Telework in academia: associations with health and well-being among staff

Abstract

As the development of technical aids for telework has progressed, work has become more flexible in time and space. Among academics, the opportunity to telework has been embraced by most, but it is unclear how it relates to their health and well-being. The aim of this study was to determine how frequency and amount of telework is associated with perceived health, stress, recuperation, work-life balance, and intrinsic work motivation among teaching and research academics. An electronic questionnaire was sent to junior lecturers, senior lecturers, and professors at Swedish public universities. It included the General Health Questionnaire, Work Stress Questionnaire, items for assessing recuperation, the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction at Work scale, and parts of Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, as well as questions about the frequency and amount of telework performed. In total, 392 academics responded to the survey. Multivariate analysis of variance showed significant differences between groups of academics with different telework frequency (p < 0.05). Univariate analyses of variance showed that ratings of stress related to indistinct organization and conflicts were higher among academics that telework several times per week or more than among academics that telework less than once per month. In regression analyses of associations between amount of telework (in hours per week) and the dependent variables, no significant effects were found. Although it cannot be concluded whether stress is a cause or an effect of frequent telework, the findings warrant further attention to academics who telework frequently.

Psychophysiological Reactivity, Postures and Movements among Academic Staff: A Comparison between Teleworking Days and Office Days

“…In a previous questionnaire study [15], respondents were asked about interest in participating in the present study. In total, 111 employees from six universities in different parts of Sweden reported their interest, and were contacted via e-mail.…”

“…On the one hand, telework is found to increase individual autonomy, work/life balance, work control and productivity and reduce work related stress [1,2,5,[7][8][9]. On the other hand, telework is associated with increased stress, low boundary control (i.e., difficulty separating work and life domains), overtime work, lack of work motivation, and insufficient time for recovery [5,8,[10][11][12][13][14][15]. Thus, research shows disparate results with respect to the effect of telework on staff health and well-being.…”

“…Regarding telework, Currie and Eveline [11] found that academics experienced difficulties separating work and private life and reported longer working hours and stress-related disorders. Moreover, a study on Swedish academics showed that staff who teleworked frequently (>3 days per week) perceived high stress related to indistinct organization and conflicts [15]. In contrast, Tustin [23] found that home-based academic teleworkers perceived lower levels of fatigue, more satisfaction with their work and experienced higher productivity than non-teleworkers.…”

Sickness Presenteeism in the Aftermath of COVID-19: Is Presenteeism Remote-Work Behavior the New (Ab)normal?

“…Other studies have reinforced how these detrimental changes could have an impact on non-workday sedentary behavior, poorer sleep quality, an increase in negative mood disorder, reduced perceptions of quality of life, and a considerable decrease in work-related health (Barone Gibbs et al, 2021). Another recent study conducted with higher education scholars revealed that the levels of stress were higher among those who worked remotely several times per week than those working remotely once per month (Heiden et al, 2021). In fact, other empirical studies have suggested that when people combine both daily job demands and daily home demands during remote work, they may experience increased emotional exhaustion (Abdel Hadi et al, 2021).…”

Socio-psychological problems of the transition of university teachers to distance employment during the Covid19 pandemic

“…In general, despite the advantages of telecommuting, a number of its disadvantages can be noted as social, for example, such as the absence of the usual offline communication, lack of feedback from colleagues; not being involved in the corporate culture of the company [16]; and organizational, for example, difficulties in self-organization during the working day [17,18]; and health problems [19,20].…”