A study on 588,000 American workers quantifies the mental cost of remote work

A new study published in Science last week quantifies the social cost of remote work: workers in roles that can be performed from home spend 58% more hours alone compared to their office-based colleagues, with measurable impacts on mental health. The research, conducted by Natalia Emanuel from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Emma Harrington from the University of Virginia, and Amanda Pallais from Harvard, estimates that remote work may account for about one-third of the overall increase in mental fatigue among American workers in the post-pandemic years.

Remote work has quadrupled from 7% of American workers in 2019 to 28% in 2023, leading tens of millions of people to reconfigure their workday. To measure the consequences of this transition, the authors analyzed five representative national surveys conducted over a span of thirteen years, from 2011 to 2024, with a total sample of 588,322 workers. The timeline allows for a comparison of behaviors and health conditions of American workers before and after the mass adoption of remote work habits.

The numbers of isolation

According to the findings from the survey analysis, remote workers are 72% more likely to spend an entire day without any human contact compared to in-person workers. This figure rises to 83% for those living alone: the likelihood of going through an entire workday without exchanging a word with anyone becomes the statistical norm for this group. The increase in mental fatigue for those living alone is nearly double that of those sharing their home with family members, making living conditions one of the most decisive variables in amplifying or mitigating the negative effects of remote work.

Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral sciences at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, notes that isolation "compromises the functioning of the immune and cardiovascular systems": the effects documented by the study thus go beyond the psychological realm and extend to physical health.

Prescriptions and access to care

Those who have made remote work a new habit tend to visit mental health professionals more frequently than those who have maintained in-person work modes and are more likely to seek psychiatric medication prescriptions. The study, conducted without external funding and with no declared conflicts of interest by the authors, documents a collateral effect on a large scale: with almost a third of the U.S. workforce now working remotely, even a conservative estimate of the effects on fatigue and mental health translates to significant absolute numbers.