Is working from home actually good for you?

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Short Wave – "Is working from home actually good for you?"

Date: June 29, 2026
Hosts: Emily Kwong & Ritu Chatterjee
Guest Experts: Natalia Emanuel (Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of New York), Nicholas Epley (Professor, University of Chicago Booth), Gillian Sandstrom (Psychologist, University of Sussex)
Length: ~15 minutes

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Overview:

This episode investigates the mental health consequences of remote work, a topic that has become even more relevant since the pandemic dramatically increased the prevalence of working from home. Host Emily Kwong and NPR mental health correspondent Ritu Chatterjee delve into a significant new study published in Science, which explores how working from home is affecting social connection, mental well-being, and even physical health among American workers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Remote Work is Here to Stay – But at a Cost

• Remote work has quadrupled since the pandemic. (00:37)
• Workers value flexibility so much that they’re willing to trade a significant portion of pay for it.
  • “Studies have found that workers are willing to give up 4 to 10% of their earnings in order to have the ability to work remotely.” — Natalia Emanuel, (00:53)
• Flexibility helps with work-life balance, especially for parents and caregivers.
  • “I love the flexibility remote work gives me because I can pick up and drop off my kids... even when one of the kids is home sick, you know, makes a big deal.” — Ritu Chatterjee, (01:04)

2. The ‘Home Alone’ Study – Data & Findings

• Researchers used five large surveys to analyze US workers, grouping them:
  • Remotable jobs (e.g., software, marketing, journalism) vs. non-remotable (e.g., surgery, mechanical engineering). (04:26)
• Key findings:
  • Social Isolation: “They've seen a 58% increase in hours alone and then a 72% increase in the chance of spending a whole day with just no human contact.” — Natalia Emanuel, (05:30)
  • Highest risk: People living alone had an 83% higher chance of zero social contact during the day. (05:49)
  • Mental Distress: Increased rates of anxiety, depression, and use of mental health services reported among remote workers, compared to those with in-person jobs. (06:14)

3. Is it Causation or Correlation?

• The study shows a strong link but doesn’t prove remote work causes worse mental health. (07:12)
• Supporting research:
  • Fully remote workers have higher anxiety risk than hybrid workers.
  • Remote workers with frequent calls to friends/family have a lower risk of distress.
  • “Call your grandma, everybody.” — Emily Kwong, (07:49)
• There was no rise in physical doctor visits, strengthening the argument that mental health changes aren’t just due to increased flexibility for appointments. (06:45)

4. Why Do We Prefer Working from Home—Despite the Downsides?

• Short-term benefits (flexibility, no commute) are easy to appreciate and prioritize. (09:27)
  • “People are very attuned to these sort of short run, very salient things like not having to do their commute.” — Natalia Emanuel, (09:28)
• Long-term costs (missed social connections) are harder to recognize and value.
  • “It's a slow motion effect in many ways. Right. It feels a little better in the moment, but it's hard to anticipate a month, a year, two years from now...” — Nicholas Epley, (09:49)
• This is compared to exercising (long-term payoff vs. short-term discomfort). (10:06)

5. The Psychology of Social Connection

• Many undervalue or even feel anxious about their social skills—often needlessly.
  • “Two people who meet for the first time afterwards tend to think that they liked the person they talked to, but the person they talked to didn't really like them.” — Gillian Sandstrom, (10:47)
  • That critical inner voice can grow louder with isolation. (11:15)
• The science is clear: Variety and quality of relationships strongly predict overall health and lifespan.
  • “Being alone compromise your immune system functioning, your cardiovascular system functioning, and it's correlated with mortality. Even people who live alone die sooner.” — Nicholas Epley, (08:28)
  • “Social connections don't just boost our mood, they also improve our overall health.” — Ritu Chatterjee, (08:38)

6. Combatting Isolation While Working from Home

• Intentionality is key. Small daily interactions matter.
  • “I leave the house every day. I go for a walk, I see my neighbors, I pet some dogs... I have activities that I do outside—tennis. I have hobbies that mean that I see other people.” — Gillian Sandstrom, (12:04)
• Planning for social connection can offset some of the ill effects.

