Working from home stressful and painful for older staff

Working from home was associated with increased stress levels among older workers when they were forced to be away from the office for more days than they wanted.

The study used data collected from workers in May and ­November 2021 and in May last year, with 75 per cent of the participants being women.

Working from home was associated with increased stress levels among older workers when they were forced to be away from the office for more days than they wanted, new research has found.

In a study led by Jodi Oakman, head of the Centre for ­Ergonomics and Human Factors at La Trobe University, older workers were also more likely to report neck and back pain if they spent more days working from home than they preferred.

The study used data collected from workers in May and ­November 2021 and in May last year, with 75 per cent of the participants being women. Older workers were those aged 46 and over. The authors said the overall aim of the study was to examine whether the relationships between actual and preferred days of working from home and employees’ stress or neck and back pain was the same in older ­workers compared to younger workers.

“When the number of days spent WFH increased and where a mismatch between preferred number of days and the actual number of days spent WFH existed, older workers reported higher stress levels than their younger colleagues,” the study found.

The authors said a workplace sense of community was an important factor in reports of higher stress levels for older workers, “suggesting that they may value being co-located with their colleagues for interaction and support”.

“As a result, organisations will need to consider strategies to facilitate connections as with increased use of hybrid work models, as opportunities for ­in-person connections with ­colleagues at work will be more limited than prior to the … pandemic,” the study said.

Professor Oakman said the “big issue is about preference and when there is a mismatch between what people want to do and what they don’t – that matters more for older workers”.

“When they’re not in the office at their preferred number of days, the issue for them is around the connection, the sense of community. That’s the important bit, that’s the thing that influences their stress levels,” she said.

“We can surmise why those things might be: if you look at workers over 46, they have been in the workforce a long time and are used to that sort of social ­networking in particular ways.

“So it’s probably not surprising they like doing that in person in an office environment. But the important thing here is it does matter in terms of their health outcomes so it does have an effect on their stress levels. It does have a tangible health impact that we need to take seriously.”

Professor Oakman said “water cooler conversations” were ­particularly important for older workers and their stress ­levels. Young workers are ­probably more comfortable with the diffuse online networking, which are necessarily more structured. “Older workers don’t want to be in the office all the time, but do prefer an ideal number of days and if not matched (by reality) we see impacts on their stress levels.”

According to the authors, the findings provide insights into the needs of older workers and the requirements by organisations to support working from home.

Some flexibility would be required to navigate the tension between the preferences of older workers and organisational requirements.

“Findings from this study ­support the need for organisations to focus on ensuring ­opportunities exist for collaboration and contact with colleagues whilst WFH to reduce the potential for increased stress levels,” they said.

“Further, older workers prefer more office days than their younger colleagues, which suggests nuance is required in workplaces policies and procedures to accommodate individual differences in working locations to ensure optimisation of employees’ health.”