Work from office better than work from home for mental health: Study

Work from office better than work from home for mental health: Study

 Amit.Bhattacharya@timesofindia.com 24.10.2024 

Forging good relationships at the workplace and a sense of pride in work are more important for mental wellbeing than the oft-touted ‘work-life balance’ factors such as workload and flexibility over time, a new mega global study reveals. In a surprising finding of the study that looked at nine aspects of work culture, Indians who worked from offices had better mental health indicators than those in workfrom-home or hybrid arrangements. 

This contrasted with trends from the Americas and Europe, where hybrid workers were found to have the best mental health indices. The study, Work Culture & Mental Wellbeing, was conducted by the US-based mind research organisation, Sapiens Labs. › Team size, P 8 Increase in mental wellbeing with team size steeper in India The study used data obtained this year from 54,831 employed, internet-enabled respondents across 65 countries. The report comes in the backdrop of a debate in India over high workload, stress and “toxic” workplaces, triggered by the recent death of a 26-year-old chartered accountant in Pune. The report did identify workload as an important cause of distress among workers. But these ‘worklife balance’ factors were found to be half as impactful on mental health as some other parameters. “Relationships with your colleagues and feeling a sense of pride and purpose in your work came in at the top of the list in terms of impact to mental wellbeing, regardless of what type of job you  do,” the report said.

Poor relationships and a low sense of pride and purpose at work were found to be linked with severe feelings of sadness or hopelessness, being unwanted and r educed energy levels and motivation, among others. In India, where the study had a sample size of 5,090, the link between poor relationships with colleagues and mental distress was stronger than the global average. While across the world, people working in teams showed better mental health than those working alone, the increase in mental wellbeing with team size was steeper in India than in western countries. “The percentage who indicate unmanageable workloads in India (13%) is actually better than the global average (16%) and US (18%) while those who indicate good relationships with their colleagues is comparable to the global average of around 50%,” said neuroscientist Tara Thiagarajan, founder and chief scientist of Sapiens Labs. Globally, the study found those in customer services and physical labour fared worse than those employed in human care or knowledge-based jobs. Full report on www.toi.in