Our research shows home working didn't harm mental health at the start of the pandemic – but things changed later on

• According to UK data, almost 60% of people were working fully or partially from home between April and June 2020.
• Between September 2022 and January 2023, 16% of working adults in the UK reported working fully from home, and 28% working partially from home.
• My colleagues and I wanted to understand how home working correlated with mental health and social wellbeing during the pandemic.

Changes over time

• Our findings show the relationship between home working and mental health changed over the course of the pandemic.
• In both April-June and July-October 2020, we found no significant difference between those working from home and those working at their employer’s premises.
• For example, it’s possible that during the first lockdown, working from home was novel for some people.

Some nuances

• For example, female workers were at higher risk of psychological distress and low life satisfaction compared with male workers, independently of whether they worked from home or not.
• This echoes other research which has shown women’s mental health deteriorated disproportionately at the height of the pandemic.

Limitations and where to next

• We might expect that people who had previously worked from home may have been less directly affected by the pandemic shift to home working.
• However, no information on pre-pandemic home working was available for six of the seven studies.
• Notably, some people may be at greater risk – in particular, female workers and those without a higher education degree.