Depression is fueled by the lifestyle of working from home.

Returning from holiday to the blue sky of London, I find it really shocking how empty the trains and roads seem at rush hour. After a start to the summer so dismal that this month has been dubbed Juneuary, who would not want to work from a sunny garden over a drab office?

Some would rather, however, lounge in the sun without thinking about job at all. Online searches for so-called "mouse jigglers," which replicate the movement of a pointer so supervisors are unaware their home working personnel are offline, are growing when temperatures increase.

These devices, said to be "an absolutely essential item for working from home," are already thousands of pleased Amazon consumers employing. "Exactly what every dishonest student need," says still another. Buyers should be advised, though, as this gear does not deceive everyone. After looking into allegations that members of its wealth and investment management division were posing as busy, American banking behemoth Wells Fargo just terminated them for faking "keyboard activity."

Although the Wells Fargo story may have scared some Masters Mouse Jiggler users, it is unlikely many others outside of the finance sector would be caught out, let alone sacked. UK-based mouse jiggling vendor Carl Howell tells me his mouse movers are "undetectable" and that customers want them because they can get their work done in half a day but their managers need them to believe it takes more time. Always jiggle sensibly, his advice is.

Here the problem is more with toxic presenteeism and dissatisfied people tricking themselves into believing they have the upper hand than with catching. Once someone unhappy at work would have been driven to pursue a new one, today many who despise their jobs are admitting defeat and doing as little as possible from the comfort of their house.

Although at first it may seem like a victory, it is a precarious road. It can be difficult to break free from a job that never expects you to get out of bed, and even more difficult for those who have found a way to make it look as though they are working when they are not. Like those on enormous salaries who feel caught in jobs they hate because of the money (the "golden handcuffs" phenomenon),
Those approved by their company to never leave the house are likely to rapidly lose any great aspirations they once possessed as they adapt to a far more cosy schedule.

That situation in itself is not bad; indeed, for some, especially parents, caregivers, or older workers who have been there, done that, this kind of employment is clearly the holy grail. But when it comes to mental health, not leaving the house and doing the minimal is a surefire way to go crazy. About 53pc of people who are economically inactive due to long-term illness suffer anxiety and depression; these are the most common disorders suffered by those in this state.

Workers sent off ill who might subsequently find themselves unemployed are likely to have even worse mental health: a study of 4,000 persons in the UK found that therapies for depression were considerably more effective for those in employment than for those not working.

Those just starting their jobs seem especially troubled. As the number of young people suffering with poor mental health increases, a study released by the Resolution Foundation earlier this year revealed that those in their early 20s are more likely than those in their early 40s to be absent from work owing to illness. Up from a quarter at the beginning of the millennium, a third of people aged 18 to 24 reported symptoms of mental illness such anxiety or depression in 2021/22.

Particularly among younger individuals, you don't have to search far to find how many people feel imprisoned by the remote-working handcuffs of their company. Responding to a query from someone who said they were waking up "feeling totally meh," one Reddit member who finally changed jobs and returned to the office part-time confessed "I was WFB (Working from Bed)."

A Reddit poster on another topic says, "A lot of people who are vehemently against going back into the office are probably unknowingly suffering from depression that is making them want to stay at home."

Naturally, hardly one agrees. One home working Reddit user notes, counting their lucky stars: "I would literally eat s–- to keep the job I have now." Undoubtedly, for some people full-time home working (including even the discovery of a mouse jiggler) can do a great deal. Those who channel their energy into a hobby or who felt overburdened juggling job and care obligations will definitely feel more better in a job that is totally flexible and will probably choose to work for longer as a result.
For the great majority that follow that path, however, striving to do minimal work, staying at home all week and accepting an unsuitable job just because it's flexible will backfire.

Particularly among the young, the rates of anxiety, despair and worklessness point to something going horribly wrong despite general improvements in working life. Realising they were sacrificing too much of their life to pursue their careers, Covid brought about a much-needed worldwide review of how we live. But going too far the other way is no good either.

As businesses tighten down on remote working and poor output, the number of people still able to work from home every day and who can get away with the mouse jiggler technique could be declining. Those who still have total flexibility to operate exactly how they wish should use the advantage sensibly for their own benefit.