Business leaders, from JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon to Tesla’s Elon Musk, have argued that workers need to get back to the office in the name of productivity and collaboration. But a new study suggests the opposite may be better for employee well-being—and even company bottom lines.
Researchers tracked 7,704 employees at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center across three work arrangements: roughly one-fourth worked fully remotely, one-fourth worked hybrid, and about half worked entirely onsite.
The results? Employees who worked fully remotely reported the highest levels of workplace well-being—defined broadly to include physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial health—while those who worked entirely onsite reported the lowest. The study, which was published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology last month, also found little evidence that remote workers felt less connected to colleagues or workplace culture.
“Our findings challenge the idea that simply bringing people back into a building will automatically make them more engaged, connected, or likely to stay,” co-authors Stefanie Johnson, a professor at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business, and Courtney Holladay, chief learning officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center, told Fortune in a joint statement.
