A Phenomenological Study on How University Employees Experienced Working From Home During a Pandemic

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how employees at a midsized public university in the U.S. South experienced working from home during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020–2021. Most employees in higher education settings were affected by the pandemic. Administrative and clerical and support staff had to determine how to provide the university with services while working from home. Now that we have experienced working from home, will that experience change the future of how staff work in higher education? For many, this was a first-time experience working from home, and it created a new set of challenges to completing everyday work tasks. Most participants found that working from home did not increase their overall productivity or job satisfaction, and few participants felt lonely or isolated when working from home. Overall, the negative aspects and benefits seemed to balance out in a series of trade-offs. The majority of participants would want to work from home again or at least be given the option to work from home part-time or on a hybrid schedule. Recommendations for further research include (a) developing scales of productivity and employee satisfaction among at-home employees, (2) interviewing the same participants from this study who were still working from home in the future to determine if their feelings about the experience changed, (c) asking more in-depth questions on the supervisors’ style during the work-from-home experience, (d) pursuing questions on worker engagement.