MORRISVILLE – Working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic is causing physical and emotional hardship among 71% of those employees, according to a new global study from Lenovo.

Among more than 20,000 people participating in the survey “Technology and the Evolving World of Work,” workers said work from home, or WFH, as required by social distancing and stay-at-home orders have led to new or worsening conditions including:

  • Back and neck pain
  • Poor posture
  • Headaches
  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Eye strain

There’s also some higher costs with employees spending more than $270 Technology and the Evolving World of Workon average to acquire new or additional tech tools.

However, there are benefits such as improved productivty, saving on expenes related to commuting, and being able to dress more comfortably.

And not everyone is eager to go back to the office. In a recent Gallup survey, for example, nearly 60% said they were prefer to work from home. More than 60% of workers told Gallup they have worked at home at least part of the time during the pandemic, more than double the percentage reported in a Marcuh survey.

Lenovo graphic

WFH imposes other costs on workers, including:

  • Reduced personal connection with coworkers
  • Harder to separate “work life” and “home life”
  • Getting easily distracted / hard to concentrate
  • Having to do more conference calls than usual
  • Harder to collaborate with people remotely

Despite challenges and pain, workers expect WFH to become more typical in the future with 52% of those surveyed saying they expect to work from home more even after a return to “normal” in a post COVID-19 environment.

“This data gave us valuable insights on the complex relationship employees have with technology as work and personal are becoming more intertwined with the increase in working from home,” commented Dilip Bhatia, Vice President of Global User and Customer Experience at Lenovo, about the report.

“Respondents globally feel more reliant on their work computers and more productive but have concerns about data security and want their companies to invest in more tech training. We’re using these takeaways to improve the development of our smart technology and better empower remote workers of tomorrow.”

Read more about the study online.