December 4th, 2020 Home office und Corona

Home office, telework or work from home - these terms have become an integral part of everyday work. Especially in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, these forms of work play an important role in minimizing the risk of infection and still maintaining work. However, home office does not only have positive consequences, many employees also perceive disadvantages, such as reduced (personal) contact.

To find out how the assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of telework changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, 331 employees (average age 35 years, 27% male) in Germany were interviewed. Some of the participants completed the survey before the restrictions in March 2020 and some after extensive restrictions (such as wearing mouth and nose covering, curfews) were introduced.

A summary of the results can be found here.

Conclusion: The identification with the work team, i.e., the psychological attachment to other colleagues, is important - especially for colleagues in the home office and especially when this form of work cannot necessarily be chosen voluntarily (as is partly the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example).

The results show that in the current situation, especially those reporting a low level of identification with their work team perceive more disadvantages of working from home the more they work from home compared to those who feel closely connected to their colleagues, i.e., report a high level of team identification.

Interested in supporting our research? We are conducting another survey - anyone can participate, whether they work at home or not.

Here is the link to the English survey.

Here is the link to the German survey.