You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey, shortwaver's Emily Kwong here with NPR's mental health correspondent Ritu

strategy. Hi, Ritu.

Hi, Emily. It's good to see you.

And we are looking directly at each other.

Exactly.

We're in person at NPR headquarters.

But sometimes you and I do work from home.

A lot of people do.

A lot of people do. A lot of people do.

Remote work has quadrupled since the pandemic, to be precise. And I've been speaking with one

researcher who's been looking at this, and her name is Natalia Emmanuel. She's an economist at the

Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Studies have found that workers are willing to give up 4 to 10% of their earnings in order to have the ability to work remotely.

That sounds like a lot, but I'm not surprised because of the flexibility.

Oh, the flexibility is huge.

And I can tell you that as a parent of two little kids, I love the flexibility remote work gives me because I can pick up and drop off my

kids without having to worry about getting to work on time. And the fact that I can work from home

even when one of the kids is homesick, you know, makes a big deal. And there's also data showing that

working from home increases productivity and job satisfaction.

But we don't yet understand how remote work is affecting various aspects of the workplace and even ourselves, our own sense of well-being.

Oh.

Yeah.

...