15 Aug 2022

Remote working or working from home can have enormous impact on employees’ mental health, hence companies should formulate work from home polices geared toward striking a balance between work and home life.

Ministry of Health and Wellness, public health specialist, Dr Chidzani Mbenge explained this during the Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA), Biennial International Conference on Thursday.

She said the concept of working from home, which was adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to mental health problems.

With the introduction of working from home concept, Dr Mbenge said employees encountered home distractions, felt lonely, struggled with motivation and lacked resources as companies were unable to resource them.

“When we think of transforming to remote work, we must think of the resources that the employees need to work with from home,” she said and explained that from the surveys undertaken, people felt isolated from their work as they could not socialise with colleagues while others felt less appreciated as their supervisors were nowhere to give them a pat on the back.

She said working from home was not safe for employees who lived in toxic environment such as Gender Based Violence.

Some employees felt that there was no clear separation of work and home, as their superiors could arrange meetings at any time, Dr Mbenge stated, adding that such resulted in mental fatigue as employees were constantly working.

She therefore, said there was need for companies whose employees were still on working from home arrangement to come up with policies, which would among others, address hours of work and availability of resources such as internet and electronic gadgets at home.

Dr Mbenge said there was also a need for companies to constantly check on their employees and schedule periodic interaction sessions.

In addition, she said employees working from home should have self-care activities such as exercising, eating healthy and balance between working and being home.

Nonetheless, Dr Mbenge said there were employees who felt positive about working from home as they cited increased job satisfaction and that the arrangement contributed to savings for both the employee and employer. ENDS