"The magic triangle between bed, office, couch": a qualitative exploration of job demands, resources, coping, and the role of leadership in remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated many employees to work from home with immediate effect for several months, regardless of their workplace preference or situation at home. Against this backdrop, this study explores perceived job demands and resources as well as the role of leadership and coping strategies of employees and managers with little or no prior experience with working from home in the altered work environment. METHODS: Based on the job demands-resources model, we developed an interview guide and conducted thirty-four semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed deductively-inductively using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Experienced job demands include, e.g., challenging, insufficient digital communication, and lack of social exchange, while greater flexibility and work-life balance were identified as valuable resources. Regarding the role of leadership, signaling trust, keeping regular contact, and supporting employees are important. To cope with the unforeseen yet persistent work situation, participants applied creative strategies by setting up offices at home with what they had at disposal. Differences were observed between employee and managerial perceptions as well as over time during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: The results expand our knowledge about healthy remote work by adding specific demands, resources, and coping strategies employees and managers experienced during the extreme situation of the COVID-19 pandemic to the picture as well as specifying the role of leadership. Moreover, our findings provide a foundation for guidelines for healthy remote work design and collaboration in times of abrupt change and crises.

Home-based work and childbearing.

We examine the timely yet greatly under-researched interplay between home-based work (HBW) and women's birth transitions. Past research has shown that HBW may facilitate and/or jeopardize work-family balance, depending on the worker's family and work circumstances. Following that research, we develop here a theoretical framework on how HBW can facilitate or hinder fertility. Using the UK Household Longitudinal Study 2009-19 and random-effects cloglog regression, we study the link between HBW and first- and second-birth risks. We find that HBW is negatively associated with the transition to motherhood and unrelated to the progression to a second child. We also show that HBW helps to enable women to have children if they would otherwise face a long commute. All in all, our findings do not support the idea that the spread of HBW will lead to an immediate increase in fertility.

Integrating work into life helps reduce residential greenhouse gas emissions.

Work from home (WFH) creates work-life integration by moving work into traditional life at home, but its influence on residential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remains unclear. In this study, an activity-based bottom-up model was developed to analyze the time-use patterns (activity durations and timeline of a typical day) of participants under WFH and traditional home life and to quantify their residential GHG emissions. Under WFH, participants generated an average of 9.03 kg CO2e/person/day, primarily attributed to space heating and cooling, cooking, grooming, work, and watching TV and movies. Notably, the GHG footprints varied across groups (8.08-9.93 kg CO2e/person/day) due to different work and household responsibilities and leisure time and varied with climate region (4.99-10.63 kg CO2e/person/day) because of emission factors of electricity, space heating and cooling, and cooking. Compared with traditional life at home (10.06 kg CO2e/person/day), WFH participants spent less time on almost all major activities (especially sleeping and watching TV and movies) to focus on work, enabling an 11.34% (1.02 kg CO2e/person/day) mitigation of GHG emissions. The reductions also varied by group and climate region, mainly associated with laundry, cooking, and watching TV and movies. Opportunities to reduce GHG emissions under WFH lie in targeting key activities, balancing the time spent on various activities, and developing group- and spatial-specific strategies. This study provides a systematic and high-resolution estimation of residential GHG emissions under WFH and traditional home life, with a complete system boundary, activity-specific considerations, and countrywide understanding. The findings reveal the environmental impact of work-life integration from the residential perspective and can aid residents and policymakers in utilizing decarbonization opportunities to advance low-carbon living under WFH.

A home environment-moderated model of the influence of ergonomics on individual work performance among Filipino nurse educators working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic: An interaction moderation analysis using structural equation model.

