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Asia Minute: Regional Challenges in Working From Home

Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay

While more people are back in the workplace compared to a year ago, many are still working from home. And according to a new survey, at least in South Korea, not everyone is loving it.

Nearly a third of people working from home in South Korea say it’s more stressful than going to the office.

That’s from a new survey by a recruiting platform called Job Korea, looking at “Work from Home Syndrome.”

That condition can include not only emotional stress, but physical symptoms like back and neck pain.

A recent study in India found women are more prone to stress in working from home.

Pink Ladder is an Indian group focusing on career development for women.

It reports 40% of women working from home are facing anxiety and stress.

The Economic Times of India says the research also matches a study McKinsey did nearly a year ago—finding that women working from home are feeling more burned out than men.

Channel News Asia reports that doctors in Singapore are treating more complaints about back pain and wrist injuries — often resulting from work from home set-ups that are not ergonomically sound.

Still, most of these studies also find praise for remote work, including that recent survey in South Korea of more than 900 people working from home.

Nearly 80% of them say stress from relationships with workplace colleagues has dropped — in part because there’s “no need to engage in unnecessary conversations.”

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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