Is working from home changing the meaning of work?
Sebastian Bähr, Bernad Batinic, Matthias Collischon, Katarzyna Piwowar-Sulej, Katarzyna Piwowar-Sulej, Katarzyna Piwowar-Sulej, Katarzyna Piwowar-Sulej
TL;DR
This study examines if working from home affects job quality and social benefits, finding little impact on psychological well-being.
Contribution
The paper provides empirical evidence that working from home does not negatively affect job quality or latent benefits of employment.
Findings
Working from home shows no significant effects on job quality measures.
WFH does not harm the latent benefits of employment like social contacts.
Results contradict anecdotal claims about negative psychological impacts of WFH.
Abstract
Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home (WFH) has become a common practice in the workplace. This raises the question of whether WFH changes the non-monetary benefits of work, such as job quality or social contacts. Thus, in this article, we investigate how working from home affects Jahoda’s latent functions of employment as well as job quality measures. To this end, we use panel data from the German Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security (PASS) and estimate the effects of changing work patterns on the aforementioned outcomes. Our findings reveal basically no effects of WFH on job quality measures and latent benefits. This, in contrast to anecdotal evidence, implies that WFH does not harm psychological well-being.
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Taxonomy
TopicsWork-Family Balance Challenges · Workaholism, burnout, and well-being · Digital Economy and Work Transformation