Social sciences

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic dramatically changed how organizations worked. Microsoft was one of the first to ask employees to work from home (WFH). We developed an anonymous nightly diary study with 435 participants, and we learned about their experiences over the first 10 weeks of the WFH directive. We found the largest challenges were having too many meetings, feeling overworked, and physical and mental health. However, there were things to be grateful for, and many…

ABSTRACT Due to the increasing nature of flexible work and the recent requirements from COVID-19 restrictions, workplaces are becoming more hybrid (i.e. allowing workers to work between traditional office spaces and elsewhere including from home). Since workplaces are different in design, layout and available facilities, many workers find it difficult to adjust accordingly. Eventually, this impacts negatively towards work productivity and other related parameters including concentration, stress, and mood while at work. One of the…

ABSTRACT “Flow” states- which people experience when fully focusing on an activity- are believed to be the key to peak performance and enjoyment at work. However, the positives of flow may have a potential downside- it could facilitate one activity at the cost of others by diverting people’s time and mental resources away from these tasks. The shift to remote work due to Covid-19 has given people more responsibility in terms of holding themselves accountable…

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 outbreak has raised concerns about its impact on gig workers, who perform on-demand flexible work that is mediated by digital work platforms (e.g., Uber and DoorDash), in terms of their safety, health, and well-being. The situation facing gig workers is also closely related to the public as the demand for the services provided by them has increased dramatically. However, the need for better supporting gig workers’ well-being and work-life balance is not…

ABSTRACT In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, remote work styles have become the norm. However, these work settings introduce new intricacies in worker behaviors. The overlap between work and home can disrupt performance. The lack of social interaction can affect motivation. This elicits a need to implement novel methods to evaluate and enhance remote worker functioning. The potential to unobtrusively and automatically assess such workers can be fulfilled by social and ubiquitous technologies. This…

ABSTRACT An emerging form of remote work allows employees to work-from-anywhere, so that the worker can choose to live in a preferred geographic location. While traditional work-from-home (WFH) programs offer the worker temporal flexibility, work-from-anywhere (WFA) programs offer both temporal and geographic flexibility. WFA should be viewed as a nonpecuniary benefit likely to be preferred by workers who would derive greater utility by moving from their current geographic location to their preferred location. We study…

ABSTRACT The coronavirus pandemic has caused a dramatic shift for knowledge workers around the world. People are working remotely from their homes for an extended period of time, causing several significant issues for well-being and productivity. In this position paper, we address the issues of reduced physical activity, spontaneous synchronous interactions, and feedback on work. For many workers, being confined to their home has eliminated much of the physical activity that was previously built into…

ABSTRACT Much is being made of the need for organisations to prepare for a ‘new normal’ in the wake of the Covid19 pandemic. This presumes that the ‘normal’ is well understood and that the ‘new normal’ will be a stable position. In reality it may take several years to achieve the ‘new normal’. In the near term organisations will need to support a complex and constantly changing mix of office and remote working. Because there has…

ABSTRACT This paper presents challenges public health officials (PHOs) experience in decision making around the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The paper presents two challenges, political polarization and power in workplaces, that have direct and substantial outcomes for organizations and employees. We argue that organizations are making decisions about the safety of employees and the future of work based on recommendations from PHOs, and these recommendations are warped by political polarization and power processes. Developing a nuanced and…