As a new post-pandemic life is contouring on the horizon with the vaccination campaign having started worldwide, there is also debate over the new work format after the “work from home” era. While some companies still plan to extend the remote work, a new “hybrid” scenario is profiling, with at least 2 or 3 days per week in the physical office space.
As it is still early to completely foresee the large employers` decisions in the next 12-24 months, BUCHAREST REAL ESTATE CLUB took the opportunity to talk to reputed Romanian psychotherapist Anca Maftei, as to investigate more on the impact that “work from home” format has on people and what would be the effects of not returning, for at least part of the time, in the physical office.
“Full time remote work has had a strong impact on the employees` emotional health, as it also came with loneliness and social isolation. We witnessed a major increase of the depression and anxiety cases and the number of people who accessed psychotherapy services increased dramatically. Among my clients, 4 out of 5 of them reported that remote work affected their mental health and they felt a lot of fear, irritability and concern”, says systemic psychotherapist Anca Maftei, who is also the Creator of the Integrative Self Process therapy method.
For most people, sudden transit to remote work was a major stress, she adds. Those who had to work from home experienced a lot of anxiety and stress. One of the reasons, Anca Maftei explains, is that they felt insecure and that they lacked the necessary support – and this was mostly felt by the young and lonely people.
“This lack of physical connections with others can impact us deeply, for all of us have the need to belong deeply rooted in our DNAs. At an ancestral level, individual`s survival was deeply connected to the need to belong to a group. Many studies point that this social separation may result into sleep disorders, alteration of the immune system, increase of the inflammation status and increase of the body stress hormones level”, psychotherapist says.
“Moreover, when we work from home we are tempted to forget about time and work sometimes many extra hours. For those people who don`t have an office or a separated physical space for work, there is no clear delimitation between the professional and personal life. It is very important to make the difference between the various areas where we activate as persons. For people who worked remotely it was very difficult to distinguish between the professional sphere, health, their social environment and the pleasant or relaxation activities – and maintaining an equilibrium between these aspects is essential for keeping our mental integrity. When work, personal life activities and the other activities happen all in the same physical space this equilibrium is difficult to find”, psychotherapist Anca Maftei completes.
Anca Maftei is a systemic psychotherapist, creator of the Integrative Self Process therapy method, hypnotherapist and transformational workshops facilitator.
(26.01.2021)