Remote Work Decreases Psychological and Physical Stress Responses, but Full-Remote Work Increases Presenteeism.

Akiyoshi Shimura,Yoshiki Ishibashi,Yusaku Akatsuka,Takeshi Inoue,Katsunori Yokoi

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.730969

Akiyoshi Shimura, Yoshiki Ishibashi + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.730969

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Abstract

Introduction: Remote work was widely promoted in 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the effects of remote work on psychological and physical stress responses and presenteeism of workers remain unclear. This research aims to provide empirical evidence of the implications for people and organizations of this new scenario of working from home.Methods: A two-wave panel survey of before and after the pandemic was performed to investigate the effects of remote work on these aspects among office workers. A total of 3,123 office workers from 23 tertiary industries responded to a questionnaire. Participants were surveyed about their job stress conditions and sleep practices in both 2019 and 2020, who had not done remote work as of 2019 were included in the study. The effects of remote work on psychological and physical stress responses and presenteeism were analyzed by multivariate analysis, with the adjustment of age, gender, overtime, job stressors, social support, and sleep status.Results: The multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that remote work was associated with the reduction of psychological and physical stress responses independently of changes of job stressors, social support, sleep disturbance, and total sleep time on workdays. On the other hand, remote work of 5 days a week (full-remote) was associated with the reduction of work productivity.Conclusion: Promoting remote work can reduce psychological and physical stress responses, however, full-remote work has the risk of worsening presenteeism. From the viewpoint of mental health, the review of working styles is expected to have positive effects, even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

Remote work was widely promoted in 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
Remote work can result in social isolation and marginalization, which increases the stress of workers (Di Martino and Wirth, 1990), and a literature review reported that there was little clear evidence that remote work increases job satisfaction and productivity (Bailey and Kurland, 2002)
A research group in Europe concluded that working from home was associated with work productivity loss caused by sickness (Steidelmüller et al, 2020), which is known as presenteeism (Aronsson et al, 2000)

Summary

Introduction

Remote work was widely promoted in 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. the effects of remote work on psychological and physical stress responses and presenteeism of workers remain unclear. Working from home, known as remote work, telework, or mobile work, is expected to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection (Di Domenico et al, 2020; Kawashima et al, 2020), and has been widely implemented as part of the “Stay at home” policy. Remote work can result in social isolation and marginalization, which increases the stress of workers (Di Martino and Wirth, 1990), and a literature review reported that there was little clear evidence that remote work increases job satisfaction and productivity (Bailey and Kurland, 2002). A research group in Europe concluded that working from home was associated with work productivity loss caused by sickness (Steidelmüller et al, 2020), which is known as presenteeism (Aronsson et al, 2000)

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