Hybrid Work and Mental Health

Hybrid work is a great concept but the mental health of the employees with time being is starting to take damages. We all can agree that hybrid work helps to flexible your work and life. Flexibility also give you a certain level of mental freedom as well. But it is possible that the hybrid working also creates a middle ground of disconnection. According to a research, only 22% of frontline workers report feeling connected to others (Murphy & Herring, 2019). Human is a social animal and being alone can be painful. It is possible to feel tired eventually even though you are love to be alone.

Hybrid work has good impact on mental health as well as negative impact. Positive impact on the mental health of hybrid working and how to overcome the negatives on individually, managerially and from the perspective of the company are described in this topic.

Positive Impact on the Mental Health

Without an argument, flexible work hours have a great amount of positive impact on the employees.  It mitigates problems like stress, burnout and bad sleep.  The perceived work-life balance improved during the pandemic compared to before, while the balance of physical boundaries between the workplace and home decreased. Workplace flexibility, environmental conditions of home offices and organizational supports are positively associated with productivity, satisfaction with working from home and work-life balance during the pandemic (Yang et al., 2021).

Employees will eventually start to enjoy their new work life and when people enjoy their work, have the choice to work where they feel most productive, and don’t feel like they’re working alone, their mental health is bound to improve. The flexibility of hybrid working is designed to offer that choice, and it’s no surprise that so many are embracing it as a way of obtaining the work-life balance we all crave (Condeco, 2022).

Negative Impact on the Mental Health

Hybrid working has more sub tasks than normal working. This can affect psychologically in long term. The increased psychological workload that comes with co-ordinating hybrid work arrangements complicates the work we already do, causing additional strain on our mental and emotional resources. While choice may offer freedom and flexibility, it also puts us at risk of decision fatigue (Chua, 2022). Deciding when and where we work on any given day is a multi-dimensional optimization problem that requires us to spend additional cognitive resources to address (Mortensen, 2022).

Compared to fully remote jobs which tend to imply trust from the get-go, hybrid work arrangements can add pressure on workers to prove to their bosses that they’re not taking advantage of WFH. This could show up in terms of constantly being ‘always on’ on digital channels and working after office hours on remote days, eventually leading to overwork and burnout (Chua, 2022).

Finally, having to constantly toggle between two workplaces and carve out two different sets of daily work habits can chip away at cognitive resources, resulting in unconscious emotional and mental fatigue (Chua, 2022)

The way to Overcome

Overcoming mental issues need a proper structure and efficient efforts. Individually and managerially the workforce has to act.

Starting from the individual level, employees need to make a small but effective efforts on the colleagues around them. Start connecting with others and generate a positive feeling and break down barriers. Talk about culture, likes and dislikes of each other. In Sri Lanka, most of them are cricket fans so you can connect with people easily by starting a chat about cricket.  Also, the impact that can be made from the managerial level for the betterment of the mental health is much higher. Spending more time to listen to the workers, trying to see things from their perspective, appreciate them in every chance you get are really impactful ways to show your effort on the mental health of the employees (Yeo, 2022).

Conclusion

People had a tough period in the recent past. Isolated, divided, exhausted and going through rapid changes in working environments. Human mentality is more fragile than it ever was. Hybrid work model concept is ready made by concerning those issues as well but it also has drawbacks regarding the employee mental health. Especially in long term. Fortunately every problem got a solution. Making small efforts filled with positivity can make the work life better for everyone.

List of References

·   Chua, M. (2022), Why hybrid work is taking a toll on our mental health, based on science - intellect, Viewed on 4th December 2022, <https://intellect.co/read/hybrid-work-mental-health-toll/>

·      Condeco (2022), The link between hybrid working and positive mental health - Condeco, Viewed on 4th December 2022, <https://www.condecosoftware.com/blog/positive-mental-health/>

·      Mortensen, M. (2022), Commentary: Why hybrid work may feel more exhausting than working from the office or home - CNA, Viewed on 4th December 2022, <https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/hybrid-work-tips-management-self-exhausting-why-2496256>

·       Murphy, K., Herring, L. (2019), That’s What Friends Are For - Bain & Company, Viewed on 4th December 2022, <https://www.bain.com/insights/thats-what-friends-are-for/>

·       Yang, E., Kim, Y. and Hong, S. (2021), "Does working from home work? Experience of working from home and the value of hybrid workplace post-COVID-19", Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRE-04-2021-0015

·       Yeo, S. (2022), Overcoming the disconnect in a hybrid working environment - intellect, Viewed on 4th December 2022, <https://intellect.co/read/hybrid-work-disconnect/>