The impact of remote work on employee activity: A case study of office workers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study collected survey and Apple Health data from 14 volunteer participants who worked at a single office location of a global company headquartered in the Upper Midwest of the United States. Various health and activity metrics from Apple Watch were analyzed over a period of two years spanning one year prior to and one year after March 2020, when all employees at the company were mandated to work remotely due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The study used statistical methods to identify health and activity measures that were significantly different between the office and remote work. Of the 14 different health and activity metrics analyzed, statistical results indicate that distance walking/running, flights climbed, headphone audio exposure and step count were all greater during office work than during remote work to varying degrees for the population tested. Conversely, the average walking heart rate was greater during remote work. Classification models attempting to predict work location (office or remote) achieved relatively strong accuracy overall, but the significance and strength of the health and activity predictor variables diverged significantly across individual participant data. Findings from this study indicate that among the sample population, individuals are generally more active when working from a central office location and that many of the significant predictors of work location cannot necessarily be generalized across a population. Previous research has found numerous benefits and challenges of remote work, and the present study’s findings point to similar mixed results regarding health and activity.