Implications of COVID-19: The Effect of Working From Home on Financial and Mental Well-Being in the UK.

Eleftherios Giovanis,Oznur Ozdamar

doi:10.34172/ijhpm.2021.33

Abstract

In response to the threat posed by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the UK prime minister announced on the 23rd of March strict lockdowns and introduced a new way of living and working, at least temporarily. This included working from home (WHF) wherever possible. Many experts from the IT industry were long arguing about the potential for WFH, which suddenly now became indisputable. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of WFH on the individuals' perception about their future financial situation and their mental well-being. We apply a difference-in-differences (DiD) framework using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) combined with the UKHLS COVID-19 survey conducted in April 2020. Our findings suggest that those who have not experienced a shift from working at the employer's premises to WFH became more concerned about their future financial situation. However, we find that WFH has a negative impact on mental well-being. On the other hand, we find no difference in the mental well-being when we consider those who work from home on occasion. The findings of this study have policy implications for government, firms and health practitioners. In particular, a balance between WFH and at the employer's premises may provide both financial security and maintain the mental and psychological well-being at satisfying levels.

Highlights

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has posed new challenges to the society, prompting people reconsider a wide variety of practices, from work, to daily tasks, to basic travel and recreational activities
When we consider the second case we described in the previous section, the perception about the future financial situation is better during the COVID-19 period, compared to those who never work from home, while they do not present any differences in the mental well-being
In panel B, we report the results when we consider those who work from home occasionally, and we conclude that those who never work from home have more concerns about the future financial situation, we find no differences in the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12 between the two groups

Summary

Introduction

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has posed new challenges to the society, prompting people reconsider a wide variety of practices, from work, to daily tasks, to basic travel and recreational activities. Has this had an individual effect, but it has had an economic impact on countries as a whole, bringing a variety of economic sectors to a complete halt. Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, countries have taken numerous steps to avoid its spread These initiatives have had an enormous impact on the world economy, in countries that were hard hit by the coronavirus, such as Italy, Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom. Their findings suggest a significant and systematic drop in the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) (which measures people’s overall psychological well-being) from 18.3% before the lockdown period to 28.3% during the lockdown

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Conclusion