Work, life and COVID‐19: a rapid review and practical recommendations for the post‐pandemic workplace

Abstract

Remote working because of the COVID‐19 pandemic has eroded boundaries between work and home, necessitating the need to evaluate the long‐term impacts of these changes and mitigate any negative effects on workers' work‐life experiences. To do so, we reviewed and examined work‐life research published since the start of the pandemic. The review yielded a sample of 303 work‐life scholarly articles, with three common themes: 1) work‐life boundaries have become more permeable, with behavior‐based and time‐based work‐life conflict emerging as the more salient forms of work‐life conflict; 2) technical work demands have increased, as employees grapple with techno‐invasion, techno‐overload and techno‐complexity; and 3) psychological and emotional work demands have intensified. Based on these key findings, we call for multi‐level and multi‐agency responses to deal with the complex, diverse nature of work‐life demands. Specifically, we offer recommendations at the individual‐, team/organizational‐ and societal/governmental‐levels to enhance employees' work and non‐work lives after the pandemic.