"We analyzed 20 years of data from the national Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, which allowed us to track the work and mental health of more than 16,000 employees. We didn't include two years of the COVID pandemic (2020 and 2021), because people's mental health then could have been shaped by factors unrelated to working from home."
"For women, commuting time had no detectable effect on mental health. But for men, longer commutes were tied to poorer mental health for those who already had strained mental health. The effect was modest. For a man near the middle of the mental health distribution (close to the median), adding half an hour to his one-way commute reduced reported mental health by roughly the same amount as a 2% drop in household income."
Longitudinal analysis used 20 years of national survey data tracking more than 16,000 Australian employees, excluding 2020–2021 to avoid pandemic-related effects. Models controlled for major life events and compared commuting time with working-from-home arrangements while observing individual mental health changes over time. Commuting time showed no detectable effect on women's mental health. For men with pre-existing strained mental health, longer commutes were associated with poorer mental health, with a half-hour longer one-way commute reducing reported mental health roughly equivalent to a 2% household income drop. Hybrid working produced the largest mental health benefits for women.
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