away all signs of my previous office, restoring the living room to its soft furnished oasis. Next week starts my new venture and I am thrilled, not least because I have a new wardrobe to go with my new role! As I say goodbye to my home career, I thank the universe for the new opportunity that has come my way, and I am grateful for all the roles I have played. They have all guaranteed a roof over my family’s head and food on the table. But from next week, home will be home, and work will be work! A clear boundary between the two.
