Topic Name:
The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Working Conditions: Work from Home
Submitted by:
Namira R. Vasta
(MBA) First Year
Jankidevi Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Santacruz , Mumbai.
Introduction:
In the first months of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic resulted in an unforeseen disruption of many people’s daily life. In order to contain the pandemic, public life came to a halt in many countries around the globe. People were asked to stay at home, schools were closed, public events were banned, ‘non-essential’ production stopped, social distancing was strongly encouraged, and even lockdowns were imposed. Many employees were ordered short-time work or to work from home. Thus, the coronavirus pandemic thus resulted in an abrupt change in daily routines and working conditions for many employees. adaptation to this novel situation may partially depend on the degree to which work from home allows satisfaction of the basic needs, i.e., the need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness [3,4], which humans need in order to thrive and be motivated according to Self-Determination Theory [3]. That is, people need to experience themselves as self-determined active agents (autonomy) that are able to produce desired outcomes (competence) and connect meaningfully with others (relatedness). These needs are described as ‘basic’ in the sense of applying to any person or context [3]. In a context that fulfills these needs, humans develop intrinsic motivation, they feel good and work well. Thus, it makes sense that the concept of basic need satisfaction has also been applied to the work sphere [4]. Specifically, in order to feel motivated at work, employees need to experience the ability to (a) choose and decide in which way to tackle work tasks (autonomy), (b) master work tasks well (competence), and (c) have meaningful interactions with colleagues (relatedness). It deemed us worthwhile to ask employees in what way work -related need satisfaction may have changed by working from from home and how work – from – home autonomy, competence, and relatedness experience may have affected everyday motivation and well-being.
Having to workwork from home: basic needs, well-being, and motivation
All in all, our study contributes to our understanding of home and paints a reasonably positive picture for work – from- home well-being and motivation—workers seem well able to adapt to the changed work environment, be productive and thrive in general, and even to detach healthily. Making sure employees can feel competent even when working from home, e.g., by granting them more control over how and when to complete their to tasks, may further boost their motivation and well-being. Only relatedness to co-workers is considerably affected by not going to the office, which need not be a problem—what matters more than regular friendly interactions with colleagues seems to be knowing they can be relied upon in times of need. Thus, creating an atmosphere in which support provision between colleagues is endorsed seems warranted, particularly when considering long-term work from home arrangements. Employers need not fear the lack of control over their employees when these work from home, as long as they instill intrinsic motivation by enabling employees to feel autonomous, competent, and connected while working, wherever the workplace.
Factors associated with work engagement of employees
This study aimed to identify the factors that influence the work engagement of employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. They found that close communication with superiors, refraining from working long hours, and obtaining adequate sleep are associated with high work engagement in Japanese workers working from home. This suggests that interventions aimed at addressing these factors may help workers achieve higher levels of work engagement.
Working Conditions, Employment, Career Development and Well-Being
With the sudden onset of the pandemic and the strict protection measures, the RRs have faced multiple changes that the crisis has brought about in all areas of life. Almost 15.6% of the RRs feel the impact of the pandemic on their health and 45% on their income, whereas 46.9% find it difficult to live comfortably with their current income and worry about the current health crisis. RRs working in the non-academic sector have had great difficulties in coping with issues, such as unemployment, during the pandemic. It has been found that unemployed refugees and student refugees have experienced economic issues coping with present income, and are extremely anxious that COVID-19 will significantly affect their income and employment. The socioeconomic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have increased RRs’ vulnerability, especially those found in asylum procedures. It was observed that RRs were greatly worried about the current health crisis, insecure about health protection and lacked resources to effectively WFH, in particular, through lack of working space and access to IT hardware and software. The decrease of income, the loss of employment and the difficulty with staying productive in working from home are important concerns. Recommendations are provided to extend temporary contracts and to prioritize the administration of asylum procedures, as well as various measures to improve RRs’ integration such as online advanced language courses and provision of technological hardware and software licenses.
CHANGES IN THE ORGANIZATION OF WORK UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit hard all the processes and activities worldwide. The processes and activities must be modified so that societies remain functional. In this relation, the labour market is also a dynamic entity featuring an array of complex and simultaneous processes and relations among all its players. Therefore, it is necessary to perceive the current crisis as one of the key factors determining the multilateral nature of the labour market. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of our lives. While discussing the negative effects of the pandemic, some positive aspects should not go unnoticed. The research findings show that the pandemic has triggered and accelerated the implementation of the Industry 4.0 in Slovak businesses. The use of ICT has become more frequent and powerful, thus giving opportunities for structural changes in economy, labour market and future economic growth.
