Pandemic-Induced Telework Challenges and Strategies

Abstract

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, telework was an established discretionary practice with a considerable amount of research. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced people who had never worked from home before to do so. Our two-wave descriptive investigation provides a historical snapshot of what approximately 400 teleworkers experienced in the first two to three months of the pandemic. We explored how this experience differed for those who had previously teleworked, those who had children in their home, and those who had supervisory responsibilities. The data exposed telework challenges and pandemic-specific challenges. The results support job crafting theories that teleworkers proactively implement strategies to adjust their boundaries and relationships to meet their need (Biron et al., Personnel Review , 2022 ). The data also revealed that employees were still struggling two months later, despite implementing strategies like self-care, taking breaks, and psychological reframing. This research provides detailed evidence of how pandemic-induced telework is not the same as traditional telework and some initial evidence of the pandemic-induced telework adjustment time period. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41542-023-00151-1.

Biophilia in the home–workplace: Integrating dog caregiving and outdoor access to explain teleworkers’ daily physical activity, loneliness, and job performance.

“…In addition, diminished job performance as a result of telework has also been documented (Blahopoulou et al, 2022; for a review, see Beauregard & Henry, 2009). For example, not all employees maintain effective self-management strategies (Abdel Hadi et al, 2021; Blahopoulou et al, 2022), which are necessary to preserve job performance while teleworking (Troll et al, 2022), and teleworkers are at risk for insufficient detachment or lack of perceived social support throughout the workday (Bentley et al, 2016; Greer et al, 2023). Since the way telework is implemented will determine whether it will improve or harm employee performance (Athanasiadou & Theriou, 2021), during intensified teleworking, performance impacts may be harmful.…”

The Coping Stress Differences among Work from Home and Work from Office Individuals

“…One of the popular policies of the government is the work-fromhome policy (Holgersen et al, 2021), which applies technologies (Jaiswal & Arun, 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic made many individuals work from home (Greer et al, 2023).…”