Understanding home readiness for remote work: housing features shaping health and productivity pathways to satisfaction

Social distancing policies ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic have altered working conditions and created new job demands. This study adopted the Job Demands−Resources (JD−R) model to investigate the relationship between demands and strains (i.e. social isolation, remote work stress, and fear of COVID-19) and remote work satisfaction and remote work performance. Additionally, the study sought to identify the moderating roles of employees’ digital literacy and cyberslacking in the relationship between remote work satisfaction and remote work performance. After analysing data collected from a sample of 340 Iranian remote workers, results showed social isolation, remote work stress, and fear of COVID-19 related to remote work satisfaction negatively and decrease remote work performance through the mediation of remote work satisfaction. Moreover, digital literacy and cyberslacking moderated the relationship between remote work satisfaction and remote work performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. By linking job demands and strains, psychological states, and employee output, this research notably contributes to the literature on remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction WFH (Working From Home) is increasingly common, necessitating a careful evaluation of WFH workers’ health. Recent studies have explored various aspects, including its impact on workers’ psychological and physical well-being, highlighting positive and negative aspects of this “new” working mode. This study aims to evaluate one of these aspects: worker exposure to atmospheric pollutants. Methods Two monitoring surveys were performed: a long-term and a short-term campaign, both focused on the measurement of personal exposure to size-fractionated PM (Particulate Matter) in WFH and WFO (Working From Office) conditions, through a paired-sample study design. Results Results of the long-term campaign show how WFH subject is exposed to higher (up to 4 times) PM concentration, compared to the WFO subject. Specific activities performed by the subjects impacted their exposure concentrations to PM. Also, in the case of short-term campaign, particular activities seem to contribute to a greater worker exposure to PM. Given the potential growth of people WFH, it’s crucial to comprehensively assess these “new domestic offices.” Organizations should evaluate indoor environmental quality (IEQ), occupational exposure to risk factors, and implement mitigation measures as needed to address and manage health risks for WFH employees. Additionally, consideration should be given to other risk factors and health issues, such as those found in traditional office settings (e.g., musculoskeletal disorders, computer vision syndrome). Conclusions Monitoring IEQ, in the framework of a comprehensive risk assessment, identifying workplace-specific risks, and implementing appropriate mitigation measures are actions organizations should consider to better understand and address potential health risks associated with WFH conditions.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift toward remote and hybrid work globally, impacting Nigeria's complex socioeconomic landscape with infrastructural deficiencies, digital divides, and varying organizational adaptability. Understanding Nigeria’s progress toward workplace digitization is essential for assessing the viability of telecommuting and hybrid work models in the long term. This study investigates Nigeria’s readiness for remote and hybrid work post-COVID-19, evaluating employment trends, digital infrastructure, HR management adaptations, and productivity outcomes, to guide policy reforms and interventions. A quantitative design was used, analyzing data from publications, government reports, and organizational datasets (2000–2025). Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied, complemented by thematic synthesis and gap analysis to ensure validity and alignment with global standards. Findings show progress in digital adoption post-2020, with increased internet penetration, better ICT infrastructure, and improved HR responsiveness. However, disparities persist across regions and sectors, especially in rural areas and public institutions. While telecommuting enhanced productivity in digitally advanced sectors, infrastructural gaps, limited digital skills, and unclear policies hindered scalability. Nigeria has made significant progress but lacks a unified framework to support an inclusive remote work culture. A coordinated policy and institutional approach is needed to address the digital divide, enhance HR transformation, and ensure sustainable productivity in remote models. Short-term actions should focus on broadband expansion and digital skill development. Midterm priorities include establishing national telework standards and decentralizing workspaces. In the long term, a national remote work strategy integrated into labor, ICT, and education policies is needed to strengthen Nigeria’s workforce and competitiveness. This study provides key insights into Nigeria’s preparedness for remote work, identifying gains and ongoing challenges while offering actionable pathways for policy and institutional improvements.

