Academics who work remotely report higher levels of stress compared with those who work on campuses, a new paper has found.
Those working from home are more likely to say they feel “overwhelmed” and “overloaded with work responsibilities”, according to the study, titled Stress and remote working in higher education.
Researchers surveyed 265 academics from the University of South Africa for the paper, with the majority (44.7 per cent) saying they work on campus, 23.5 per cent saying they have a hybrid role, and 31.8 per cent working remotely.
They were asked to rate their stress levels in certain scenarios on a scale of “not at all; slightly; moderately; very much; and extremely”.
When asked, “To what extent do you feel overloaded with work responsibilities?”, remote workers had the highest mean response rate of 4.084 out of 5, compared with a mean response of 3.316 from on-site workers.
