this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
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Remote workers report the highest well-being in study of 7,700 employees: while those who worked entirely onsite reported the lowest. (www.colorado.edu)
submitted 5 hours ago by eicker@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] protist@retrofed.com 16 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Here's the actual study if anyone cares to read it.

Skimming it, a couple things I noticed: This was a study of over 7,000 people across all departments at a large healthcare system. They found on-site workers skewed younger with shorter tenure and remote workers skewed older with longer tenure.

One potential pitfall: They didn't control in any way for department or role, and so floor nurses and housekeeping staff who must work fully on-site are being compared to tenured nurses working utilization review or revenue cycle staff whose job is billing/coding and who don't have to interact with anyone in their roles. In-person and remote jobs in healthcare tend to be very different jobs. I don't know how well this study could be generalized to other types of job settings based on this info

[–] puppinstuff@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I can’t believe how much more I get done when I’m left alone and focused on the task at hand.

I don’t feel particularly isolated. Everybody is different but a once-week team chat and seasonal social lunches fill my cup.

Turns out when you can do errands and meet non-work friends for coffee as you please you don’t need to lean on your office family so much for connection and purpose.

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 1 points 12 minutes ago

I have daily voice calls, usually several times a day.

Seems like my country has mostly moved back to offices now though and finding remote contracts is tough. Man I miss the pandemic. Not the death and suffering, just the compassion some people showed others. Sure there was a lot of people who just lost their minds entirely, but I feel like the overall sense of community was better back then.

[–] kerrybun@nord.pub 9 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

When we got a new CEO one of the first things he mandated was RTO. He said the alternative was to shut the office down, and that he was fine with that (I highly doubt that) but a decision had to be made. And so RTO it was, because that had better vibes or something. It's fascinating, the leadership has during several meetings mentioned how much nicer it is now that people are in the office, but none of the "grunts" I've spoken to like it.

[–] adhdsergio@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago

Our CEO started talking of RTO while he himself was at home, not even a Teams background to try and hide it. Haven't seen him in any office during any of the subsequent townhall meetings either. He's just one twunt in a massive circlejerk

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 41 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

RTO work often is about control and not about cost or efficiency.

[–] rozodru@piefed.world 7 points 59 minutes ago

Also because commercial landlords demanded it. In Canada the biggest push for it was from Oxford Properties. They even managed to get the Mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, who is about as liberal as we're gonna get up here to push for it. Never voting for that corporate shill again.

[–] Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de 32 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Or encouraging people to quit on their own. It's a lot cheaper than firing people.

[–] HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 11 points 2 hours ago

Quit my last job over being asked in once a week. It was the commute rather than the office that I really wanted to avoid but it was also an awful open plan hotdesk office for a company of hundreds of people I didn't know or care about.

New role is office based but I don't need to drive or take public transport and teams have their own rooms to work in. Much smaller company too, under 30 people. Banter is far better here and that helps quite a bit.

[–] makeshift0546@lemmy.today 4 points 1 hour ago

I only work 25 hours a week, was that part of the study?

[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

Awesome, now all I need is a (remote) job....

[–] eicker@lemmy.world 89 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

Turns out the commute, fluorescent lighting, constant interruptions and performative desk sitting weren’t secretly essential ingredients for human happiness after all. Shocking. Next study: 7,700 managers discover that seeing someone in a chair is not actually a productivity metric.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 2 points 15 minutes ago

I'm about to support a satellite launch later this month. Guess what, I have supported the development from my house for the last 5 years. Surprise surprise, butts in seats aren't necessary.

[–] magnue@lemmy.world 18 points 3 hours ago

Performative desk sitting is the worst. Got nothing to do so I have to just click on things.

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 36 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

And 7,600 of them discover that aside from micromanaging and degrading the well-being of their employees, they have no other substantive job duties, and their employment is completely pointless.

[–] Wfh@lemmy.zip 19 points 2 hours ago (4 children)

I became a manager about a year ago. Now that I'm part of the "inner circle", I can see firsthand what I suspected for the past 20 years.

There are 2 types of managers.

There are cunts bosses who treat their employees as property for their personal gain and advancement. They demand productivity at all costs (see: LLM-cogsuckers), punish for mistakes and pressure people into responsibilities they should take. They are the ones who want RTO to exert control on their employees. They are the ones who "joke" you must take a half-day leave if you need to go before 6PM. They are the ones who openly shit on their employees (or other teams employees FWIW) because they're not benefiting them enough. They are not part of the team, they feel and act above everyone in it.