AIM: To determine the influence of ergonomics on individual work performance of nurse educators working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and to develop a model of the moderating effect of home environment. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, predictive-correlational design. METHODS: Utilizing interaction moderation and structural equation modeling, 214 consecutively-selected educators from nursing schools in the Greater Manila Area, Philippines completed a four-part online survey. RESULTS: Physical, cognitive, and organizational ergonomics positively influenced individual work performance. Home environment had a linear, positive moderation on the effects of physical and cognitive ergonomics on individual work performance but had a negative moderating effect with organizational ergonomics. CONCLUSION: The moderated model underscored the positive effects of ergonomics and the moderating effect of home environment on the individual work performance of nurse educators working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this knowledge can be used in developing appropriate programs, strategies, and policies. IMPACT: The moderated model highlights the need for policies and programs, training and education, and organizational evaluation geared towards promoting healthy workplace and work-life balance among nurse educators transitioning to remote work and online teaching. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: Eligible participants contributed in the data collection with the survey responses.

Work from home and the association with sedentary behaviors, leisure-time and domestic physical activity in the ELSA-Brasil study.

BACKGROUND: Work from home (WFH) can impact workers´ sedentary behaviors and levels of physical activity. The aim of this study was to estimate the association between WFH and workers´ sedentary behaviors, leisure-time and domestic physical activities during the COVID-19 pandemic and verify whether age and sex may act as effect modifiers. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 2544 participants in the supplementary study on COVID-19 in the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) from July 2020 to February 2021. We assessed screen time (≤ 8 h/day versus > 8 h/day), accumulated sitting time (≤ 8 h/day versus > 8 h/day) as sedentary behaviors on a typical day, and leisure-time (active versus inactive, according to World Health Organization recommendations) and domestic (low versus high, according to median) physical activity, using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), before and during social distancing. Logistic regression models were used. RESULTS: Participants that were working from home during social distancing showed increased odds of screen time and sitting time greater than 8 h/day (OR = 3.12; 95%CI: 2.32-4.20 and OR = 2.68; 95%CI: 2.02-3.56, respectively) and higher odds of high domestic physical activity (OR = 1.29; 95%CI: 0.99-1.67) when compared to those not working from home. There was no association between WFH and leisure-time physical activity (OR = 0.99, 95%CI: 0.75,1.31). Age was an effect modifier in the association between WFH and leisure-time physical activity and domestic activity. Older people working from home showed higher odds of physical inactivity (OR = 1.84, 95%CI: 1.07,3.16) and high domestic physical activity (OR = 1.92, 95%CI: 1.12,3.27) compared to older people not working from home. CONCLUSION: WFH was associated with sedentary behavior > 8 h/day and high domestic physical activity. In the older people, WFH was associated with physical inactivity and high domestic physical activity. As sedentary behavior and physical inactivity are consistently negatively associated with health, it is important to discuss policies to manage WFH that allow pauses from physical activities and performance of hours of work within preestablished limits to reduce sedentary behavior. In addition, individuals working from home, especially the older people, should be encouraged to engage in leisure-time physical activity as a form of health promotion.

Working from home during the COVID 19 pandemic: a longitudinal examination of employees' sense of community and social support and impacts on self-rated health.

BACKGROUND: The COVID 19 pandemic resulted in the introduction of public health measures including mandated and recommended work from home orders to reduce transmission. This provided a unique opportunity to examine sense of community and social support within the workplace and self-rated general health. This paper examines employees' workplace sense of community and social support across one year of the COVID 19 pandemic and associated self-rated general health. METHODS: Analysis of longitudinal data (October 2020, May 2021, and November 2021) from the Employees Working from Home study conducted in Victoria, Australia during the COVID 19 pandemic was undertaken. Trajectory analyses were used to describe workplace sense of community and social support over time. Multinomial logistic regression was used to determine the associations between demographics, gender, caring responsibilities, and group membership based on the Growth Mixture Modelling. Generalised Mixed Models were used to measure effects of sense of community and social support on self-rated health. RESULTS: Increasing sense of community and social support in the workplace resulted in increased self-rated health. Trajectory analysis found two stable and distinct groups for sense of community. Social support varied with time; however, trajectory membership was not dependent on gender or caring responsibilities and had no relationship with return to the office. CONCLUSION: Sense of community and social support in the workplace are important determinants of employees' health, and as such, workplace strategies to improve sense of community and social support are required not only for employees working from home, but also those who have returned to the office, particularly as hybrid work arrangements become more common.

