Workers grapple with new stresses
NEW YORK — Last summer, Julio Carmona started the process of weaning himself off a fully remote work schedule by showing up to the office once a week.
The new hybrid schedule at his job at a state agency in Stratford, Connecticut, still enabled him to spend time cooking dinner for his family and taking his teenage daughter to basketball.
But in the next few months, he’s facing the likelihood of more mandatory days in the office. And that’s creating stress for the father of three.
Carmona, 37, whose father died from COVD-19 last year, worries about contracting the virus but he also ticks off a list of other anxieties: increased costs for lunch and gas, day care costs for his newborn baby, and his struggle to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
“Working from home has been a lot less stressful when it comes to work-life balance,” said Carmona, who works in finance at Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families. “You are more productive because there are a lot less distractions.”
As more companies mandate a return to the office, workers must readjust to pre-pandemic rituals like long commutes, juggling child care and physically interacting with colleagues. But such routines have become more difficult two years later. Spending more time with your colleagues could increase exposure to the coronavirus, for example, while inflation has increased costs for lunch and commuting.
Among workers who were remote and have gone back at least one day a week inperson, more say things in general have gotten better than worse and that they’ve been more productive rather than less, an April poll from The Associated PRESSNORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows. But the level of stress for these workers is elevated.
Overall, among employed adults, the April AP-NORC poll shows 16% say they work remotely, 13% work both remotely and in-person and 72% say they work only in-person.
Thirty-nine percent of employees who had worked at home but have returned to the office say the way things are going generally has gotten better since returning in-person at the workplace, while 23% say things have gotten worse; 38% say things have stayed the same. Forty-five percent say the amount of work getting done has improved, while 18% say it’s worsened.
But 41% of returned workers say the amount of stress they experience has worsened; 22% say it’s gotten better and 37% say it hasn’t changed.
Even workers who have been in person throughout the pandemic are more negative than positive about the way the pandemic has impacted their work lives. Thirty-five percent say the way things are going in general has gotten worse, while 20% say it’s gotten better. Fifty percent say their stress has worsened, while just 11% say it’s gotten better; 39% say there’s no difference.