All work and no play makes remote workers an unhealthy bunch

A year of remote working has blurred the boundaries between our work and personal lives. Saman Javed takes a closer look at who is being impacted the most

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One of the biggest changes to daily life under the pandemic has been to the way we work. As coronavirus restrictions led to office closures and working from home policies were implemented, there were a few causes for celebration. Gone were the days of forking out for an overpriced sandwich, forcing down the terrible office coffee, or getting home way past dinnertime due to frequent delays on public transport.

While a move to remote working has eradicated the commute – giving workers many hours of their days back – it has essentially brought the office home, leading to the blurring of boundaries between work and personal lives. As per the Office of National Statistics, the proportion of working adults who did any work from home in 2020 increased from 27 per cent in 2019 to 37 per cent in 2020.

New research from the insurance firm Aviva, which surveyed 2,000 employees from large companies across the UK in February 2020, August 2020 and March 2021, has found that the increasingly ambiguous boundaries between work and home are starting to have significant implications on people’s overall health.