The Effects of Working From Home

We’re in an uncertain time globally. Shelter-in-place mandates have swept across the world, which has resulted in devastating blows economically. Massive shifts have taken place in the way people are working, and those who are able are working from home. Our Hive team is so thankful that we’ve been able to transition our work from in-office to WFH. But the transition begs the question: how does working from home affect our physical, mental and emotional health? 

We decided to explore this by asking some of our Hive colleagues to detail a bit about their WFH experience to date — who better to speak to the affects of remote work than a team working fully remote? We’ve gathered their insights about working from home below, and hopefully their feedback will help remind you that whatever you’re feeling, you’re not alone.

How Working From Home Has Changed Us

“I have the overwhelming feeling that I’m not doing enough (even though I’m working just as hard). I think it comes mostly from simply not doing anything other than working, eating, sleeping, running.”

“First impression of the idea of working from home was a big sigh of relief. Our team would be home, safe and while we are our strongest when we’re together, this time has proven great claims for our platform. Hive has organized us so well that despite our new reality, things still get done effectively.

But, there is something to be said about grabbing coffee on your way into work, greeting your friends and coworkers as they walk into the office or grabbing lunch with someone and asking about their day. I’ve taken all of these and the stale “How was your weekend?” question for granted. Now, I can’t wait to be back to the norm and really tune into my friend’s weekend even if they didn’t do much. Our social interactions with our work families are just as missed as the ones with our home families as we spend most of our waking hours with them.”

“So far, there are no challenges from working from home, But there are a lot from being forced to stay home from a pandemic. I think the prospect of not leaving your home anytime soon is what a lot of people including myself are going to struggle with more.

WFH has been great for my productivity and I get back 1.5 hours each day from my commute that I can use for other things. That being said, socializing with people is much harder and it can be isolating.”

“Oftentimes it can be difficult to get a quick update. What might have been a 10-second question in an office, may linger in someone’s chat thread or email inbox for a while. Although the vast majority of my time is spent interacting with people outside of Hive on a daily basis, when working from home it is easy to feel isolated from the team because we don’t interact nearly as much.

The workday seems to never end – I find it to be even more challenging than normal to truly disengage and turn off anything Hive-related in my brain.”

“The biggest thing is that I can’t read anyone’s mood, so it’s hard to know how to behave/support. On a personal level, it’s actually surprised me that it’s given me the mental space to focus on fitness/healthy eating etc because I’m under less moment-to-moment pressure during the days.”

“For starters, I expected this WFH transition to be more challenging than it was. I find that I am a lot more productive working from home than I am in-office (I also get about 4 hours of my day back from not having to commute which is AMAZING).

But it has impacted my mental/physical health in many ways — both good and bad. I love being around people so it can get a little lonely not going into the office everyday and seeing everyone.

The toll WFH took on my physical health has been my biggest challenge. With my long commute I was walking up and down countless flights of steps a day, standing at my desk or walking to the 64th, etc. I was super active, whereas now, the most I walk is from my bed to my desk and possibly my patio on a good day. With the extra time I gain in my day, I’ll go for a run or do a virtual workout class but overall, my physical health has been taking a big hit.”

“Working from home has actually increased my productivity significantly. At the end of every week, I realize that I’ve accomplished everything I set out to do — and sometimes, even more! Last Thursday for example, I realized I’d actually finished everything that I was supposed to do for the week. As a result, I was able to start working on tasks for the following week.

The reason why I’ve been so productive at home is because I find it easier to keep focused on the task at hand and also distribute my work across the entire day. In the office, I find myself distracted by the people around me if they’re having conversations, work-related or not. I also often find myself getting interrupted or derailed in the office if someone wants to ask me a question or tell me about something. At home, however, nobody is having distracting conversations around me and nobody is interrupting me from my work. People who need to reach out to me do so through Hive, and I can respond to them or address their concerns in a way that doesn’t disrupt my workflow.

Furthermore, since I’m at home I’m able to take short breaks whenever I feel myself getting stuck on a problem or mentally stretched too thin. When I’m in the office, I feel pressured to get all of my work done within a certain timeframe so I often find myself chugging away at the same problem for hours and getting absolutely nowhere. Then by the time I get home from the office, I’m usually mentally exhausted and craving a break from work. But when I’m working at home, it feels more like a marathon than a sprint. I’m able to pace myself better and return to problems throughout the course of the day and approach it from different perspectives. Often, I’ll found myself somewhat stumped by a task in the beginning of the day but then later in the afternoon or even late at night I get a sudden jolt of inspiration and I rush to my computer and start working for a few hours. Before I know it, a task that would usually take 2-3 days in the office is suddenly already finished. Thanks to the freedom and flexibility of working from home, I’m able to do my work with single-minded determination and laser focus.”

“As a relatively new hire, working from home has made learning from as well as getting to know my colleagues more of a challenge. Our company does a great job of facilitating ways to interact and work with colleagues outside of your regular group, but when working from home, you lose the ability to drop by someone’s desk for a brief chat or talk together while grabbing lunch. These are expected challenges and ones that I would imagine most companies and employees are facing. Even when you’d rather not, it does help to do video calls with your colleagues to get face to face interaction and better emulate in person meetings.”

Working From Home Resources

For those of you who are working remote and are looking for resources to help maintain physical, mental and emotional health, here are a few links we’d recommend checking out.

• MNDFL Meditation offers Instagram Live meditations weekly for followers.
• Hillary Wright of Y7 Studio offers Instagram Live 5 minute meditations.
• Meditation for New Yorkers is available on Headspace.
• Bee Creel offers yoga flows for uncertainty.
• MyWellbeing can match you with a therapist for remote therapy.
• Sanity + Self is a great self-care app for women.

Do you have any additional remote work resources you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below.