The Surprising Rise of ‘Fake’ Commutes — How Remote Workers are Tapping into Psychology to Boost Well-being & Productivity
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For decades, commuting has been the bane of employees worldwide. The cycle of making unpaid journeys to and from work on packed public transport, or gridlocked roads, wasn’t exactly the highlight of many people’s days.
Yet across the world a curious trend is emerging; thousands of people are voluntarily commuting to well, nowhere. It might sound strange at first but there’s actually a very good reason for why some workers are choosing to add ‘fake’ commutes into their workday.
In today’s article, we’ll be delving into the psychology of ‘fake’ commutes — what they are, how they emerged and their potential for enhancing well-being and productivity. So let’s dive in.
Photo by Ross Sneddon on Unsplash
🚌 What are ‘fake’ commutes?
‘Fake’ commutes (also known as simulated commutes) are self-made rituals designed by remote workers to replicate the structure and routine of a traditional commute without actually travelling to the worksite itself.
In essence, it is a daily routine that remote workers voluntarily adopt to help them mimic the transition between home and work.
‘Fake’ commutes are as diverse as the remote workers who perform them but some common examples include; walking or cycling around the neighbourhood, driving to a coffee shop and back or even travelling a few stops by bus and walking back.
The key defining feature though is that the routine takes place immediately before or after work, similar to how a traditional commute would.
At first glance this may seem counter-intuitive. After all, avoiding long, stressful and costly commutes was one of the key advantages attached to remote work. Why then would remote workers want to vountarily bring them back?
To answer that question, we need to look back at how we got here.
📈 How We Got Here — The Rise of Remote Work
To say that the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world of work would be an understatement. As people and organisations learned how to navigate the many social and economic shifts, the way in which people worked changed significantly too.
Prior to the pandemic remote work was relatively uncommon. Whilst figures varied across nations, prior to the pandemic approximately 10% of the workforce identified as being remote or hybrid workers in major economies (6% in the U.S.A.¹ and 12% in the U.K.²).
Immediately after COVID-19 hit, and lockdown restrictions were implemented, the number of remote workers spiked rapidly with approximately half of employees working remotely.
Since then, remote working levels have decreased but remain significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels. In the U.S.A the trend in remote work has stabilised at around 25% of working days being completed remotely³.
This rapid and significant shift to remote work understandably had a deep psychological impact - as decades of traditional work routines and patterns were disrupted seemingly overnight.
As remote workers adapted to the ‘new normal’ of working from home the distinction and transition between when work stopped and free-time began became muddied; blurring not only the time but also spaces that were mentally classified as work.
The once bemoaned chore of the work commute began to be viewed in a new light, as its psychological importance became revealed.
🧠 Liminal Space — The Psychological Importance of Commuting
Traditional commuting acted as a liminal space — a transitional environment — that helped to distinguish the boundaries between work and life. It provided a clear psychological marker the employees could anchor their day around. Once the commute home began, employees could begin the process of mentally disengaging from work.
However, when work and home became the same space that psychological marker disappeared as people no longer needed to commute. There was no liminal space that remote workers could transition through to psychologically separate work from home.
As such, it became easier for work to leech into employee’s home lives — checking an email here, responding to an instant message there. Without the clear separation of work and non-work, there was no psychological boundary to help remote workers mentally switch off and recover from the day⁴.
This is important, as psychological detachment from work is one of the most important contributors to effective recovery and longer term well-being and productivity⁵⁶
And so, the ‘fake’ commute became not only a mechanism for remote workers to help add that transitional structure back into their day but also a tool that could be drawn upon to protect well-being and support productivity.
👍 Benefits of a ‘Fake’ Commute
A ‘fake’ commute can have benefits beyond simply being a bookend to the beginning and end of the working day. If carefully crafted, a ‘fake’ commute can be a tool that can holistically contribute to remote worker well-being and productivity. Let’s take a look at a small snapshot of how these potential benefits could emerge:
Strengthened Work-Life Balance
Restoring the transitional space between work and home can help to instil a stronger sense of work-life balance. Good work-life balance has been associated with a range of positive outcomes including; increased work engagement⁷, decreased risk of burnout⁸ and increased happiness⁹.Through triggering psychological disengagement at the end of the workday, ‘fake’ commutes can also support rest and recovery of mental resources, helping workers to return restored and refreshed the next day.
Increased Physical Activity
On average, remote workers tend to report lower levels of daily physical activity when compared to their on-site counterparts. Physically active ‘fake’ commutes, such as a walking around the neighbourhood, can help bridge this gap. Even modest increases to daily physical activity levels have been shown to contribute to enhanced mood¹⁰, reduced sickness¹¹ and increased productivity¹². Bonus points if the activity takes place around nature, which has been shown to strengthen the restorative effects of physical activity even further.
As noted, the types of ‘fake’ commutes can be as diverse as the workers who perform them. However, there are some common features that can help anyone who is considered implementing a ‘fake’ commute themselves.
👟 How you can Implement a ‘Fake’ Commute
There’s no one right way to design a ‘fake’ commute. It’s about finding what works for you and identifying what can help you to psychologically separate your work and home life. That being said, here are some factors that can help you to generate ideas on what your ‘fake’ commute might look like:
🏠It gets you out of the house
👨💻It is something that you are able to do immediately before or after work
🎯It could be linked to your other goals (e.g. walking, language learning, listening to an audiobook)
📅It is something that you could do safely and consistently across the year
For some remote workers, personal circumstances may make leaving the house, or finding the time to engage with a full ‘fake’ commute, challenging. In these cases, it can still be possible to develop a psychological boundary that can be used within the home to help demarcate when work ends and home life begins.
In his best-selling productivity book ‘Deep Work’ (affiliate link), Dr Cal Newport outlines a shut-down routine that can help workers to concretely end the workday and begin the process of psychological detachment at home. Rather than leaving the home it instead relies on creating a ‘to do’ list of outstanding actions and completely shutting down all work computers and apps and placing them out of sight until the next day.
🤔Final Thoughts
Whilst not as common as during the height of the pandemic, it is fairly clear that remote work is here to stay. Remote work provides a host of benefits for organisations and employees but with it also comes challenges.
The blurring of boundaries between work and home can be difficult for remote workers to manage, leading to overwork, poorer psychological disengagement and disrupted recovery after the work day has ended.
‘Fake’ commutes can be one tool in the remote worker’s toolkit to help restore the boundaries between work and home, helping remote workers to remain happy, healthy and productive even when work and home are the same space.
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