How Does Working from Home Affect Your Health?
The pandemic forced billions of people to stay indoors and adjust to working from home, and even now that lockdowns have eased, there are a lot of companies that are choosing to continue having employees work remotely, even if it is just for a few days a week.
This change has been welcomed by some, but others aren’t as keen to remain in a hybrid living/workspace indefinitely. One thing is for sure that working from home has had an impact on people’s well-being, positive or not, and here are a few examples of how.
Exercise
Working from home has enabled a lot of people to start exercising more, mainly because it gets them out of the house for a change of scene, but also because the time saved with a commute has given them more freedom to fit in regular workouts. However, some might have found working from home has had the opposite effect, as they are still finding their feet when it comes to maintaining a good daily routine. This is particularly true if they don’t have any strict ‘office hours’ to adhere to when they are working remotely.
Diet
While people might have attempted to stay healthy and learn to cook new nutritious recipes during lockdown periods, many people did increase their consumption of junk food and alcohol during this time. It’s understandable why this would happen, as these things can all be a source of comfort or serve as a distraction which many needed from this existential crisis.
While indulging in these things occasionally might not do a lot of harm, they can easily become habits if you’re not careful, and many people might have found that they did put on weight since working from home – especially if you enjoy snacking at your desk. If you’re worried about moving into an unhealthy weight and want to make some changes, try this Weight Watchers promo code to see if this could help you achieve your goals more easily.
Social Anxiety
One of the benefits of working in an office is that it does help to keep you socialized throughout the day. Some might prefer working in isolation, perhaps it is easier to focus on your daily tasks, or you can’t stand making small talk with a colleague that you find annoying. However, working from home, especially if you live alone, can be very isolating, and some people might have experienced an increase in social anxiety as a result.
Once you get into the habit of being in the house all of the time, for some, it can be hard to readjust to getting out into the world and seeing people in real life rather than through a computer screen. Others might not have social anxiety necessarily but perhaps have noticed a dip in their mental health in some other way.
Working from home won’t necessarily have impacted your health negatively; everyone is different. However, there are certain aspects to this new working arrangement that has left people with perhaps unhealthy habits or mindsets that need to have better support.
