A new global study has found that working from an office outweighs work at home in terms of mental health, largely because of the role relationships in the workplace and feelings of pride in one’s work. Conducted by Sapiens Labs, the research analyzed the responses of over 54,000 employees across 65 countries. They pointed out that long-term mental well-being is more affected by interpersonal connections than workload or flexibility.
The study involved an Indian sample which comprised 5,090 workers. The results indicated that office employees had better mental health indicators than their remote counterparts. This contradicts trends seen elsewhere such as in the regions of Europe or the Americas where hybrid workers reported the best outcomes on indicators of mental health.
The research emphasized that bad working relationships were more critical causes of mental distress than heavy work. Although workload is a major issue these days, the research indicates that its implications on mental well-being are substantially underplayed by the quality of relationships at work and the sense of purpose derived from the role taken. Bad relationships were said to contribute to the feeling of depression, despair, and low motivation.
The Indian respondents reported only a 13% level of unmanageable workload, which is lower than the global average of 16% and that of the U.S., which stood at 18%. Also, the percentage of Indian workers reporting good relationships with coworkers was almost similar to the global average of about 50%. Teamwork more demonstrably contributed to the lessening of mental health problems compared with Western countries, thereby indicating the value accorded to collective effort within Indian culture.
The research used the “mental health quotient” to assess different dimensions of mental well-being such as adaptability, motivation, and the mind-body connection. In this regard, it found that mental well-being was more than the mood a person was in; it filled up with all the mental capacities needed for survival in life. Tara Thiagarajan, founder of Sapiens Labs, highlighted the need for healthy environments at work to improve collective mental health. Instead of curing sick situations related to mental health, organizations should create conditions that are incubators of psychological well-being and high performance.
The findings support challenging the assumption that remote work leads to better work-life balance for employees. Instead, human connections and workplace dynamics act as a determinants of mental health. Such findings are expected to inform organizational strategies toward creating a healthier work culture by pointing out that people perform better when they feel valued and connected, regardless of where they work.
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