In our labour market, remote work has become so prevalent in a way that’s unprecedented. With the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment rates in both Canada and the United States increased substantially, as the cessation or reduction of various services and production forces meant that millions of people were to be out of work. This was all done primarily of course to mitigate the spread of the virus.
There were however people who were fortunate enough to have occupied positions where work can be done from the comfort of their own homes. For many workers, particularly those who worked in office spaces, remote work became the new norm for a time, while other people were either unemployed or worked in what was called ‘essential services’. These workers risked catching the virus and hence their lives in order to get a paycheck and keep society afloat (this can all relate to Michel Foucault’s ideas about biopolitics, but I won’t go into that here).
Currently, even though COVID-19 is no longer considered to be a public health emergency (at least in North America), many industries and firms have still kept remote work as part of their operations. Of course, remote work very much existed prior to the pandemic, but now it seems to be a lot more widespread, as the pandemic provided us with a clear example of businesses being able to still make profits with their workers at home.
Remote work options are now being requested by a large number of workers, both in the private and public sectors. This year, Canada witnessed an incredibly large and disruptive strike conducted by its federal workers who not only demanded wage increases that compensated for inflation, but also remote work options (amongst other things)1.
Now, there are certainly benefits to working from home rather than on-site. For one, a worker would not have to prepare to commute to the workplace. It takes time and stress to get ready in the morning to look presentable enough for work and to commute on a daily basis. It is often an additional expense, whether you have to pay for fuel for your vehicle or pay the fares on public transportation.
You can also potentially save money on food, as making lunch at home tends to be cheaper than buying lunch from outside (assuming one does not already bring their own lunch to work).
Remote work also gives you more flexibility as to where you can work. You can move out of your neighborhood without having to worry about your new place being too far from your job. If you’re lucky enough to have the financial means, you can even take time to travel while still working.
That being said, there are managers and business owners who want their workers to come back to work on-site, for reasons I do not very much care for. They may have leases for commercial spaces or offices which they can no longer utilize. Or, more nefariously, they may want the ability to surveil their employees more closely, all under the guise of promoting teamwork in the workplace. I have no desire in defending points like these, where we become primarily concerned with the business interests of the owners and managers.
However, I do think there is a valid concern about the move towards remote work, and I will explain it by highlighting a problem we are currently dealing with in North America.
That problem is social atomization.
People are becoming increasingly disconnected from each other and their own communities. For instance, since 2003, the amount of time individuals spend time alone has increased significantly, while the time they spend on in-person social engagement has decreased, the time they spend with friends, family, and acquaintances2.
The number of close friendships that people have has decreased. Almost half of Americans (49%) in 2021 reported having three or fewer close friends, compared to only about a quarter (27%) who reported the same in 19903. Moreover, fewer people feel actually attached to the communities in which they live.
This decrease in social engagement also relates to people’s romantic/sexual relationships, as more young adults today are more likely to be virgins and not have a significant other when they would prefer to.
All of this has become so damaging that the current U.S. Surgeon General has said that we are in the midst of a “loneliness epidemic”, as social isolation is correlated with depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and even cardiovascular disease4.
People then often use social media to keep themselves occupied, but it is well established that social media use is also correlated with similar mental health problems5.
Because of how pervasive social isolation has become, many people then attempt to normalize it. They will say that they take pride in the fact that they are a loner or are anti-social. In reality, loneliness has been and continues to be very damaging to our mental health.
This all can largely be explained by changes in our economic systems and social structures. Post-secondary education is becoming more necessary to be competitive in today’s labour markets, and attaining it takes a lot of stress and time that could have been spent elsewhere. People are spending more time at their jobs than they have in decades and they are using their vacation days less frequently6, all while most of their wages are barely keeping up with the rising cost of living.
Also, whatever your opinion is on organized religion, it provides an outlet for large numbers of like-minded people to meet with each other on a regular basis, form social connections, and build a sense of community. Nevertheless, the influence of religion in both Canada and the United States is diminishing.
Now, maybe you’re asking what this has to do with remote work.
Depending on your experience, this may be hard to believe but: people are now more likely to make friends at work than any other way, including at school, in their neighborhood, at their place of worship, or even through existing friends7.
Most people would like to form friendships with their work colleagues8.
A primary place where people meet a romantic partner or their spouse is at the workplace9.
When one goes to work, they are given to opportunity to physically interact with coworkers, engage in small talk while on breaks, go to lunch with each other, and socialize after work. When everyone clocks out, they can go out for dinner, for drinks, commute with each other, talk about what is stressing them out, and plan social activities with each other.
It is far more difficult to form these kinds of relationships if work is solely done behind a computer screen from home.
The American Psychological Association conducted a survey of remote workers and found that they experience problems with isolation, loneliness, and disconnecting from work at the end of the day10.
Even if you do not make close friends at work, going in-person forces someone to be outside and go out into the physical world with others, which is healthier for one’s physical and mental health.
Getting some fresh air and sunshine, engaging in some physical activity, hearing the sounds of people and of the environment, and having exchanges with other living people. If a person is outside more, they can learn to better cope with their social anxiety, and they can go out to more social activities and make new friends.
If remote work keeps someone home most of the time and blurs the line between one’s work life and personal life, this will all be more difficult to achieve.
In the end, remote work can translate into workers under capitalism becoming increasingly isolated from one another, working to increase profits for businesses all while struggling to satisfy their desire for companionship and community.
I say all of this as someone who is not a stranger to remote work. Two of my most recent jobs, including the one I have currently, have been done remotely.
There are certainly conveniences associated with working from home that I enjoyed, such as the ones I mentioned above. But, there are definitely times when it feels isolating. Doing work with no one physically around, mainly communicating through messages and email, sometimes speaking to people but only through a phone or screen, only to occasionally meet with co-workers in person and see them as full persons.
To conclude, it is worth mentioning that I am not trying to argue that remote work should not exist at all. To some extent, remote work options can be beneficial for some workers, depending on the line of work. Hence, a hybrid work schedule can be utilized, allowing workers to work from home on days and work on-site on others.
Also, even if remote work did not exist, the problem of social atomization would not go away, as it has persisted for years. Many of those who work on-site still very much experience loneliness, isolation, and difficulty disconnecting from their work.
My point is simply that a push for more remote work is itself not going to help us build more meaningful relationships with others or foster collective spirit. If anything, it may make the problem even worse.
References
- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/canada-federal-government-workers-strike.html
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235282732200310X
- https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf
- https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-a-steady-diet-of-social-media-unhealthy-2018122115600
- https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/nearly-half-of-canadians-didn-t-use-all-their-vacation-days-in-2022-survey-1.6377936
- https://hbr.org/2022/10/the-power-of-work-friends
- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/13/why-work-friendships-are-critical-for-long-term-happiness.html
- https://www.businessinsider.com/surprising-office-romance-statistics-2016-2
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2021/10/15/remote-workers-report-negative-mental-health-impacts-new-study-finds/?sh=658166d774b8
My Sporadic Thoughts 
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