Working from home during lockdown: the association between rest breaks and well-being

PublicationArticle (with peer review)
Linda Weidenstedt

Abstract

One of the challenges with working from home (WFH) is the question of its effect on health and well-being. The impact of home working on health has so far not been studied extensively. We address this gap by investigating the association between internal recovery, operationalised as rest break frequency (low, medium, and high) during the working day, on self-reported musculoskeletal pain, and post-work recovery symptoms in WFH knowledge workers (n = 382). The analysis showed that failing to take frequent breaks was associated with a dose-response increased risk of reporting headaches. For post-work recovery symptoms, failing to take rest breaks throughout the day was associated with an increased risk of reporting psychological fatigue, physical fatigue, and sleep problems, and a decreased risk of psychologically detaching from work and experiencing adequate rest. Our findings emphasise the importance of remote workers taking recovery breaks from work demands in the maintenance of health and well-being.

Cropley, M., Weidenstedt, L., Leick, B., & Sütterlin, S. (2022). Working from home during lockdown: the association between rest breaks and well-being. Ergonomics, 1-11.


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Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X231172984

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Abstract

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