Changes in office workers' lived experiences of their own eating habits since working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic: An interpretative phenomenological analysis.

In response to the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been little insight into how office workers perceived their own eating behaviour in relation to their new home working environment. The sedentary nature of office-based jobs means that it is crucial that workers in these occupations engage in health behaviours that are beneficial to them. The present study aimed to explore how office workers perceive changes to their own eating behaviour since the transition to working from home (WFH) as a consequence of the pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six volunteer office workers who previously worked in an office environment and who are now WFH. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, allowing the researcher to explore each account and understand their lived experiences. There were five superordinate themes: Healthy eating; time constraints; escaping the office; social cognitions; and food indulgence. Increased snacking behaviour since WFH was a major challenge, which was particularly potent during times of elevated stress. Furthermore, quality of nutrition since WFH appeared to coincide with the participants' wellbeing, such that this was reported as being worst at times of low wellbeing. Future studies must focus on developing strategies to improve the eating behaviours and the general wellbeing of office workers as they continue to WFH. These findings can then be utilised for the development of health promoting behaviours.

Information Security Threats and Working from Home Culture: Taxonomy, Risk Assessment and Solutions.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most organizations were forced to implement a work-from-home policy, and in many cases, employees have not been expected to return to the office on a full-time basis. This sudden shift in the work culture was accompanied by an increase in the number of information security-related threats which organizations were unprepared for. The ability to effectively address these threats relies on a comprehensive threat analysis and risk assessment and the creation of relevant asset and threat taxonomies for the new work-from-home culture. In response to this need, we built the required taxonomies and performed a thorough analysis of the threats associated with this new work culture. In this paper, we present our taxonomies and the results of our analysis. We also examine the impact of each threat, indicate when it is expected to occur, describe the various prevention methods available commercially or proposed in academic research, and present specific use cases.

The influence of spousal support on the outcomes and willingness of work from home for female knowledge workers.

This study identified the key factors of spousal support that influence the outcomes and willingness of female knowledge workers to work from home (WFH). A questionnaire of 59 items was developed, covering basic personal information, spousal support, work perception, work-life balance, and willingness to WFH: 139 valid responses from female participants were collected and analysed. Exploratory factor analysis revealed six distinct factors of spousal support. Regression analysis found that personal-related emotional support, personal-related instrumental support, work-related emotional support, and work-related instrumental support demonstrated positive correlations with work perception and work-life balance, while family-related instrumental support positively correlated with work-life balance. Personal-related emotional support and personal-related instrumental support positively correlated with the willingness to WFH. Notably, personal-related emotional support exhibited the strongest correlation coefficients for willingness and outcomes. The findings could provide information on how a husband could improve his wife's well-being when WFH.Practitioner summary: A survey was conducted among female knowledge workers to examine the influence of different factors of spousal support on the outcomes and willingness of WFH. The results shed light on how husbands can improve their wives' well-being during WFH, offering practical guidance for supporting spouses in this context.

COVID-19 triggered residential behavioral changes and electricity consumption of detached houses in Japan.

Many studies conducted previously have reported that due to lockdowns or stay-at-home orders associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020 residential power consumption has increased in countries, particularly in cities worldwide. This study compared the power consumption of 1,339 detached houses in Japan over the past three years as well as a year after the pandemic and analyzed living behavioral changes in the 12 months after the pandemic using a questionnaire survey of occupants. As of March 2021, which is after 12 months of the beginning of the pandemic, it was confirmed that the way of life had returned to almost normal, and as a factor in increasing consumption, working from home would remain the only behavioral change that may take root in Japanese society.

The Struggle to Balance Work and Family Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights Based on the Situations of Working Women in Delhi.