Working from home a new workplace panacea
In this research study, working from home proved to be an effective alternative work arrangement. However, notwithstanding idealistic expectations and excitement about it, exclusive working from home could hamper employee engagement and employee experience to the point of burnout. The findings confirmed that remote working was more than just a change in physical location; it also altered the surrounding environment, resources required, organisational expectations and interactions with other employees. A multitude of factors contribute to or detract from the work – from – home experience. When job resources and organisational support exceeded job demands, this resulted in higher levels of employee engagement and positive experiences. Conversely, where job demands, such as increased workload and family commitments, exceeded resources, this resulted in adverse experiences and decreased engagement. Organisational support, a conducive organisational culture and trust were seen as key requirements of working from home, whereas a lack of face-to-face interaction was found to be a key obstacle. Remote working trends accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic are unlikely to disappear as employees found working from home to be both productive and attractive. Indeed, many employees may favour organisations that provide remote working opportunities. Almost all work can now effectively be carried out remotely, and employees expect work from home to continue at least partly. Organisations that want to benefit from improved employee engagement and experience should afford employees remote work opportunities, even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the paradoxical findings of this study demonstrate that working from home represents neither a panacea nor a proverbial headache. Rather the answer to future work arrangements lies in developing a healthy balance between the physical office presence and working from home, with an appropriate organisational and managerial support.
The impact of CoVID‐19 pandemic on gender‐related work from home
While several articles have been published on various aspects of working from home during the pandemic, they did not address the gender differences in regard to time spent on childrearing and household duties, or even access to home office. This is the gap that has been addressed by our working-from-home survey. The response to the survey reflects not only globally representative data but also captures the challenges relevant to the working biomedical engineers, medical physicists, and other STEM related fields. It is interesting to note that men participate in child care and household duties in a relatively high percentage; although this is fewer hours daily than for women, it is definitely far more than can be found two and three decades ago. Future analysis will look at this last aspect for various regions in the world. It is evident that the burden of child care and household duties will have a negative impact on the careers of women if the burden is not similar for both sexes, unless policies of organizations that hire them can provide accommodation and compensation to minimize the negative impact on the professional status and career of men and women who work in STEM field.
The psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis
The present study aimed to investigate whether the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis varied with regards to young Swiss men’s pre-crisis level of education and socioeconomic status and to changes in their work situation due to it. The COVID-19 crisis had a high impact on the work situation and the psychological well-being of the young Swiss men in our sample. Those who lost their job or had to work mostly from home reported higher psychological impact due to the COVID-19 crisis, and such changes in work situation should be accompanied by supportive measures to reduce their psychological impact. Moreover, subgroups with a lower pre-crisis SES reported a higher psychological impact due to the COVID-19 crisis, thus, the crisis revealed and amplified pre-existing psychological frailties. Policy makers should ensure that measures taken to contain pandemics do not disproportionally affect already vulnerable groups, for example by offering the possibility of partial unemployment to sectors most affected by the crisis, which are often also the sectors with lower salaries. Where disproportional burdens on vulnerable groups cannot be avoided, accompanying measures should be taken to lessen the impact of the crisis on these subgroups. For example, providing easily accessible psychological and emergency financial support for those at a greater risk of experiencing psychological distress due to crisis may be an important element of crisis management. Such measures could also help to prevent crises from further augmenting disparities in mental health
The impact of virtual office platform on the work-life balances
The study also revealed that there is a significant positive impact of the virtual office platform on work-life balance. When working with virtual platforms, both the employee and the employer need to consider these variables carefully. In the context of efforts to reduce impacts linked to virtual platforms, some lessons can be learned from this Sri Lankan case study. Findings demonstrate that non-working environment factors which include gender and the number of children in a family have a major effect, particularly in developing countries like Sri Lanka. Furthermore, findings show that these effects were particularly strong in 26–30 and 31–40 age groups. As discussed previously, the gig economy growing at a remarkable rate and their income levels are generally high. In addition, the virtual platform has created opportunities for more female workers to rejoin the workforce by teleworking and also for those who have temporarily stayed away from work (due to being married, with kids, etc.) to return. In Sri Lanka, virtual platforms and teleworking need to be perceived beyond a mere quick fix to sustain the economy. These teleworking policies can be incorporated into organizational practices and processes. In this approach, much attention is to be paid for women with kids aged 0–5 years, skilled employees and degree holders (based on this study), and especially those who have the potential to adapt to working via online platforms. Overall, flexibility and more opportunities for workers, a proactive approach to address the role conflict which strongly impacts well-being in virtual platforms (where employees handle both work and personal roles, allow quality time with family) can help achieve positive organizational outcomes in the long run.
Conclusion:
Researches has make it evident that the once desired, highly favorable, WFH has not proved to be one of the best options for majority of workforce. Interest in WFH remains, but not in its current form. Better guidelines and policies from the government should be in place to properly regulate and make WFH feasible. One area of policy where planning and implementation is an absolute necessity is guidance into adapting to remote online work. The decision to suspend in-person meetings and working was implemented swiftly, but without any guidance, of how to do so. Workers are unaware about what WFH entails and lack resources required for this change, like software, access to official documents and proper working space. Proper training is required if this practice is to be a feasible option or the new normal. Possibly the working balance will be visible post-pandemic when WFH is not a forced mandate, rather a flexible option.
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