Sustaining indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in high rise centrally air-conditioned buildings remains a difficult task of building managers because of the lack of a suitable instrument to measure the physical parameters of IEQ and to record the simultaneous occupant subjective responses. An IEQ logger is developed to facilitate the continuous monitoring of the state of IEQ. The performance of this logger has been validated by large-scale surveys in air-conditioned buildings in Hong Kong using the appropriate international standards and protocols. The compactness of the logger made it versatile for use in the study of total IEQ. It renders the development of a total IEQ comfort model possible. This composite IEQ index attempts to integrate the total responses of the four fundamental indoor environmental qualifiers, namely, thermal, air quality, visual and aural comfort. The IEQ index expresses the dissatisfaction as can be predicted by measurements of the essential parameters. The concept of an IEQ index opens up a new approach to the design for acceptable indoor IEQ. The IEQ logger facilitates building managers in sustaining their targeted IEQ levels.

BackgroundSince March 2020, companies nationwide have started work from home (WFH) owing to the rapid increase of confirmed COVID-19 cases in an attempt to help prevent the disease from spreading and to rescue the economy from the pandemic. Many organizations have conducted surveys to understand people’s opinions toward WFH. However, the findings are limited owing to a small sample size and the dynamic topics over time.ObjectiveThis study aims to understand public opinions regarding WFH in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsWe conducted a large-scale social media study using Twitter data to portray different groups of individuals who have positive or negative opinions on WFH. We performed an ordinary least squares regression analysis to investigate the relationship between the sentiment about WFH and user characteristics including gender, age, ethnicity, median household income, and population density. To better understand the public opinion, we used latent Dirichlet allocation to extract topics and investigate how tweet contents are related to people’s attitude.ResultsOn performing ordinary least squares regression analysis using a large-scale data set of publicly available Twitter posts (n=28,579) regarding WFH during April 10-22, 2020, we found that the sentiment on WFH varies across user characteristics. In particular, women tend to be more positive about WFH (P<.001). People in their 40s are more positive toward WFH than those in other age groups (P<.001). People from high-income areas are more likely to have positive opinions about WFH (P<.001). These nuanced differences are supported by a more fine-grained topic analysis. At a higher level, we found that the most negative sentiment about WFH roughly corresponds to the discussion on government policy. However, people express a more positive sentiment when discussing topics on “remote work or study” and “encouragement.” Furthermore, topic distributions vary across different user groups. Women pay more attention to family activities than men (P<.05). Older people talk more about work and express a more positive sentiment regarding WFH.ConclusionsThis paper presents a large-scale social media–based study to understand the public opinion on WFH in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that this study can contribute to policymaking both at the national and institution or company levels to improve the overall population’s experience with WFH.

