Implications of the massive shift towards telework during the COVID-19 pandemic for work-life balance, job quality and health

In 2020, everyday life changed dramatically for many Swedish workers as a result of the Public Health Agency’s recommendations on telework (work from home using ICT) to reduce the spread of COVID-19; telework increased by 400%. Many of those who began teleworking did so without or with only limited experience.

Earlier research associated voluntary teleworking with improved work-life balance, but also longer work hours, blurring of work- and personal life, increased stress and sleeping problems.

It remains unknown, especially in the Swedish context, if these findings apply to the current exceptional conditions of mandatory and full-time teleworking.

This project aims to investigate who does/does not benefit from mandatory teleworking in terms of work-life balance, job quality and health from quantitative and qualitative perspectives; factors that exacerbate or mitigate the effects of teleworking and underlying causal mechanisms.Using longitudinal data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health and the new SLOSH corona survey (two follow ups in spring and autumn 2021) we will examine if mandatory teleworking affects work-family conflict and enrichment, working time and job quality (e.g. job satisfaction, justice perceptions, turnover) as well as aspects of health (e.g. stress, burnout, back/neck pains, sleeping problems).

Qualitative in-depth interviews will be carried out with around 30 SLOSH participants who teleworked during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to get insight into employees’ subjective experiences of the transition to teleworking and its impact on work-life balance, job quality and health.Six scientific publications will be prepared and the results will be transferred beyond the research community by seminars to the public and policy-makers.

This project will inform employers, employees and policy-makers about practices and mechanisms in telework that facilitate well-functioning work-life balance, job quality and health.