Overview
- The study, published June 4 in Science, pooled five U.S. national surveys covering 2011–2019 and 2022–2024 and analyzed roughly 568,000–588,000 respondents to compare pre-pandemic and post-peak periods.
- Researchers found workers in occupations that can be done remotely reported larger increases in time spent alone, higher psychological distress, and a 4.6 percentage point greater likelihood of seeing a mental-health professional than in-person workers.
- The effects were concentrated among people who live alone, who saw the sharpest jump in days spent entirely without social contact and moved from distress 'some of the time' to 'most of the time' on a standard scale.
- Authors and experts note key limits: the data end in 2024, the analysis excludes 2020–2021, it does not distinguish fully remote from hybrid workers, and it shows population associations rather than individual causal paths.
- Rather than blanket return-to-office mandates, the paper recommends work redesign to reduce isolation through coordinated in-office days, more informal interaction, coworking supports, and targeted help for fully remote employees while preserving remote work benefits for groups who need them.