7. What About Return to Office Mandates?

• The ideal isn’t a simple return to office, but making the office more rewarding, especially socially.
  • “What they're providing that's rewarding at work is social interaction, social connection, but you got to coordinate that, makes sure that everybody's in on the days when everybody's in.” — Nicholas Epley, (13:33)
• For some—caregivers, neurodivergent workers—remote work can be more inclusive and supportive.
  • “I've also heard from a couple of neurodivergent individuals who say that working from home makes them less anxious because it takes away the stress and anxiety of trying to fit into a neurotypical workplace.” — Ritu Chatterjee, (13:05)
• The key is balancing flexibility and connection, not picking one over the other.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Those moments of human connection are what keep us going. They're what make us want to work. They bring new information and make us work better. And so sacrificing them adds up to something bigger than it seems, I think.” — Gillian Sandstrom, (14:05)
• Emily jokes about the study name: “I wonder what Macaulay Culkin thinks about this.” — Emily Kwong, (04:10)
• NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts lauded as a unique incentive to return to the office. (13:42)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:53: Workers willing to sacrifice earnings for remote flexibility (Natalia Emanuel)
• 05:30: Remote workers spend more time alone; higher risk for social isolation
• 06:14: Increase in mental health symptoms for remote workers
• 09:49: Social impacts are “a slow motion effect” (Nicholas Epley)
• 12:04: Daily intentional social interactions as protection (Gillian Sandstrom)
• 13:33: Making the office a center of social connection (Nicholas Epley)
• 14:05: The lasting value of human connection in the workplace (Gillian Sandstrom)

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Summary Takeaways

• Remote work offers highly valued flexibility, but also brings a substantial risk of social isolation and associated mental health issues.
• Social connection is proven to be essential for both mental and physical health—something that can erode, often unnoticed, when working from home.
• Mitigating downsides requires deliberate effort to maintain social connections and reimagining the workplace as a truly social environment.
• The future of work is likely hybrid, with a focus on balancing accessibility, inclusivity, and meaningful human contact.

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In essence:
Working from home can boost productivity and life-balance—but it quietly undermines our need for daily human contact. Both individuals and organizations must be mindful to cultivate social connection, regardless of where work happens.

Transcript

[Commercial Announcer]

This message comes from SAP Concur Complete is the new AI powered solution from SAP Concur and American Express Global Business Travel that gives businesses the power to simplify their travel booking and expenses. Learn [e-mail] complete.

[Emily Kwong]

You're listening to Short Wave from NPR. Hey, Short Waivers. Emily Kwong here with NPR's mental health correspondent Ritu Chatterjee. Hi, Ritu.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Hi, Emily. It's good to see you.

[Emily Kwong]

And we are looking directly at each other.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Exactly.

[Emily Kwong]

We're in person at NPR headquarters. But sometimes you and I do work from home. A lot of people do.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

A lot of people do. Remote work has quadrupled since the pandemic, to be precise. And I've been speaking with one researcher who's been looking at this, and her name is Natalia Emanuel. She's an economist at the Federal Reserve bank in New York.

[Natalia Emanuel]

Studies have found that workers are willing to give up 4 to 10% of their earnings in order to have the ability to work remotely.

[Emily Kwong]

That sounds like a lot, but I'm not surprised because of the flexibility.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Oh, the flexibility is huge. And I can tell you that as a parent of two little kids, I love the flexibility remote work gives me because I can pick up and drop off my kids without having to worry about getting to work on time. And the fact that I can work from home even when one of the kids is home sick, you know, makes a big deal. And there's also data showing that working from home is increases productivity and job satisfaction. But we don't yet understand how remote work is affecting various aspects of the workplace and even ourselves, our own sense of well being. Oh, yeah. And I spoke with Nicholas Epley. He's a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and he says he gets asked about the effects of remote work all the time.

[Nicholas Epley]

Everybody wants to know how is that changing things? And usually the answer is we can't really tell.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

But a recent study published in the journal Science does give us some insight into the effects of remote work on our sense of well being. Unfortunately, it suggests that despite all the advantages of remote work, you know, the flexibility, the productivity, working from home isn't creating a happier workforce. In fact, it's making workers more isolated and unhappy.

[Emily Kwong]

Today on the show, some new science to answer a very difficult question. What does working from home do to our health and our sense of well being? I'm Emily Kwong. I'm Ritu Chatterjee, and you're listening to Short Wave from npr.

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[Emily Kwong]

conditions apply okay, so Ritu, just to be clear, this is only one study we're talking about today. I know it was in a very prestigious journal. Science is like one of the big ones.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Exactly.