The home has become a new physical workplace, and can therefore influence the work, health, and life of workers. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the chronology of the effects of work hazards at home on factors such as workers' health, productivity, and well-being (WB). Information on novice working-from-home (WFH) workers was derived from the "Occupational health of WFH" project. The selected variables in the hypothesis model comprised problems such as perceived indoor environmental quality (IEQ), working conditions (WC), sick house syndrome (SHS), occupational stress (OS), work productivity (WP), and WB. The relationship between these variables was analyzed using a structural equation model. The group analysis results showed the following significant indirect path effects from work environment through WP: IEQ-> SHS->OS->WP. A non-significant direct effect was observed between IEQ and WP. While WC problems could also have a significant direct effect on WP, or be mediated by OS, WP is a significant consequence and a direct effect of WB. In conclusion, the WFH model's causal impact between home environment, WP, and WB is a physiopsychological pathway. Therefore, creating a healthy home environment and WC, along with OS management, comprise important issues for improving productivity and WB for this new work style.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in working from home worldwide, making the work-from-home (WFH) setting a crucial context for studying the influence of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) on workers’ well-being and productivity. A narrative and visual synthesis of 41 research articles on IEQ in WFH settings was conducted to identify the IEQ factors being measured and their correlations with perceived productivity and well-being. This review shows that the IEQ conditions at home were mainly within the recommended international standards. However, some high maxima were recorded, particularly for metrics related to quality of indoor air partly due to wider availability of evidence, which raised concerns regarding the suitability of indoor conditions while working from home. Despite the presence of these high maxima, workers generally rated all environmental factors highly. This could possibly reflect their lack of awareness of changes in environmental conditions, suggesting that monitoring environmental conditions might be necessary when working from home. Compared with traditional offices, workers seemed to be more satisfied with the environmental conditions at home although some WFH settings were found to be deficient in sound insulation, ergonomic and technological support, leading to multiple health complaints. Several studies have also demonstrated significant correlations between assessments of IEQ and ergonomics and those of productivity, physical and mental well-being. Future IEQ studies in WFH settings should consider using a longitudinal study design and including more representative samples, different seasons, multi-domain analyses, and multicountry and multicultural settings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially increased remote and hybrid working rates, creating a large group of workers whose experiences differ from those in traditional workplace settings. While previous studies have compared remote and non-remote workers in relation to productivity, performance and well-being, less attention has been given to how their mobility patterns differ. Although researchers have suggested that the ability to work remotely affects workers’ mobilities, there remains limited empirical evidence comparing remote and non-remote workers’ mobilities. This paper presents the first study to compare the mobilities of these groups in the UK. It focuses on four types of mobility studied in relation to remote work: counterurbanisation, commuting, multi-local work and immobility. It is the first to integrate analysis of all four mobilities, offering a novel, integrated perspective on remote work and mobility. The paper examines regional differences in these mobilities across the UK, highlighting how workers’ mobility patterns vary between regions. This study draws on data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study and employs bivariate statistical tests and regression analyses. The results show that remote workers are more likely than non-remote workers to move to rural areas, own second homes and commute longer distances. These trends are pronounced in southern English regions. Remote work risks reinforcing existing inequalities between knowledge workers and manual workers and perpetuating traditional associations between mobility and urban areas in the UK. Furthermore, while remote work may generate new economic opportunities, it may also increase demand for accessible rural housing, particularly in regions surrounding London.

The aim of the present study was to explore whether remote and on-site work stress during the COVID-19 pandemic was experienced with different severity. The second goal was to investigate stress conditions at both working modes. The study involved 946 individuals working in the education system and BSS sector in different Polish organizations. The following tools were used: the Brief Scale of Vocational Stress by Dudek and Hauk, the Polish version of the scales to measure work-family conflicts by Grzywacz, Frone, Brewer and Kovner, Meyer and Allen's Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment Scales in the Polish adaptation by Bańka, Wołowska and Bazińska, the Satisfaction with Job Scale by Zalewska. The analysis of intergroup differences revealed that remote work stress severity was significantly lower than on-site work stress severity. The regression analyses proved that work-family conflict and job satisfaction were significant predictors of remote and on-site work stress. Continuance commitment positively predicted on-site work stress. Both models turned out to be statistically significant. The variables included in the models explained 39% and 35% of the variability of the remote work and on-site work stress, respectively. Remote work is associated with lower stress severity than on-site work. For both types of work, the higher the level of work-family conflict, the higher the level of stress severity, but the higher the job satisfaction, the lower the stress severity. Continuance commitment is positively related to on-site stress, which means that people who work for an organization and see no alternative feel more stressed. Such an effect was observed only in the case of on-site work. The study findings are discussed in light of previous research, and implications for organizational practice are considered. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2023;36(1):96-111.

Remote work arrangements have become a critical argument both for employees and employers, particularly during the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis. The continuity of remote work arrangements has come into question as the pandemic disease diminished. Several industries and companies have recognized the advantages of remote work and made remote or flexible work a permanent part of their operations. Additionally, certain employees, perceiving the more favorable conditions provided by remote work, have refused to return to the office or have requested permanent remote work arrangements. Still, many employers are still questioning the pros and cons of remote work. In this context, this research focuses on freight forwarder employees who are assumed to be adaptable to work remotely due to the nature of their work. The research aims to determine current working arrangements and the effect of working remotely on the productivity, satisfaction, and motivation of freight forwarders. Data on these variables were collected through an online survey. All participants were individuals working for private companies in the freight forwarding industry. In an effort to minimize cultural impacts, companies located in Turkey have been chosen as the main sampling in the study. Through statistical analysis, the impact and factors influencing remote work arrangements on employee performance are explored. The effects and relationships between job performance, job motivation, job satisfaction, and work arrangement were examined by regression, correlation, and mediation analysis methods. Revealed findings present significant results for employers aiming to measure the effectiveness of remote work practices and policies.