The COVID-19 pandemic generated economic contraction across the world. In India, the stringent lockdown led to extreme distress. The unprecedented situation adversely affected the women's efforts to balance professional life with family life because of a disproportionate increase in their domestic work burden and a shift in their workstation to home. Since every job cannot be performed remotely, women employed in healthcare services, banks and media witnessed additional risks of commuting and physical interaction at the workplace. Based on personal interviews of women in the Delhi-NCR region, the study aims to explore the commonalities and variances in the challenges experienced by the women engaged in diverse occupations. Using the qualitative methodology of flexible coding, the study finds that a relatively larger section of women travelling to their office during the pandemic, rather than those working from home, had an effective familial support system that helped them navigate this tough time.

Remote work and the COVID-19 pandemic: An artificial intelligence-based topic modeling and a future agenda.

As remote work has become more common than ever throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it has drawn special attention from scholars. However, the outcome has been significantly sporadic and fragmented. In our systematic review, we use artificial intelligence-based machine learning tools to examine the relevant extant literature in terms of its dominant topics, diversity, and dynamics. Our results identify-eight research themes: (1) Effect on employees at a personal level, (2) Effect on employees' careers, (3) Family life and gender roles, (4) Health, well-being, and safety, (5) Labor market dynamics, (6) Economic implications, (7) Remote work management, (8) Organizational remote work strategies. With further content analysis, we structure the sporadic research into three overarching categories. Finally, for each category, we offer a detailed agenda for further research.

Work-from-home is here to stay: Call for flexibility in post-pandemic work policies.

In early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic forced employees in tech companies worldwide to abruptly transition from working in offices to working from their homes. During two years of predominantly working from home, employees and managers alike formed expectations about what post-pandemic working life should look like. Many companies are experimenting with new work policies that balance employee- and manager expectations regarding where, when and how work should be done in the future. In this article, we gather experiences of the new trend of remote working based on the synthesis of 22 company-internal surveys of employee preferences for WFH, and 26 post-pandemic work policies from 17 companies and their sites, covering 12 countries in total. Our results are threefold. First, through the new work policies, all companies formally give employees more flexibility regarding working time and location. Second, there is a great variation in how much flexibility the companies are willing to yield to the employees. The paper details the different formulations that companies adopted to document the extent of permitted WFH, exceptions, relocation permits and the authorisation procedures. Third, we document a change in the psychological contract between employees and managers, where the option of working from home is converted from an exclusive perk that managers could choose to give to the few, to a core privilege that all employees feel they are entitled to. Finally, there are indications that as the companies learn and solicit feedback regarding the efficiency of the chosen strategies, we will see further developments and changes in the work policies concerning how much flexibility to work whenever and from wherever they grant. Through these findings, the paper contributes to a growing literature about the new trends emerging from the pandemic in tech companies and spells out practical implications onwards.

Should employees be required to return to the office?

Expectations for where and when work should take place changed radically for workers through the COVID-19 global pandemic. Now that COVID-19 no longer poses a significant safety threat for the typical worker, executives at many organizations are now expecting their employees to return to the office. The issues seem to revolve around perceived barriers to culture, collaboration, and innovation when employees are not present together in the office. Yet, many employees strongly resist a return to the office. They have experienced well-being, productivity, and autonomy benefits from a remote and hybrid work arrangement. Rigid return to office rules feel outdated, manipulative, and controlling to many employees. In the current article we explore expert opinion on the issues of culture, collaboration, and innovation. Specifically, we ask whether a return to office will improve these aspects of organizational functioning and we outline evidence that leads us to provide an answer these questions. Executives and managers may find these expert opinions useful in their consideration of workplace policies and guidelines for the use of remote, hybrid, and in office work arrangements in their organizations.

Female entrepreneurs managing from home.

