07.08.2020Results of study about employee well-being in home office

Lauren C. Howe and Prof. Jochen Menges from the University of Zurich conducted the following study: «Mindsets about remote work predict employee well-being in home office: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic». During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of employees worldwide transitioned to remote work. As remote work continues to characterize the post-crisis world of work, it is imperative to understand predictors of employee adjustment to remote work. The study explored the extent to which individuals hold a fixed mindset about remote work (e.g., that a person either is or is not suited to remote work and this cannot be changed) and tested how this mindset shaped remote worker well-being during the coronavirus lockdown.

In a longitudinal five-week study of 113 employees working remotely in Switzerland, the authors found that employees who endorsed a more fixed mindset about remote work experienced more negative emotion and reduced positive emotion during remote work. Further, the increased negative emotion prompted by fixed mindsets was associated with lesser perceived productivity among these employees. They conclude that encouraging employees to view remote work as a skill that can be learned and developed could help employees thrive in the new world of work.

The whole study can be found here.