Transition from Office to Home Office: Lessons from Romania during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The paper investigates experiences of employees and middle managers in relation to the transition from working from office to working from home in the context of COVID-19 pandemic in Romania. Three online focus groups were conducted to explore working experience in the new mode of work. The conclusions are multifaceted, covering four dimensions: time, spatial, social and technical, and point out how employees and middle managers understand the transition and what impact telework had on their job satisfaction and work productivity.

Work from Home during the COVID-19 Pandemic—The Impact on Employees’ Self-Assessed Job Performance

“…WFH (also known as teleworking, remote working) has been defined as a system of work organization through which employees regularly fulfill their professional duties in another place than the workplace, organized by the employer, by means of information and communication technology [ 12 ].…”

“…Based on literature, and also on the findings from the previous qualitative study, the following explanatory variables were selected [ 12 ]: Employee’s profile variables: Socio-demographic characteristics: gender, age, education level, relationship status, household size, number of children in household regardless of age; Job characteristics: professional domain, experience in WFH before the pandemic, time worked from home in a regular week (share from 40 h), time worked for current employer, work experience in the current role regardless of employer. Organizational environment variables: WFH engagement was measured based on a battery developed by Schaufeli, W. B., Shimazu, A., Hakanen, J., Salanova, M., De Witte, H. [ 72 ] and refers to how enthusiastic and energetic the employees feel about their job; Occupational self-efficacy ( effectiveness ), evaluated, based on the Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Rigotti, T., Schyns, B., Mohr, G. [ 27 ], how confident the employees are in their ability to cope with difficult tasks or problems or in their ability to successfully fulfil a task; Computer-mediated (C-M) communication skills evaluated, based on the C-M communication competency scale created by Spitzberg [ 25 ], how people use various online communication technologies (for example, instant messaging, email, video conferencing, chat apps, etc.)…”

“…influence activity and job performance. This variable was suggested by the previous qualitative study [ 12 ]; Organizational commitment evaluated, based on a battery developed by Allen, N. J., Meyer, J. P. [ 35 ] how loyal the employees are to the company; Interpersonal trust (trust in management and trust in co-workers) meant in our study employees’ trust in supervisors, enforcing the importance of building work-environments, where employees are taught to rely on each other and are praised for their achievements as a team. These characteristics were separately measured, based on a battery developed by Cook, J. D. and Wall, T. D. [ 45 ]; Performance reviews identified if the employees participated in the performance reviews, and how these were organized: formally—following a clear set of criteria and pre-set objectives; semi-formally—some indicators are discussed, but the emphasis falls on what the employee does well; or informally—when ideas, opinions, subjective work perceptions, strong and weak points are discussed.…”

“…influence activity and job performance. This variable was suggested by the previous qualitative study [ 12 ];…”

“…On the opposite side, more recent studies showed that working from home brings more productivity among employees who practice it. Among the positive aspects, “the possibility to work from the comfort of one’s own home” and “time and money saved on commuting” are indicated [ 10 , 11 , 12 ] (pp. 6–7).…”