Abstract
BackgroundThe COVID-19 crisis has radically changed the way people live and work. While most studies have focused on prevailing negative consequences, potential positive shifts in everyday life have received less attention. Thus, we examined the actual and perceived overall impact of the COVID-19 crisis on work and private life, and the consequences for mental well-being (MWB), and self-rated health (SRH) in German and Swiss employees.MethodsCross-sectional data were collected via an online questionnaire from 2118 German and Swiss employees recruited through an online panel service (18–65 years, working at least 20 h/week, various occupations). The sample provides a good representation of the working population in both countries. Using logistic regression, we analyzed how sociodemographic factors and self-reported changes in work and private life routines were associated with participants’ perceived overall impact of the COVID-19 crisis on work and private life. Moreover, we explored how the perceived impact and self-reported changes were associated with MWB and SRH.ResultsAbout 30% of employees reported that their work and private life had worsened, whereas about 10% reported improvements in work and 13% in private life. Mandatory short-time work was strongly associated with perceived negative impact on work life, while work from home, particularly if experienced for the first time, was strongly associated with a perceived positive impact on work life. Concerning private life, younger age, living alone, reduction in leisure time, and changes in quantity of caring duties were strongly associated with perceived negative impact. In contrast, living with a partner or family, short-time work, and increases in leisure time and caring duties were associated with perceived positive impact on private life. Perceived negative impact of the crisis on work and private life and mandatory short-time work were associated with lower MWB and SRH. Moreover, perceived positive impact on private life and an increase in leisure time were associated with higher MWB.ConclusionThe results of this study show the differential impact of the COVID-19 crisis on people’s work and private life as well as the consequences for MWB and SRH. This may inform target groups and situation-specific interventions to ameliorate the crisis.
Highlights
The COVID-19 crisis has radically changed the way people live and work
Education was not included in the regression models as the imputed data could potentially threaten the validity of our conclusions. 2Short-time work is defined as “public programs that allow firms experiencing economic difficulties to temporarily reduce the hours worked while providing their employees with income support from the State for the hours not worked” (European Commission, 2020, Retrieved from: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid= 1587138033761&uri=CELEX%3A52020PC0139). 3None = 0% work from home (WFH) before COVID-19, 0% after; Experienced = at least 10% WFH before and at least 10% after COVID-19; New = 0% WFH before and at least 10% after COVID-19
Two additional ordinal logistic regression models were fitted to investigate the association between the perceived overall impact of COVID-19 on work and Results Figure 2 displays the correlations between the analyzed variables
Summary
The COVID-19 crisis has radically changed the way people live and work. While most studies have focused on prevailing negative consequences, potential positive shifts in everyday life have received less attention. Switzerland entered full lockdown on March 16th, Germany followed 6 days later on March 22nd Restrictive measures in both countries were comparable and included border controls, closing of schools, markets, restaurants, nonessential shops, bars, entertainment and leisure facilities, as well as ban on all public and private events and gatherings [2, 3]. Such strict measures were in place until the end of April when both governments started to gradually ease the measures [4, 5]. People who commuted to work and had rich social lives outside their homes found themselves in a mandatory work from home (WFH) situation, many employees were furloughed or laid off as various businesses and industries had to shut down, and health workers in emergency rooms as well as supermarket staff and other essential employees were faced with a dramatic increase in workload and job strain [6, 7]
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