Survey Says S’poreans Working from Home Feeling More Stress Than Frontline Workers

Working from home might not have seemed like a stressful thing at the start, but as time goes by, more Singaporeans are starting to face the negative consequences of WFH.

The coronavirus pandemic forced most of us to stay at home and work during the Circuit Breaker period, and even after restrictions were lifted, companies were encouraged to allow their employees to work from home if possible.

However, working from home is not at all equivalent to a free holiday.

60% of Those Working From Home Are Stressed

In fact, a survey done by the National University Health System Mind Science Centre (NUHS MSC) showed that more than 60 per cent of those who are working from home reported feeling stressed at work.

Meanwhile, only 53 per cent of frontliners surveyed said that they felt stressed at work.

The survey had 1,407 respondents and 114 were frontliners, while the other 1,074 were working from home.

51 per cent of those working from home also said that they felt stressed at home, compared to the 32 per cent of frontliners who said so.

Females More Stressed Than Males

It was also revealed that females tend to feel more stressed than males working from home.

According to Mind Care Therapy Suites’ principal clinical psychologist Gifford Chan, having to handle both personal and business commitments in the same business setting is not easy and that alone could be enough to place stress on an individual.

“At home, an employee could also be a parent, a caregiver to elderly parents, a sibling, a teacher to children, a cook, and domestic helper,” she said.

“It is difficult to juggle being a manager and being a mother in the same place and at, literally, the same time. This lack of role clarity creates mental stress for the individual, which can spill over to create stress at work.”

So, if you have not thanked your mother for all her hard work in a while, now seems like a good time to do it.

21% of Those Working From Home Unable to Cope Well 

However, although adjusting to the new norm of working from home was difficult, most Singaporeans were still able to cope with their work, with only 21 per cent of survey respondents stating that they were unable to cope well.

This could be due to the change in the work environment for WFH residents, and other factors such as space constraints and distractions from family members, according to a Straits Times article on a report by the Singapore Human Resources Institute and the Institute for Human Resource Professionals.

The report was based on a work-from-home survey by EngageRocket, which had 20,000 respondents from 127 different companies.

“Even in the best of times, prolonged working from home is linked to harmful impacts on mental well-being,” stated the report.

However, this also varies from sector to sector, and some people tend to face more stress than others due to the industry that they are working in.

For instance, 30% of survey respondents working in the education sector said that their stress levels while working remotely were unacceptable, and this could be because of schools shutting down and moving to fully home-based learning during the Circuit Breaker period.

Although working from home might be stressful and most of us might prefer to go back to work in the office, it definitely seems like this is going to be the new norm for a while so we might as well get used to it.

On the bright side, at least you’re no longer spending so much on transport.