The Quality of Work, Family and Personal Life During Remote Work: Opinions of Russian Women

Abstract

The object of the study, the results of which are presented in this article, is the quality of working, family and personal life. The subject of the study is the features of the quality of work, family and personal life of remote female workers who started working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. For women, most of whom have “dual employment” at work and at home, the relevance of assessing the quality of their work, family and personal life while working remotely is growing. The article analyzes the results of the author's survey of women who received their first experience of remote work during the pandemic. The authors come to the conclusion that the transition to a remote format basically did not affect the labor productivity and the level of remuneration of the women surveyed. Significant positive factors include: saving time for transport; the ability to combine work and household chores; the ability to independently plan work time, free schedule; the ability not to adapt to the dress code and corporate rules. Significant negative changes include changes that reduce the quality of working life: the boundaries between work and home are violated, overtime, there is no full disconnection and rest from work; lack of communication with colleagues; interfere, distract children, husband, other relatives; it is difficult to organize a workplace at home and it is difficult to motivate yourself to start working, it is difficult to concentrate. The highest differentiation in the frequency of choosing one answer or another is observed among respondents on the basis of “having children”. In general, such women find significantly fewer disadvantages than women who do not have children, or women whose age of all children is over 14 years old. The remote employment format for women raising young children is more likely to improve the quality of their work, personal and family life than vice versa. The hypothesis that dissatisfaction with remote work would be more common in the older age group was not confirmed.