Your remote and hybrid workers are really stressed—but an office return won't fix it

This past May, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 was no longer a national emergency. Even as the pandemic ebbed (and flowed) since the early days of lockdown, there’s still a pervasive level of exhaustion as we discover its lingering side effects, continue to manage a public health issue, and deal with the aftermath of an event that challenged how we view society. Work has not remained unscathed, as the pandemic brought into question the purpose of a 9-to-5 and gave rise to a greater existentialism and feeling of malaise. It’s hard to feel checked into a job and engaged when you’re largely unhappy. 

While employee engagement is on the rise globally, Gallup found, it’s declined in East Asia, Canada, and the U.S.—where workers also happened to report the highest levels of stress. Actively disengaged workers overall reported 26% more stress than engaged employees, which Gallup says indicates a correlation between engagement levels and stress levels.

However, that correlation varies by country, and employee engagement is only one factor of many. Across the globe, remote and hybrid workers are more likely to experience high levels of stress than fully onsite workers (43% and 45%, respectively, compared to 38%)—despite reporting higher engagement.

Some leaders who have strongly advocated for a return to office, like Elon Musk or Jaime Dimon, might rejoice in this finding. But remote and hybrid employees’ stress levels may be less about time spent working from home and more about how they’re being managed. Gallup attributes their stress to a “less predictable or structured work life.”

“Hybrid and remote work, if not managed right, can produce less predictability—people are less likely to be able to quickly resolve issues like they often can in-person,” Jim Harter, Gallup’s Chief Scientist of Workplace and Wellbeing, tells Fortune. “Unclear expectations can cause frustration, as can more limited opportunities to develop.” He added that some homes are not set up for optimal success at work.

And while work plays a role, he noted, so does social, financial, physical, and community wellbeing. “Since employee engagement and stress are correlated, but stress has remained high globally while engagement has improved, the high stress is most likely related to the work-life intersection.”

That might explain why younger employees under 40, who unequivocally strive for a greater work-life balance but are having a harder time achieving it, report more stress (43%) than older workers (39%). 

It’s not the nature of remote work that leads to well-being issues, but a larger lack of work-life balance, Gleb Tsipursky, CEO of consultancy firm Disaster Avoidance Experts, points out in a Fortune piece. A 2022 Cisco survey found that many said remote and hybrid work improved their well-being, citing the flexible schedule and eliminated commute. But the expectation to always be on and a lack of certainty about expectations does tend to drag workers down.

Still, though, Gallup finds that employee engagement has 3.8 times as much influence on employee stress as work location. “What people are experiencing in their everyday work—their feelings of involvement and enthusiasm—matters more in reducing stress than where they are doing their work. No location can fix poor management,” the report reads.

The power to decrease stress therefore lies in management’s hands. “It is increasingly important that managers are reskilled to have strengths-based meaningful conversations weekly with each person,” Harter says, adding that “remote work can increase the likelihood that employees feel more distant from their employers,” which can lead to them looking for other opportunities.