How remote working can make you happier and healthier

Working full-time in a UK state school was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.

Aside from the frequent observations, futile bureaucracy, and demanding behaviour management, I had absolutely no control over my timetable or workload. Now that I’ve worked in a fully flexible tutoring role (where I mostly WFH during the day before a few hours of teaching in the afternoon/evening) I’ve gained first-hand experience of the benefits of transitioning from in-office to hybrid or remote working.

I have no regrets about my two years as a secondary school teacher—it helped build my resilience to a level I never thought possible—but the benefit of leaving that was regaining control over my own time and releasing the impact energy can have on your mental and physical health.

Control: The many benefits of having agency over your work (and life) schedule

The pairing of flexibility and control might seem like a contradiction at first. But, the ability to work remotely can actually give you the best of both worlds: freedom to organise your work schedule around the rest of your life (rather than the other way around), while also having control over when, where and how you work.

I’ve never studied psychology, but I know from experience that having a sense of control over your thoughts, emotions and behaviours is a critical part of good mental health. According to Psychology Today, a lack of control over one’s life is directly linked to feelings of psychological distress; if you end up in a situation where you don’t have any agency over your own time or energy, negative consequences for your mental health will be inevitable due to your inability to lead the life that you want.

Of course, some people thrive in conditions where they’re given direct instructions and have all their time laid out for them. But for most, it’s obvious that the more agency they have over their life decisions, the more stable and content they’ll feel about the path they’ve chosen to take in life. Applying this to a career, it seems evident that having the ability to write your own daily/weekly work schedule, fit it around other life tasks (exercise, appointments, catch ups with friends), and have the option to change it when needed, can only have a positive impact on your mental health.

Time: It’s more precious than money

For me, one really important aspect of having control over my daily routine is being able to fit in moments of movement and calm for myself. Remote working means not having to commute, getting distracted by office gossip, or overworking yourself to the point of exhaustion simply for the sake of keeping up appearances. Even if you need to add 20 minutes onto the end of your working day to make up for the 30 minute walk or exercise class you took at lunch, that’s okay. I guarantee you’ll be more productive in the long run.

A lot of companies now seem to be recognising the importance of ‘mental health breaks’ as part of their remote/hybrid-work and wellbeing strategies. For instance, in 2023 Deloitte released a podcast episode that outlines advice they give to clients to support employees’ mental health—a key point being their collaboration with the headspace app, which encourages workers to schedule 5-10 minutes of mindfulness into different points throughout their day. Obviously, depending on the noise level, this can be done in the office, but I think a lot of people would feel much more comfortable taking 5 minutes away from their screens, away from their desk, without the pressure of colleagues or employers observing every break.

It's the same for movement and lunch breaks: in the office, people are very unlikely to take a quick walk once or twice a day, or even enjoy their full lunch break away from their desk. Being a hard worker is associated with working your full 8 (or more) hours with minimal breaks, staying late most days of the week, and maybe even eating lunch at your desk.

The stigma around looking after yourself at work has deep foundations, so maybe one of the only ways it can be broken is if we start to value our own time during remote or hybrid working hours. It's much easier to take care of yourself when you’re by yourself; no interruptions, no judgement, no vulnerability. Feeling overwhelmed? Go for a walk outside, for as long as you need. The work will be there when you get back. Struggling to focus? Rest your eyes, do some stretching, and listen to a podcast for 5 minutes. Stressed about an upcoming deadline? I promise that taking 5 minutes away from work will help you realign your thoughts and focus better when you return.

I know this is easier said than done—I’m very aware that my own parents have never taken proper lunch breaks throughout their 35+ years of work—but I do believe that once you start incorporating these moments of mindfulness into your working day, you’ll realise how much more productive and energised you become during your working hours as a result.

Attention: Reduced workplace anxiety means higher productivity

As a teacher, my experience of ‘Sunday blues’ took me right back to my childhood: sat on the sofa at 9pm, filled with dread at the thought of going up to bed and having to mentally prepare to go back to school the next day. It was obviously different as a teacher, since my little blips of anxiety were concerned with thoughts about how much work I had to do and difficult classes I had to teach, rather than the thought of sitting in a class surrounded by people who I felt were ‘different’ to me. But it was a similar feeling, and one which I knew I didn’t want to deal with forever.

I find it strange that the ‘find a career that you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life’ trope is so widely understood, yet so many people seem to opt for stress-ridden jobs that give them money rather than contentment. I get it, having financial stability is important, but there are a lot of well-paid, rewarding jobs out there that don’t require you to give up all your health and happiness—and remote working is a great option for that.

This section is titled ‘attention’ because I truly believe that having more control over your schedule, and therefore more time for yourself each day, will broaden your mental capacity and ability to focus on work. I sometimes think that if I’d had a four-day work week as a teacher, or even just more free periods in my timetable, I’d have been much more able (and willing) to give my full attention to my students and my lessons. But teachers, just like so many other professionals out there, are exhausted, and they don’t have the energy to pay full attention to their work when they’re juggling so much stress and anxiety alongside a never-ending to-do list.

Again, I understand that remote working is not suitable for all professions (like teaching). But now that I’m able to plan my lessons for students in my own time—at home, before I go out to work—I completely understand the positive impact that remote/hybrid working can have on one’s mental capacity.

Enjoyment: Happiness at work shouldn’t be an oxymoron

My final point is a simple one: for me, working in the comfort of my own home has had a profound impact on my mental health. I’m quite a disciplined person, so I’m lucky that I don’t struggle with the distractions a lot of people complain about when working from home. I find that I’m actually much more productive when I’m in my own space, surrounded by my own things. As well as the freedom to wear comfier clothes (not pyjamas… most of the time), I can get up and stretch whenever I want, or take a break to make a cup of tea, or grab a snack. I’m not totally against going into a collaborative working space 2 or 3 days a week, but I have found that being in my own space has allowed me to enjoy my work a lot more.

I’ve also found that not having to go into an office or another place of work every day has had a positive impact on my social life. As a teacher I used to feel that my social battery had been completely drained by lunchtime; in the evenings, I just wanted to be alone so that I could decompress and have some quiet time. But now that I’m alone for most of my working day, interactions with colleagues and friends become more meaningful. Again, I know this is something that will be very different depending if you’re an introvert or an extrovert, but having more control over who I spend time with, and how long I spend with them, has made me a much happier person—both during and outside of working hours.

As always, thanks for taking your time to read this article. Hopefully it resonated with you in some way–whether you’re someone who’s interested in switching to remote work as a way to re-establish a sense of control in your own life OR you’re here to celebrate the flexibility and energy remote work has given you.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no matter where you are in the world, having more control over your work-life balance is likely to improve your job satisfaction and mental health.

Do let us know if you have any questions or feedback. We’d love it if you shared this article with your co-workers, friends and family, too.

Speak again soon!

Charlie

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