The Impact of Working from Home

Healthwatch Devon, Plymouth & Torbay wanted to find out about the physical and mental impact of working from home, and how working from home has affected people’s work/life balance. The proportion of self-employed workers (14.7%) in Devon is higher than the national average (9.3%).

To investigate this, a survey of six multiple-choice questions and four open-ended questions was used to ask people about their experiences of working from home, its impact on health and work/life balance, and their use of mental and physical health support services. Additionally, four optional questions were used to collect demographic information. 127 respondents answered the survey.

The key findings were:

• 38.58% of respondents said their physical health had been “slightly better” or “a lot better” since working from home. 30.71% said it had been “about the same” and 30.71% said it had been “slightly worse” or “a lot worse.”
• 37.01% of respondents said their mental health has been “slightly better” or “a lot better” since working from home. 27.56% said it had been “about the same,” and 35.43% said it had been “slightly worse” or “a lot worse.”
• 74.02% of respondents said they were aware that physical and mental health support was available, 20.47% said they were somewhat aware, and 5.51% said they were not aware.
• 70.08% of respondents said they had not accessed any physical or mental health support, 17.32% said they had accessed mental health support, and 15.75% said they had accessed physical health support.
• 59.84% of respondents said their work/life balance had been “slightly better” or “a lot better” since working from home, 11.81% said it had been “about the same,” and 28.35% said it had been “slightly worse” or “a lot worse.”
• When asked where they would like to find information about support services that are available, the top three answers were social media (64.81%), nhs.uk (61.11% people), and friends and family (27.78%).