Beyond lockdowns: work-from-home, mental health, and the moderating roles of intensity, job control and social support

During and shortly after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns were expressed that working from home (WFH) was creating a 'mental health crisis'. Australia experienced a three-phase 'WFH experiment', with widespread high-intensity WFH imposed by lockdowns in 2020, deepened restrictions in 2021, and a transition to flexible work arrangements and more autonomy in 2022 as vaccination rates increased. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, this study estimates the impact of WFH on worker mental health across these phases. Findings show that WFH led to a modest, statistically significant deterioration in average worker mental health outcomes during the lockdown years (2020-2021), particularly among women. Negative effects were present in workers across the social support and job control spectrum, suggesting limited buffering capacity to counter the stress of lockdown restrictions. However, by 2022, the negative effects of WFH dissipated with positive effects for those WFH 25-50% of time, indicating that pandemic-related lockdowns, rather than WFH itself, were primarily responsible for mental health declines. The exception was workers with low job control, and females with dependents, who continued to experience negative effects, highlighting that job autonomy and unequal caregiving responsibilities may shape longer-term wellbeing outcomes.