How do employees cope with mandatory working from home during COVID-19?

Abstract

How do employees who are coerced to work from home during COVID-19 cope with this unprecedented situation? Drawing upon the job-demands-resources (JD-R) model and upon the literature on coping, we analyse empirical qualitative material which stems from two-stage interviews with and online diaries prepared by 15 white-collar employees in Romania. We identify four initial coping types in relation to mandatory working from home: ‘explorers’, ‘statics’, ‘chaotics’ and ‘irremediables’. In the follow-up stage of the field work, the ‘chaotic’ type of coping disappears. These findings in relation to the unique pandemic situation represent a significant contribution to the literature on working from home as well as on coping with stress.