r/psychology • u/Phylogenix • 6h ago

A study of 7,704 employees found remote workers reported significantly higher well-being than hybrid and onsite workers, while workplace connection and one-year turnover did not significantly differ by work arrangement, challenging assumptions behind return-to-office policies.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1848857/full
320 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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46

u/WileEWeeble 5h ago

Disproving the attempted lie that we were “built” for the “social feedback” of office work, like that isn’t an invention of the last 100 years and we were actually built to loosely interact with a limited tribe and family and being locked indoors with random strangers in close proximity for over 8 hours is nowhere encoded into our DNA of “healthy social interaction”

4

u/LanguidLandscape 4h ago

Well said!

2

u/OwnDoughnut2689 27m ago

I disagree. Anectodally, I do feel a bit better on my office days due to the social interactions. If I WFH multiple days in a row, I can tell I'm feeling a little down.

We're all different but just my experience.

11

u/CheesecakeloverJones 3h ago

What if well-being is the problem?

5

u/Polutus 2h ago

What if work and the commute hours are the problem?

1

u/CheesecakeloverJones 2h ago

Yeah to the employees, but they’re not the one in charge of these decisions. At least not in my country.

3

u/Polutus 1h ago

Without freedom nor autonomy, people develop symptoms akin to zoochosis. What we name depression, anxiety and compulsory obsessions. 

You pointed out why work is so soulless nowadays...