The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about several changes in how work is arranged and conducted. Upon the spread of the virus, a massive number of workers worldwide had to work from home with little preparation and for an unknown length of time.
At this current moment, while some individuals have returned to work physically at the workplace, many workers are still working from home, and some have opted for a hybrid work mode (i.e., where employees work partly in the physical workplace and partly remotely). This suggests that working from home is and will remain a common practice in the future.
Dr Wee Chan Au from the School of Business, Monash University Malaysia, has collaborated with Dr Melika Shirmohammadi at the University of Houston and Associate Professor Mina Beigi at the University of Southampton to gather the existing research evidence about work from home during the pandemic. Dr Au and her team analysed 42 studies that were conducted in several countries across the world, including developed countries (e.g., USA, UK, Germany, and Singapore) and less developed countries (e.g., India, Romania, China, and Turkey).
What did the researchers find?
The research team found that working from home has increasingly become a possible and feasible work arrangement upon the pandemic. This flexible work option allowed many employees to continue their work while staying at home. However, many hidden costs for those who worked from home negatively influenced their work-life balance.
Employees working from home tended to lose the boundaries between work and family or personal spheres.
The expectation of being constantly connected through email and mobile phones brought about additional stress.
Family members’ competing demands (e.g., quiet space, access to a stable internet, access to equipment, etc.) led to family tension for those working from home.
Expectations to carry out housework and childcare while working from home, especially among women, led to work-family conflict.
Employees with little social interactions with colleagues felt isolated while working from home.
Employees lost access to work-related developmental opportunities and informal learning while working from home.
What should the employers and organisations do?
The research team suggested the following strategies that employers and managers could use to safeguard remote workers’ work-life balance.
Help employees gain a realistic understanding of workload and the possibility of work interfering with family and personal life before signing up for the remote work option.
Consider introducing a ‘right to disconnect’ workplace policy to mitigate the risk of overwork.
Provide adequate tools and resources to support working from home while reducing the possibility of competing with family members for resources.
Develop a portfolio of remote work options to explore the arrangement that offers a win-win situation for the employer and the employee.
The number of days or hours that employees work remotely could be negotiated to accommodate both work expectations and family needs.
(Re)train managers and supervisors to be equipped with the required skills to manage and support remote workers and support employees’ work-life balance.
Encourage managers and supervisors to offer remote workers ongoing task- and social- support and avoid excessive monitoring and micro-managing.
Ensure fair and equal access to training opportunities and professional development activities for remote workers.
Pay attention to the needs of vulnerable groups of workers (e.g., single parents and employees with disabilities) while making decisions about remote work arrangements.