Gender roles demand that women devote more time to non-market labor such as childcare and household responsibilities. Therefore, the labor market hinders women's ability to compete with their male counterparts, whose time is less subject to the demands of non-market work. The result is a performance gap between men and women. To obtain the flexibility to more efficiently perform both their market and non-market work, many women choose to be self-employed and operate their businesses from home. Using a large sample of US firms, we find that women who choose to operate their own businesses from home are able to narrow the performance gap between men and women entrepreneurs. Plain English Summary Women partially overcome societal disadvantages by running businesses from home. Women business owners achieve significant synergies by working from home that enable them to narrow the gap in performance relative to men. An analysis of over 600,000 small businesses reveals that there is a significant gap in performance between businesses run by men versus those run by women. Prior research shows that men enjoy structural advantages over women due to society's demands on women's time to perform household duties or provide childcare. We find that women are able to narrow the resulting performance gap by operating their businesses from home, providing them increased flexibility to manage their time. Our paper indicates that supporting women-owned businesses with policies that grant greater flexibility or more equitably or efficiently distribute household work can improve economic efficiency. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11187-022-00713-7.

Work from home-related musculoskeletal pain during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid review.

Objective: This rapid review explores the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain symptoms associated with work from home conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We conducted a rapid review across three databases (i.e., PubMed, Medline, and CINAHL) for observational studies that report on the musculoskeletal functions among individuals placed in a work from home setup due to the COVID-19 pandemic, published between December 2019-August 2021. Two independent review authors searched, appraised, and extracted data from the articles included in the final review. A descriptive approach was used to synthesize the narrative evidence. Results: Forty-four articles were initially identified. A total of six (n = 6) studies met the full inclusion criteria and were included. Among them, there were five cross-sectional studies and one case-control study. The highest prevalence reported were neck pain (20.3-76.9%), low back pain (19.5-74.1%), and shoulder pain (3.0-72.9%). The most common instrument used was the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. One of the common professions that report musculoskeletal pain symptoms associated with work from home conditions were individuals working in the academic sector. Conclusion: The increased prevalence of musculoskeletal pain symptoms associated with work from home conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic is a concern that should be addressed to prevent negative neuromusculoskeletal outcomes. Systematic review registration: This review is in the Open Science Framework registry (osf.io/vxs4w) and the PROSPERO database (CRD42021266097). Implications for practice: •A system in the workplace should be developed for the early detection of musculoskeletal pain.•Apart from standard occupational safety and proper ergonomic, sustainable policies and programs that address the mental health issues of employees should also be addressed.•Programs addressing musculoskeletal pain should be available online for employees to address accessibility and ubiquity.

Work productivity in the office and at home during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional analysis of office workers in Japan.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has drastically changed work styles and environments. Given the coexistence of work in the office and work from home (WFH) in the future, studies are needed to identify ways to increase productivity when working in both places. We conducted a questionnaire survey and environment measurements of 916 workers in 22 offices across 2 weeks in November-December 2020 in Japan. While average workdays at the offices decreased from 4.9 to 3.9 days/week, those at homes increased from 0.1 to 1.1 days/week due to COVID-19, indicating an increase in the relative importance of WFH. Compared to the office, the satisfaction rate was lower for lighting, spatial, and information technology (IT) environments, but higher for thermal, air, and sound environments at home. Although it was easier to concentrate on work and to refresh at home, workers experienced challenges associated with business communication from home. Meanwhile, in the office, satisfaction with COVID-19 countermeasures was significantly associated with work productivity. Furthermore, lower PM2.5 concentration was associated with greater satisfaction with COVID-19 countermeasures, indicating that reducing PM2.5 may increase satisfaction with COVID-19 countermeasures and work productivity. We expect these findings will help improve work productivity in the New Normal era.

Family resilience during the COVID-19 onset: A daily-diary inquiry into parental employment status, parent-adolescent relationships, and well-being.

