With the introduction of policies to combat COVID-19, far greater numbers of employees across the globe—including those with limited job autonomy—have moved to undertake their entire job at home. Although challenging in the current climate, embracing these flexible modes of work such as working at home, including relevant investment in technology to enable this, will not only deliver potential organizational benefits but also increase the adaptability of the labor market in the short and longer terms. Although perhaps not the central concern of many in the current climate, “good” home-based work is achievable and perhaps even a solution to the current work-based dilemma created by COVID-19 and should be a common goal for individuals, organizations, and society. Research also has shifted to focus on the routines of workers, organizational performance, and well-being of companies and their employees along with reflections on the ways in which these developments may influence and alter the nature of paid work into the post-COVID-19 era.

The Handbook of Research on Remote Work and Worker Well-Being in the Post-COVID-19 Era focuses on the rapid expansion of remote working in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts it has had on both employees and businesses. The content of the book progresses understanding and raises awareness of the benefits and challenges faced by large-scale movements to remote working, considering the wide array of different ways in which the large-scale movement to remote working is impacting working lives and the economy. This book covers how different fields of work are responding and implementing remote work along with providing a presentation of how work occurs in digital spaces and the impacts on different topics such as gender dynamics and virtual togetherness. It is an ideal reference book for HR professionals, business managers, executives, entrepreneurs, policymakers, researchers, students, practitioners, academicians, and business professionals interested in the latest research on remote working and its impacts.

Coverage:

The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to:

Career Advancements
Gender Dynamics
Mental Health
Physical Remote Work Environments
Remote Team Management
Remote Work
Resilient Operations
Virtual Collaboration and Teams
Work Redesign
Work, Family, and Identity
Worker Well-Being
Work-Life Balance

Reviews & Statements

"This handbook explores the multifaceted realities of remote working in the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic, reflecting on working routines, impacts to worker and organizational performance and well-being, and with a specific focus on the ways in which the developments witnessed since early 2020 will change work in the post-COVID era. We draw together cutting-edge research from contributors across the globe and in multiple disciplines including business, economics, economic geography, education, human resource management, law, philosophy, psychology, and social policy. A particular focus of this edited book is in exploring the practical challenges of maintaining job quality and well-being in the face of the rapid expansion of remote working. In doing so, the book informs the future of work, providing insight into remote and hybrid forms of work and its impacts for employees, organizations and policymakers."

– Prof. Daniel Wheatley, University of Birmingham, UK

"Job and work design are critical factors in the development and maintenance of a committed high-quality workforce. The pandemic was a catalyst for global social experiments for people to work at home, encouraging employers and employees to think about how and why their jobs are being done, to develop new work and job design policies and practices. However, as well as significant benefits, there are potential pitfalls in moving 'on-line' that need to be considered as many see this as a permanent feature of the new workplace post pandemic. Chapter seven explores these issues in the context of job crafting."

– Prof. Chris Brewster, University of Reading, UK

The book draws on research undertaken during the pandemic by researchers from across the world with expertise in remote and hybrid working, job quality and workplace well-being. As such, the book offers a global coverage of these contemporary developments, with an additional contribution to knowledge through offering insights into the practice of social science methods during a pandemic.

– Irene Hardhill

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Editor/Author Biographies

Daniel Wheatley is Reader in Business and Labour Economics at University of Birmingham, UK. His research focuses on work and well-being including job quality, work-life balance and flexible working arrangements, spatial dimensions of work including work-related travel, and other aspects of time-use including leisure time and the household division of labour. Daniel is author of Time Well Spent: Subjective Well-being and the Organization of Time and editor of the Edward Elgar Handbook of Research Methods on the Quality of Working Lives. His work has appeared in a number of edited volumes, and in peer reviewed journals.

Irene Hardill FAcSS is Professor of Public Policy, Northumbria University, UK. Her research explores the changing world of work through the many meanings of work, paid and unpaid in the home and the community. Irene has long held a commitment to feminist methods, especially from a life course perspective. She is leading a UK-wide study of the impact of the COVID-19 on the role of voluntary action in the pandemic which is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) rapid response call for projects which contribute to understanding of, and response to, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts.

Sarah Buglass is a Principal Lecturer in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, where she leads on departmental initiatives related to digital skills development and curriculum enhancement. Her main research interests span the domains of social and cyber psychology, where her work explores the psycho-social motivations and outcomes of engaging with contextually collapsed online social networking applications.

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