Are Humans Good Sensors? Using Occupants as Sensors for Indoor Environmental Quality Assessment and for Developing Thresholds that Matter

The COVID-19 pandemic and the precautionary measures applied globally (lockdowns and curfews) have impacted homes, including work. Working from home (WFH) has emerged as a growing trend in the post-pandemic era. The research question was: Are our homes ready for teleworking? To respond, a national prospective mixed approach was launched for Spanish households during the spring 2020 lockdown, using two online questionnaires, one quantitative and the other qualitative. Through a survey, photographs, and narratives, the study evaluates the perceived adequacy of telework spaces and their specific characteristics, the availability of digital resources and the internet. A total of 1800 surveys and over 200 images and texts related to telework environments were obtained. The results suggest that the adequacy of these spaces was insufficient for more than a quarter of the homes. Also, strong relations between the perceived workspace adequacy and a social status or stability of homes were shown and validated, despite other sociodemographic features, the home composition or habitat were not related. Some other variables statistically significant were occupation regime, type and surface of dwellings; their indoor environmental quality; the availability of exclusive spaces for teleworking; quality of digital resources; and the specific space features. The analysis was completed with qualitative insights through photos and texts. Telework, lived in this context as an experiment, needs this reflection from an environmental, resource-availability, and ergonomic point of view.

Individually controlled noise reducing devices to improve IEQ in classrooms of primary schools

In the final week of March 2020, approximately 4.7 million employees in Canada shifted to a work- from-home (WFH) arrangement in response to the pandemic. A similar transition occurred on a global scale. With the growing trend of remote work and the shift towards home offices, understanding the effects of objective and subjective indoor environmental quality (IEQ) on individuals' well-being and productivity is crucial. Much of the existing research has been conducted in traditional office environments rather than in WFH settings. This paper aims to provide an analysis of the subjective evaluation of IEQ conditions within WFH settings and their perceived influence on both work performance and well-being. The analysis is based on a field study conducted in the summer of 2022, which involved 94 participants. The most prevalent features available in the workspaces of these individuals included access to exterior views, operable windows, ample daylight, and sufficient workspace. Notably, these features not only received the highest satisfaction ratings from the participants but also appeared to exert a positive impact on both work performance and well-being. Conversely, the most frequently encountered challenges by WFH employees were associated with disturbances originating from street noise and family members, as well as unwanted interruptions. These issues were found to have a more pronounced effect on workers' well-being compared to their impact on work performance. Furthermore, the study revealed significant correlations between overall workspace satisfaction and performance, as well as between well-being and performance, underscoring the interconnectedness of these factors in the WFH context.

Most companies in the United States (U.S.) have asked their employees to work from home (WFH) since the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, work environment changed from office to home. However, home environment is designed for living purpose instead of working purpose. People may experience different levels of comfort visually, thermally, etc. when WFH. Because occupants can be affected differently by indoor environmental quality factors in office (e.g., difficult temperature adjustment based on personal preference) and at home (e.g., easy temperature adjustment), which could increase the experience of sick building syndrome (SBS). Evaluation of occupant comfort and health in office environment was widely explored before. Less research was conducted to explore occupant comfort and health when WFH. Therefore, this study compiled a comprehensive list of key factors and indicators of occupant comfort and health from previous literature. Then, a survey was designed and distributed in the U.S. to evaluate occupants’ satisfaction of home-based work or study environment and experience of SBS. The demographic analysis shows that diverse types of occupants were covered. Then, occupants’ satisfaction and experience of SBS when WFH were compared with regular work or study. The findings show that occupants’ satisfaction slightly increased while experience of SBS slightly decreased when WFH. More importantly, ocular symptoms were the top concern in regular work or study and WFH. This study shows the differences of satisfaction and experience of SBS between regular work or study and WFH, which also indicates a direction for future technologies to improve home environment, well-being, and health.KeywordsIndoor work environmentHome-based workSick building syndromeHealthComfortCOVID-19