The data used for the current study are part of a longitudinal study with two measurement time points. A panel company conducted a Germany-wide online survey at two measurement points (t1 July–August 2020, t2 November–December 2020). Using online questionnaires, employees in Germany were surveyed about, amongst other things, their current work situation and occupational health. The consent procedure and study protocol were approved by the ethics committee of Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The requirement for participation was that the respondents lived in Germany, were employed, and performed a part of their weekly working time in the home office. At the time of data collection, Germany was in the so-called “lockdown light”.

Although the responsibility of breaking out of a routine rut falls mostly to employees, leaders can help by providing resources, flexible options, and regular check-ins. That’s why it’s essential for HR and leaders to check in with (or check on) employees consistently and proactively. Whether it’s scheduled one-on-ones, or a more casual approach—like an email or Slack message—reaching out to employees to ask how they’re doing should be routine. If you’ve https://remotemode.net/blog/remote-work-burnout-fatigue-and-how-to-avoid-it/ been noticing that your employees seem a bit rundown lately, it likely means you have disengaged employees. Disengagement isn’t  uncommon even in the best of times, but as the months of strict COVID-19 restrictions wear on, your employees might be feeling like they’re the main character in Groundhog Day. It’s crucial to consider the luminosity of your reading light, the focus level, and the distance between your book or tablet and the light.

Why do you feel so tired when working from home?

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a far-reaching impact on lives worldwide. The consequences for the world of work are drastic, and, at the same time, the pandemic is serving as a catalyst for new forms of work and accelerating digitalization. The aim of this study was to increase knowledge about the circumstances under which working from home (WFH) is beneficial to employees’ health and job satisfaction. Following Bonin et al. [9], we examined the intensity of home office work (i.e., the extent of percent time worked in the home office), instead of dichotomously modeling WFH. The percentage of weekly working time WFH had a negative influence on stress-related symptoms in the present study.

• But by keeping it up, you can help keep your team’s spirits and morale up.
• Some easy games that translate well to virtual or hybrid settings are Scattergories, trivia, and crossword puzzles.
• Gallup research shows that experienced remote workers are coping with these challenges better than those who are trying to figure out how to get in the rhythm of remote work.
• The survey showed that if employees are working from home more than two days a week, engagement starts to taper off, and anxiety about the future can start to increase.
• But now, Yale University researchers have found that people’s faces are not able to light up people’s brains in the same way through a screen.
• Okay, maybe five minutes, you say to yourself as your mind races through every single item you have to get through for the day.
• “Include work time and play time so you have that balance,” says Dr. Albers says.

It’s not just the feeling that work is never really finished that contributes to work-from-home fatigue. A survey by Blue Jeans found that remote workers are actually logging an additional 3.13 hours of work per day. All analyses were conducted with the software IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). Prior to testing the hypotheses, descriptive analyses were conducted.

Now, working entirely from home during the pandemic might feel more like being “trapped at home” instead of a perk.

Too much of a good thing can be bad, particularly if it’s your work. But when your “office” is now the kitchen table where you eat dinner with your family, that lack of physical separation between work and personal life means your brain never feels like it’s off the clock. Ways to cure remote work burnout include socializing with coworkers, re-establishing boundaries between home and work, switching up workday routines, and practicing self- compassion.

Instead of driving into the office, go for a walk outside while you listen to the podcast or new station you’d typically enjoy while driving to work. This isn’t only good for creating that work-office divide; getting fresh https://remotemode.net/ air to the lungs increases oxygen levels in your brain to boost energy and improve concentration and memory. Once you finish your show, enter the front door of your home as though you are walking into your office.

Breaking routine and addressing working from home fatigue

For example, a student can use the Pomodoro Technique, where they work for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break, repeating the cycle several times throughout the day. An office worker can schedule regular intervals throughout the day to step away from work, stretch and do some deep breathing exercises. Social interactions at work significantly influence job satisfaction [27]. Consequently, due to the rules on social distancing and WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic, social isolation could have a negative impact on job satisfaction. In a study by Toscano and Zappalá [30], social isolation was shown to negatively impact remote job satisfaction. However, Bouziri and colleagues [1] point out that, to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, several companies switched completely to remote work and thus all employees worked from home.