Study reveals WFH means more work
Employees face trouble with ‘role ambuigity’
The work-from-home mandate for IT employees due to the ongoing Covid19 pandemic has had a massive impact on their psychological well-being, according to a study by city-based academics.
Employees reported several issues with the new working arrangement such as longer working hours and lack of interaction with team members. They also have trouble with “role ambiguity”, trying to balance their roles as employee and as family member at the same time.
The paper, which was published in the International Journal for Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology (IJARET), surveyed IT employees from Hyderabad between March 25 and April 20, a period which immediately followed the imposition of the nationwide lockdown.
The authors, Dr K.D.V. Prasad (Icrisat), Dr Mruthunjaya Rao Mangipudi, Rajesh Vaidya (Sri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management), Budumuru Muralidhar (Icrisat) tried to assess the psychological wellbeing of the respondents by converting their responses to a point scale.
They sent out detailed questionnaires to 400 people between 20 and 60 years of age on factors such as job satisfaction, communication, autonomy and environmental mastery (degree to which you feel competent to meet the demands of your situation).
Elaborating on the findings, Dr Prasad said workplace isolation (lack of access to social networks at workplace) and overworking were the biggest of the employees’ problems.
“At the office, employees can participate in interactions, have fun. The employees miss this. Also, people are working much more than normal hours. This has a huge effect on their psychological well-being,” he said.
Nearly 60 per cent of the respondents, he added, were overworking because of unclear schedules. “Employees are no longer free after a certain point of time. They are supposed to be available for office work always,” he said.
Employees often found themselves torn between their responsibilities at home and at the office because of this unscheduled work.
The authors note that the employees are also subject to the misconception that employees don’t really work to their full potential. There is a misconception that employees will only work on targeted tasks and at other times, they will relax, they note. Although quantification of a service is difficult, they argue, managers should find a way to overcome this misconception.
Other factors which influenced psychological well-being included job satisfaction — employees were better off when they liked the work they were doing.
Dr Prasad admitted that things could look better in the ensuing months once employees start getting used to working from home. “We surveyed employees immediately after the lockdown began. Many hadn’t been used to such forms of work before. With time, they are likely to adapt and their psychological wellbeing will improve,” explained Dr Prasad.