[Emily Kwong]

Yes.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

We are talking about one recent study which was interestingly titled Home Alone.

[Emily Kwong]

I wonder what Macaulay Culkin thinks about this.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Anyway, it looked at a ton of data on US Workers to explore whether any link between remote work and workers mental health.

[Emily Kwong]

All right, let's dig into the paper. How did researchers even go about answering this question?

[Ritu Chatterjee]

So the researchers used data from five large surveys of American workers that together gave them a ton of information about a whole lot of things about the kinds of jobs people are in, workers daily lives, their overall health and well being. And the researchers grouped workers into two groups based on the kind of jobs they are in. One group was in what they called remotable jobs such as software engineering, marketing. You know, maybe journalism was in there as well. The second group was in what they call non remotable jobs like surgery and mechanical engineering.

[Emily Kwong]

Okay, so the study defined non remotable jobs as those that require someone to go someplace to work. Like my cousin who makes helicopter parts. He's working out a a big piece of equipment every day.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Exactly.

[Emily Kwong]

So what did they find?

[Ritu Chatterjee]

What they found firstly was that those in remote jobs were a lot more socially isolated than those going to work in person. Here's study author Natalia Emanuel Again, they've

[Natalia Emanuel]

seen a 58% increase in hours alone and then a 72% increase in the chance of spending a whole day with just no human contact. Not even like a wave to a barista, not, you know, somebody also checking for ripeness of the avocados at the grocery store. Just no human contact at all.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

And you know, those who live alone had the highest rise in social isolation. They had an 83% increase in chances of spending their days with zero social contact.

[Natalia Emanuel]

Wow.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Natalia and her colleagues also found that workers in remotable jobs have seen an increase in symptoms of mental distress or anxiety and depression over the past few years.

[Natalia Emanuel]

This shows up in self reports, in seeing a mental health care professional in using mental health prescription medications. And so really across the board, we're seeing disproportionate shift toward greater mental distress among people in remotable occupations relative to people in non remotable occupations.

[Emily Kwong]

That's interesting, but wouldn't also working from home give you more flexibility to see a therapist or get mental health care? How do we know that the rise in mental health care visits and prescriptions isn't just because of that?

[Ritu Chatterjee]

That's a great question, Emily. By that logic, you should also see a rise in people visiting their doctors too, right?

[Emily Kwong]

Oh, fair.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

And that's something that the authors did look into because they wanted to make sure that this wasn't sort of a false signal that they were getting. And they found that there was no increase in visits to physical health care providers.

[Emily Kwong]

That is fascinating. How do we know these things are causally linked, that one leads to another?

[Ritu Chatterjee]

This study does not prove causation. What do does is show a very strong link. Now, there have been other studies looking into this connection between work location and mental health. One study found that workers who exclusively work remotely have a slightly higher risk of anxiety compared to those who work in a hybrid setting. And another study found that remote workers who have more frequent phone calls with friends, family, caregivers, were at a lower risk of anxiety and depression than remote workers who have such calls less than one a week.

[Emily Kwong]

Call your grandma, everybody.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Exactly. Or your neighbor. So you're getting the signal from other studies too, that the social isolation aspect of working remotely is having an impact on people's mental health. And by the way, there's just a wealth of research that show us that social isolation, loneliness is bad for our mental health and in the long run, our physical health too. You know, I talked about this with Nick Epley, who we heard from earlier. He wasn't involved in the new study, but has spent years researching social connection and health.

[Nicholas Epley]

Being alone compromise your Immune system functioning, your cardiovascular system functioning, and it's correlated with mortality. Even people who live alone die sooner.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

And as I've reported before, one of the biggest predictors of health and well being is the quality and even the variety of our social relationships. Social connections don't just boost our mood, they also improve our overall health.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. We are such a social species, we've evolved to connect with each other.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Absolutely. Yeah.

[Emily Kwong]

So if social connections are this central to our well being, why do people, if given the choice? I don't want to speak for all people, but it does seem like there's such an appetite to work from home.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Yeah, there is.

[Emily Kwong]

So what's that about if it's also kind of hurting people?

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Well, it's not either or. Right. There are genuine advantages to working remotely and it's easy for people to know and prioritize those advantages. And we talked about some of this earlier.

[Gillian Sandstrom]

Right.

[Natalia Emanuel]

People are very attuned to these sort of short run, very salient things like not having to do their commute.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

However, as Natalia and Nick pointed out to me, it's much harder for people to understand and, and estimate the longer term impacts of missed social connections from not going into work.

