Working from home is exhausting: Study

Updated on: Friday, November 11, 2011

Given an option many would wish to work from home to maintain their work-life balance, but a new study has found that the experience makes one exhausted trying to juggle both at the same time.

The research, which was led by Prof Timothy Golden of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, found that working from home often proved counter-productive, with home-workers caught between the demands of the office and the demands of family life.

It found that home workers having "conflict" between their work and home roles are more likely to end the day much more tired than those who had less conflict between the two responsibilities, the Daily Telegraph reported.

For their study, published in the Journal of Business and Psychology, Prof Golden and his team studied 316 so-called "tele-workers" of a large computer company and asked them a series of questions about the stresses of their working day, and whether they impinged on life outside work too.

Among the questions they asked were whether their family responsibilities interfered with work responsibilities, and if the stress of those family commitments made it difficult to concentrate on the job at hand. They were also asked how much work impinged on family activities, both due to the volume of work and the stress of it.

The researcher found found those with existing "conflict" between their work and home roles tended to end the day much more tired than those who made sure there was a clear separation of the two.

Prof Golden said: "Whereas inpiduals may adopt telework as a means to enhance their quality of life and reduce exhaustion, those with low levels of conflict between work and family seem able to benefit more from telework than are those inpiduals who have high levels of conflict between their work and home."

Whether the study participants worked "traditional" or "non-traditional" hours made little difference, said the researchers.

Mandy Garner, editor of workingmums.co.uk, said those who work from home had to be careful to avoid "burn-out".

She said: "It's a big issue. When you are working from home, others including your family tend to think that you are available to do all the domestic chores.

"I think what you have to do to avoid complete burn-out is to be very firm about working hours, and have a clear demarcation between work time and home time.

"It's also good to have a separate area where you work, and a separate phone line if you can afford it."

Working from home is exhausting: Study

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