499-Does Remote Working Make Us Happier?

The age of remote working has drastically increased since the start of the pandemic, but does it actually make us happier? Tune in today to Everyday Happiness to find out! 

 

Transcript:

 

Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in about 2 minutes a day,  through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life. 

 

I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and I think we are in a curious time in our US history, maybe even globally, where a lot of jobs abruptly pivoted to home telework in March 2020.  Now, October 2022, 2 1/2 years later, a lot of people are still working from home in the US.  If not 100% of the time, at least part of their week. It feels like how we work is changing. 

 

There is this dialog around work-life balance.  Is it balanced when you wear the same athleisure to work at home as you do when you are not working at home?  Are we more tied to our work because we can’t have that separation? 

 

There is no question, in general, we are learning to adapt at home.  We have make-shift offices, some at the dining room table. 

 

I was curious about how our commute or lack of commute impacts our happiness.  People say it’s great to not have to go into the office, to get back that time that would otherwise be spent on the commute.  But I wonder if working from home is actually making people happier.  As happy as they thought they would be.  

 

Now, the science is still new on this, and not quantitative enough to make any findings but there is a growing school of thought that people still need human connection and that the benefits from working from home do not outweigh the benefits from going into the office, where you engage with your colleagues, you see them at the coffee machine, you can pop into their office to ask them a question that is less rigid than an email.   

 

Of course, this only works with social offices and somewhat social people.  Some people can go into the office and still not see or talk to anyone.  I’m not sure how much their happiness is boosted in this context.  

 

But the separation of the commute (if it is a reasonable time) - super long commutes lead to unhappiness too. But that transition time often helps us close those mind loops from work and open to what is waiting for us at home.  

 

A report in the USA suggested that getting rid of a one hour commute is the happiness equivalent of getting a $40,000 raise!

 

Interestingly, all the research shows that once your commute reaches three hours or more, then the negative effects wear off.  

 

If you were one of the millions who pivoted and started working from home, I invite you to look at your day and your happiness levels.  Are you as happy or happier as you thought you would be, working from home, having a little more autonomy in your day.  Or has the hedonic treadmill caught up with you and you’ve reached your baseline again, now it’s just a new baseline, the one where working from home is the constant.  

 

You can dive into the research in the show notes. 

https://www.happinessresearchinstitute.com/ and https://www.42courses.com/courses/happiness 

 

We are living this in real time, so if you have any thoughts on this topic, leave us a message @everydayhappinesswithkatie

 

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