[Nicholas Epley]

It's a slow motion effect in many ways. Right. It feels a little better in the moment, but it's hard to anticipate. A month, a year, two years from now, friends you'll have that you don't have now. Conversations you've had that are meaningful that you haven't had now.

[Emily Kwong]

This sounds exactly like how people talk about exercise. They don't have time, the equipment, it's hot, I'm out of shape. But over time, long term impacts shows muscle loss, bone density is being impacted. I mean, the longer term calculation can be hard to prioritize in the moment. Yeah, when you're just tired and you don't feel like calling up somebody, it's

[Ritu Chatterjee]

very human, you know, even that reaction. And Emily, I have to mention one other reason why people play down the value of their social interactions. It's because our brains lie to us when it comes to judging ourselves in social situations. That's what psychologist Gillian Sandstrom told me.

[Gillian Sandstrom]

This phenomenon where two people who meet for the first time afterwards tend to think that they liked the person they talked to, but the person they talked to didn't really like them.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Jillian's at the University of Sussex and she studies how talking to strangers and acquaintances affects our mood.

[Gillian Sandstrom]

So that's us feeling like, you know, oh, I, I didn't Tell that story very well. You know, I should have said this. I shouldn't have said that. So we have this, you know, this voice that's telling us that we didn't do a good job.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

And so Gillian says that for people who are spending the bulk of their days alone being isolated, that negative voice in their heads is the one that becomes more prominent, telling them that they aren't great at social interactions.

[Gillian Sandstrom]

If you're not seeing other people, you're not getting that sense that people care about me. I matter to people, that maybe they help you feel like you're not the only one going through this.

[Emily Kwong]

Ritu, for people who don't have offices to visit and don't have a co working space, what can they do to combat these negative side effects of the social isolation that comes with working from home?

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Well, so I asked Jillian exactly that question. She recommends being more intentional and seeking daily human interactions. She says she works from home herself. And so for her, that means I

[Gillian Sandstrom]

leave the house every day. I go for a walk, I see my neighbors, I pet some dogs. You know, I have my activities that I do outside tennis. I have hobbies that mean that I see other people.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah. So it's about, like, planning for social connection. What do you think all this means for return to office mandates? There's a lot of push, even at npr, to get our newsroom back into the office more regularly.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

So I'll just paraphrase what Nick Epley said to me. He said these results as clear of a link as it shows to poorer mental health does not mean that workplaces require every worker to come back. Because, remember, there are clear advantages. Right. Especially to certain vulnerable groups like caregivers. You know, I mentioned I'm a parent with two little kids, and then there are many people who are caring for their kids and elderly parents. So more responsibilities.

[Emily Kwong]

It certainly allows more caregivers to be in the workforce, period. Having a policy like that.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Absolutely. I've also heard from a couple of neurodivergent individuals who say that working from home makes them less anxious because it takes away the stress and anxiety of trying to fit into a neurotypical workplace. But for companies who do want people to return to the office, Nick Epley says they need to make the office more attractive.

[Emily Kwong]

Ha.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

I love this twist.

[Nicholas Epley]

What they're providing that's rewarding at work is social interaction, social connection, but you got to coordinate that, makes sure that everybody's in on the days when everybody's in.

[Emily Kwong]

Honestly, NPR has one of the biggest attractants to getting people into the office possible, which is the tiny desk concerts. The fact that you and I can go up to the fourth floor and see a concert that will be posted later on YouTube is, like, ridiculous.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

You're right. It is a great privilege. And the fact that you can have those moments of connection with your coworkers makes work feel less transactional and more human.

[Gillian Sandstrom]

Those moments of human connection are what keep us going. They're what make us want to work. They bring new information and make us work better. And so sacrificing them adds up to something bigger than it seems, I think.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah. Being reminded that you matter and that you're a part of something.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Yeah. And you want to make something bigger with your colleagues.

[Emily Kwong]

Ritu Chatterjee, thank you so much for bringing us this reporting.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

Always a pleasure, Emily.

[Emily Kwong]

This episode was produced by Arun Nair and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. Jimmy Keeley was the audio engineer.

[Ritu Chatterjee]

I'm Ritu Chatterjee.

[Emily Kwong]

And I'm Emily Kwong. Thank you for listening to Shorewave, the science podcast from npr.

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