The second type, which I strive to be and most of my closest "manager friend" are, are servant-leaders. They want to get shit done by easing roadblocks and making technologically informed decisions. They understand that productivity is a consequence of a functional team and happy employees. They take on responsibility for mistakes and push the team towards finding solutions to prevent them. They understand that Life^TM^ is more important than work. They are an integral part of the team, they're not the boss but a full member with a different role and different responsibilities, like a PO or a data analyst.

As a tech lead first and a trained Scrum Master second, I feel much more comfortable in the second role. I help the team internally and report and manage external roadblocks with other teams. It's what I already know. I hate the hierarchical part of the job.

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 2 points 4 minutes ago

Good job. You're one of the 100 out of that 7,700 managers who actually do something productive and manage properly.

Obviously, that number of 100 is arbitrary to make a wider point. To be fair, it's probably a significantly higher percentage than I provided in my hypothetical. But holy shit are there waaaaay too many of the type 1 and far too few of the type 2 that you outlined.

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 hour ago

I had 2 such 2^nd^ type bosses in over 20 years.
You really notice they're how you described when they're gone - the deluge of shit begins almost immediately.

[–] makeshift0546@lemmy.today 8 points 1 hour ago

This guy manages and gets it.

[–] HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 7 points 2 hours ago

Most of my managers have been the second type, although how effective they are at it has varied a lot. Some are very passive and that has been good and bad, being left alone is great when things are going well. But when you need help they are useless.

The best have been the ones that know a decent amount about the job, they can either help you directly or know exactly where to point you for it. That or they understand the pain and you can both cry together for 4 days with a SQL database and increasingly vague error messages.

[–] DrCake@lemmy.world 16 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I’m all for as much remote work as possible, but I would love a study to include commute length and mode of transport. When I lived a 20 min walk from my office it was great and didn’t mind being at the office full time.

I moved away and it’s now a 30 min car drive which I really hate, a 1 hr bus journey, or 45 min bike ride.

I wouldn’t mind the bus journey so much, as I can read a book on my way, but the unreliability makes it feel so much worse.

And despite being longer than the drive, I much prefer to cycle into work, and I’ll usually do extra days in the office during the summer as an “excuse” to be on the bike.

[–] DrunkenPirate@feddit.org 7 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I‘ve read a study somewhere that compared car and bike commutes. I turned out that people were much happier riding bike and have real life interactions with people at the streets than sitting alone in an iron box and drive a car.

Despite this, having the same times as you, I enjoy riding bike more because the commute time is always the same. Nobody can stop you on a bike. No traffic jams, no accidents that blocks a road, no rush hour stress.

[–] IcePee@lemmy.beru.co 8 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (3 children)

A couple of important caveats:

Still, Johnson said face-to-face interaction can play an important role in helping coworkers build relationships, especially if they are just starting out in their careers.

"Remote works better after you know people," she said. "So there is still a benefit of having some face time."

So, it does rather beg the question, what should one do if someone is joining an existing team?

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 1 points 10 minutes ago

Which is bullshit, I joined and have worked for a remote only company for over a decade now and I've never met any of my coworkers, but I chat and have calls with them daily and we all have the office banter and even talk about outside work stuff as well. You don't need to know people to magically work remote, that's just an excuse to stuff people into a building together.

[–] eicker@lemmy.world 12 points 4 hours ago (3 children)

Based on two decades of experience: As a general rule, there should be regular in-person team events (around two a year and just for fun). In addition, there should be joint training sessions (also around two a year). New staff members require a great deal of attention from their team, both at these events and when working remotely, particularly at the outset.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 1 points 12 minutes ago

Eh, capitalism can get bent.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

A step further it should be more than twice a year I would say once a quarter would be more preferable. There should also be one day a week everyone on the team should be expected to be in the office. Beyond that max 3 days a week none of this minimum bullshit.

[–] brainzzz@piefed.world 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Also if there's an option to go to the office, that works too. I'd like to have an office to go to once a month or less, just for the social, meet people irl, etc, but wouldn't give up remote work for it.

In your experience, have any online social things worked well? We're always looking out for stuff where I am.

[–] eicker@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Cooking together is brilliant: just yesterday we held our summer strategy meeting at a cookery school, where we cooked and enjoyed a three-course meal together. Basically, anything that encourages plenty of interaction and offers a completely different setting to the usual one is ideal.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 hours ago

it does rather beg the question

Nope. It just raises the question.