Working from home can harm your health

Working form home can improve work-life balance, reduce commuting time, and boost productivity. But it also has a dark side that can harm workers' health.
The expanding use of digital technologies such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers for work at home and elsewhere is rapidly transforming the traditional model of work. A new report from the United Nations’ International Labour Organization, "Working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of work,"  identifies several disadvantages, such as a tendency to work longer hours and an overlap between paid work and personal life — which can lead to high levels of stress.
Forty-two percent of the work-from-home employees surveyed suffer from insomnia, compared to 29 percent of those who report to an office setting.
Isolation can also lead to burnout for remote workers. The survey found a “sweet spot,” which is working two or three days a week from home—and the rest in the office to get that much needed face-to-face interaction.
The report recommends disconnecting paid work and personal life. This may result in measures to make working life less pervasive, such as shutting down computer servers outside working hours to prevent emails during rest times and holidays, which is already happening in some companies.
The report draws distinctions between home-based teleworkers who seem to enjoy better work-life balance and "high-mobile" workers more at risk of negative health and well-being outcomes.
“This report shows that the use of modern communication technologies facilitates a better overall work-life balance but, at the same time, also blurs the boundaries between work and personal life, depending on the place of work and the characteristics of different occupations,” said the ILO’s Jon Messenger, co-author of the report.
Source: International Labour Organization: ilo.org