We Liked Remote Work. Then We Looked at the Data.

Most Americans say they love working from home. They can skip their commutes, dodge their snippy co-workers, and evade their micromanaging bosses. In 2024, nearly 80 percent of workers said they would be happiest if they could work remotely. Both of us have experienced the advantages of remote work, especially when battling morning sickness or caring for a sick 6-year-old. But on some days, we wouldn’t venture outside or speak face-to-face with another human. We started to wonder whether we—along with the roughly 35 million other Americans who work from home—had stepped into an enormous social experiment. Was remote work as liberating as it felt? We searched for answers in troves of data, unsure of what we would find. Surveys of over half a million Americans from the last decade and a half revealed an uncomfortable truth: Despite its advantages, remote work has significantly deepened Americans’ isolation and distress. 

[Natalia Emanuel and Emma Harrington are labor economists.]