Stop (to Work) and Go (to Recover) During Mandatory Work From Home: A Three-Wave Study.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers have been forced to work from home. In this situation, the boundaries between work and private life have become particularly blurred, and recovering from work was even more difficult than in traditional times, with negative consequences for workers' health. Among the psychological experiences that might underlie the recovery process, mastery played a crucial role as people sought new stimuli and challenging situations. However, there are few articles that have explored the role of this specific recovery experience, its antecedents, and the health consequences under conditions of work from home. Therefore, in this multiwave study, we aimed to investigate the role of mastery as a mediator between supervisor support and insomnia problems. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and had a three-wave design. A convenience sample of 130 employees (67% women) completed an online questionnaire. Hypotheses were tested using a three-wave autoregressive cross-lagged panel model. According to the results, supervisor support at Time 1 was positively related to mastery at Time 2, which in turn showed a negative association with insomnia at Time 3. The results demonstrated that mastery experiences have played a crucial role during COVID-19 mandatory work from home, which points to some potential implications for workers' health in the adoption of teleworking beyond the emergency situation.

To Work or Not to Work Remotely? Work-to-family Interface Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: This paper provides a brief, evidence-based reflection on the differences between 'old-normal' remote working and mandatory work-from-home during the Covid-19 pandemic. From the perspective of applied psychology in the field of work and organizations, we used self-report instruments to assess variations in work-family conflict and enrichment, frequency of information and communication technologies use, and recovery in two longitudinal studies. METHODS: The first study involved 148 individuals from the technical-administrative staff of a large Italian University, during an experimentation of remote working (one day per week) in 2019. The second study, conducted during the first lockdown in 2020, involved 144 individuals (occasional sample, heterogeneous by profession). All participants completed a self-report online questionnaire two times six months apart. RESULTS: Although the two studies are not directly comparable, the results showed two different situations: in the condition of experimental remote working (one day per week), participants reported a decrease in work-family conflict and an improvement in recovery experiences, while in the emergency remote working condition, a deterioration in work-family enrichment was found. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlighted that some differences exist between a planned remote working condition and a mandatory one in an emergency. We briefly discuss these aspects to inform future organizational decisions and actions for the 'new normal'.

Might insecurity and use of ICT enhance internet addiction and exhaust people? A study in two European countries during emergency remote working.

Facing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we have witnessed a strong recourse to generalised lockdowns and to the deployment of remote working. These emergency measures have also thrown employers and employees into uncertainty regarding the present and future existence of their job. The present study aimed to examine the role of job insecurity and job demands in non-working hours through technologies on emotional exhaustion mediated by Internet addiction. A total of 999 remote workers, 501 of whom live in France and 498 in Italy, completed a self-report questionnaire during the first lockdown. Results suggest that both job insecurity and the requests to use technology for work purposes during non-work time exacerbate emotional exhaustion through the mediation of Internet Addiction. Limitations, future perspectives, and implications for management are discussed.

Work-family conflict during the Covid-19 pandemic: teleworking of administrative and technical staff in healthcare. An Italian study.

BACKGROUND: Remote working (more appropriately, mandatory work from home) during the Covid-19 healthcare emergency has increased significantly. Amidst many critical issues, work-family conflict (WFC) remains a central topic, due to the hardships in separating different life domains, the pervasiveness of technology, and decreased opportunities for recovery, all considering new, emerging job demands. Although many studies have involved healthcare workers, less attention has been paid to technical-administrative staff (TA); moreover, previous studies about the impact of remote working on WFC have provided mixed results. OBJECTIVES: The study aims at examining the relationships between WFC and cognitive demands, off-work hours technology assisted job demands (off-TAJD) and recovery, in the TA of a hospital in northwest Italy. METHODS: A sample of 211 individuals (response rate of 58%), in line with the population, filled in an online self-report questionnaire in the second half of April 2020. RESULTS: Multiple regression analysis showed a positive relationship between WFC and perceived ICT stress, off-TAJD and cognitive demands, and a negative relationship with recovery. CONCLUSIONS: The results confirm the role of cognitive demands, technology overload and invasiveness, as potential predictors of WFC. The results also indicate the mitigating role of recovery, even in the face of a prolonged and forced experience of remote work. The study emphasises the need for transparent policies, based on trust, autonomy and right to disconnect, and the centrality of training, especially for supervisors, on topics such as evaluation of results, proper recovery management and correct use of technology.

Personality and social support as determinants of entrepreneurial intention. Gender differences in Italy.

The interest in the promotion of entrepreneurship is significantly increasing, particularly in those countries, such as Italy, that suffered during the recent great economic recession and subsequently needed to revitalize their economy. Entrepreneurial intention (EI) is a crucial stage in the entrepreneurial process and represents the basis for consequential entrepreneurial actions. Several research projects have sought to understand the antecedents of EI. This study, using a situational approach, has investigated the personal and contextual determinants of EI, exploring gender differences. In particular, the mediational role of general self-efficacy between internal locus of control (LoC), self-regulation, and support from family and friends, on the one hand, and EI, on the other hand, has been investigated. The study involved a sample of 658 Italian participants, of which 319 were male and 339 were female. Data were collected with a self-report on-line questionnaire and analysed with SPSS 23 and Mplus 7 to test a multi-group structural equation model. The results showed that self-efficacy totally mediated the relationship between internal LoC, self-regulation and EI. Moreover, it partially mediated the relationship between support from family and friends and EI. All the relations were significant for both men and women; however, our findings highlighted a stronger relationship between self-efficacy and EI for men, and between support from family and friends and both self-efficacy and EI for women. Findings highlighted the role of contextual characteristics in addition to personal ones in influencing EI and confirmed the key mediational function of self-efficacy. As for gender, results suggested that differences between men and women in relation to the entrepreneur role still exist. Practical implications for trainers and educators are discussed.