Looking for Remote Work? Working From Home Has a Hidden Cost.

You ditched the commute, embraced the flexible working hours and built the perfect home office setup. But what if the price of all that remote work freedom is your mental health?

That’s the question posed by a new study published in the journal Science. Natalia Emanuel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and her co-authors analyzed data from five major national surveys to examine how remote work shapes workers’ lives — not just professionally, but emotionally.

Their conclusion is striking. Remote work, while often genuinely boosting productivity, is taking a toll on the mental health of millions of American workers who may not even realize it. 

“We found that remote work increases time spent alone, worsens mental well-being across multiple measures and increases the use of mental health services and prescriptions,” the study stated.

The hidden costs of working from home

The study found that remote work quadrupled from 7% of U.S. workers in 2019 to 28% in 2023, a shift caused by the pandemic. Today, 32.6 million Americans, about 22% of the workforce, work remotely, according to video conferencing device maker Neat. 

A staggering 98% of workers report wanting to work at least part of the time remotely, and 74% say they would choose remote work even at lower pay, per Neat. 

But the Emanuel study, published this month, tells a more complex story. Over 10 years, spanning the pre- and post-pandemic era, remote workers experienced a 58% rise in hours spent alone compared to in-office workers. They also became significantly more likely to go an entire day without any human contact — so “no idle chitchat with a barista, no hello from a co-worker, no smile from a passerby at the grocery store,” the study explained. 

Crucially, workers did not compensate by socializing more outside of work hours. When the workday ended, remote workers still reported spending less time with friends compared to those in non-remote roles. 

That means isolation wasn’t just a 9-to-5 problem — it crept into the rest of life and caused adverse mental health effects. The study noted that remote workers visited mental health providers more often and scored worse on standardized self-assessments for mental illnesses. 

Despite the drawbacks, remote work does have real benefits

Remote work does have tangible benefits compared to on-site work. On the productivity front, the evidence has long favored working from home. Research from Global Workplace Analytics shows a 35% to 40% productivity increase among remote employees, driven by fewer distractions and more flexible scheduling.

Meanwhile, a 2020 Stanford University study found that remote workers are 13% more productive than their in-office counterparts. 

Remote workers also report improvements in lifestyle. They reclaim an average of 4.5 hours per week that would otherwise be lost to commuting, with many investing that time in family, exercise or sleep. Most remote workers, about 73%, say their work-life balance has improved thanks to their work modality, according to an April survey by career site FlexJobs.