Escaping the Cubicle

Abstract

A rise in contingent work, the increasing real estate costs for organizations, technological advances, and more recently, restrictions on movement emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a sharp increase in the number of employees working from home. These have significant implications for individuals, organizations, and society. Yet the physical work environment within the home has received little attention from scholars. Research on traditional office settings indicates that the physical environment influences a range of well-being and performance outcomes, indicating a critical need for researchers to consider the impact of the physical work environment at home. To address this issue, the authors briefly summarize the effects of the physical work environment and review existing research on working from home. They then propose directions for future research and emerging methodologies to undertake this research. Finally, they detail the practical implications that these changes bring for individuals, organizations, and society.

The Physical Environment in Remote Working: Development and Validation of Perceived Remote Workplace Environment Quality Indicators (PRWEQIs)

“…In that case, it is customary to consider how these environments might not meet the minimum criteria for creating a human-scale work environment. Moreover, due to the overlap between the work environment and the home environment, encroachment of the latter is inevitable, with no possibility of clearly defining the boundaries between the two domains [67]. Workers have been pushed to adjust quickly to new home office forms due to this circumstance, which could be detrimental to their well-being [15].…”

“…Workers have been pushed to adjust quickly to new home office forms due to this circumstance, which could be detrimental to their well-being [15]. One of the primary issues in this field is the decreased availability of workspace [68], as well as a potential lack of privacy [67]. However, there is still uncertainty regarding the connections between the residential setting and at-home job productivity, and between IEQ and these outcomes.…”

Satisfaction with activity-support and physical home-workspace characteristics in relation to mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The physical work environment can be explained as the space where people perform their work activities ( Armitage et al, 2021 ). Before the pandemic, several physical home-workspace characteristics affected people's decision to WFH, such as the availability of space ( Moos & Skaburskis, 2008 ) and the experience of visual and auditory privacy ( Sander et al, 2021 ). Due to obligatory, fulltime WFH, home-workspace characteristics (e.g., window views, room size, (day)light, temperature, noise insulation, and furniture) have become even more important ( Awada et al, 2021 ).…”