COVID-19 changed the landscape of employment and financial security in the USA, contributing to multi-systemic disruptions in family life. Using dyadic, daily-diary parent-adolescent data from a nationwide American sample (18,415 daily assessments; 29 days: 4/8/2020-4/21/2020 and 5/18/2020-6/1/2020; N = 635 parent-adolescent dyads), this intensive longitudinal study investigated how COVID-19-related job loss and working-from-home (WFH) arrangements influenced parents' and children's daily affect indirectly through family functioning (i.e., parent-adolescent conflict, inter-adult conflict, and parental warmth) and whether these links varied by family socioeconomic status (SES). Parental employment status was linked to these family relational dynamics, which were then connected to parents' and adolescents' daily affect. Although SES did not moderate these links, low-income families were more likely to experience job loss, parent-adolescent conflict, and inter-adult conflict and less likely to WFH than higher-income families. As inter-relations within the family are a malleable point for intervention, clinicians working with families recovering from the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic are encouraged to use approaches that strengthen family relationships, especially between adolescents and their parents. Unemployment subsidies are discussed as a means to support families struggling with job loss, and organizations are urged to consider the benefits of WFH on employee health and work-life balance.

Working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic: surveys of the Society for Pediatric Radiology and the Society of Chiefs of Radiology at Children's Hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some pediatric radiologists have shifted to working from home; the long-term ramifications for pediatric radiologists and departments have not yet been defined. OBJECTIVE: To characterize experiences of working from home associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and guide expectations after the pandemic is controlled, via separate surveys of Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR) and Society of Chiefs of Radiology at Children's Hospitals (SCORCH) members. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two separate surveys were conducted. In the first, SPR members were surveyed Jan. 11 through Feb. 8, 2021. The response rate was 17.0% (255 of 1,501). Survey questions included demographics, information on the ability to work from home and subjective experiences ranked on a scale of 0 to 10. The survey enabled segregation and comparison of responses between those with and without home PACS. In the second survey, SCORCH members were surveyed Dec. 8, 2020, through Jan. 8, 2021. The response rate was 51.5% (51/99). Survey questions included the logistics of working from home, technical specifications and the expectations on clinical duties performed from home. The Wilcoxon rank test was used to determine statistical significance of compared variables between respondents with and without home PACS in SPR members, and expectations between SPR and SCORCH members. Descriptive statistics summarized demographic questions and free text responses. RESULTS: The majority of member respondents (81.2%, 207/255) had a home PACS and most departments provided home PACS to faculty (94.1%, 48/51). Overall, radiologists who could work from home were satisfied with their ability to work from home (mean rating: 8.3/10) and were significantly more satisfied than predicted by those without home PACS (5.9/10, P<0.0001). Respondents overwhelmingly indicated they were less able to teach trainees (mean rating: 2.7/10) and had decreased emotional engagement (mean rating: 4.4/10), but had improved research productivity and cognitive ability for research when working from home (mean rating for both: 5.3/10). Regarding the expectations of the ability to work from home after no longer needing to address the pandemic, department chairs generally favored fewer rotations from home, with 97.9% (47/48) indicating working from home should be 60% or fewer assignments, compared with 84.1% (164/195) of individual radiologists (P=0.071). CONCLUSIONS: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a shift to working from home using PACS. Results of these SPR and SCORCH member surveys can help inform future decisions regarding pediatric radiologists working from home once the pandemic has been controlled.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the future of telecommuting in the United States.

This study focuses on an important transport-related long-term effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States: an increase in telecommuting. Analyzing a nationally representative panel survey of adults, we find that 40-50% of workers expect to telecommute at least a few times per month post-pandemic, up from 24% pre-COVID. If given the option, 90-95% of those who first telecommuted during the pandemic plan to continue the practice regularly. We also find that new telecommuters are demographically similar to pre-COVID telecommuters. Both pre- and post-COVID, higher educational attainment and income, together with certain job categories, largely determine whether workers have the option to telecommute. Despite growth in telecommuting, approximately half of workers expect to remain unable to telecommute and between 2/3 and 3/4 of workers expect their post-pandemic telecommuting patterns to be unchanged from their pre-COVID patterns. This limits the contribution telecommuting can make to reducing peak hour transport demand.