Working from home for extended periods can leave employees feeling socially and professionally isolated. Image: Unsplash/Mohammad Shahhosseini
World Economic Forum - 
  • Working from home for extended periods can leave employees feeling socially and professionally isolated.
  • It can also negatively impact physical health, leading to increased musculoskeletal pain and weight gain, as well as exhaustion.
  • Here are 7 ways you can boost your wellbeing and productivity while working from home.

Telstra and Westpac are the latest companies to encourage staff to work from home, just a few months after some of them returned to the office.

Working from home for extended periods can leave employees feeling socially and professionally isolated. When people work from home, they have fewer opportunities to interact and acquire information, which may explain why remote workers feel less confident than their office-based counterparts.

Researchers also report working from home (WFH) is linked to negative physical health outcomes such as increased musculoskeletal pain and weight gain, as well as exhaustion.

If you are still working from home or your employer has just reinstated it, the good news is there are evidence-backed tips that can help overcome the challenges. Here are seven tips to navigating the coming weeks and months.

1. Maintain your connections

A chief complaint in surveys about working from home is social isolation. We miss connecting with our colleagues and friends.

Loneliness has significant implications for our work, with research showing work loneliness can result in emotional withdrawal, which ultimately leads to deteriorating performance and wellbeing, as well as poorer health.

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