Abstract
The epidemiological situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to efforts to mitigate the transmission of the infection, forcing workers and students to stay at home. Universities closed, as did many businesses, forcing education and work to adapt to the new situation. While for some people it was a positive experience, for others it was not. This article analyzes the responses of 89 respondents, over 18 years old, in teleworking or enrolled in university online education, in a survey at the beginning of 2021, when Portugal was in a new state of emergency. Variables such as gender, age and parenthood were used, as well as ownership of equipment, own workspace, and quality of internet, comparing distance learning/work with traditional methods and measuring levels of satisfaction and willingness to adopt this model in the future. These results suggest an association of gender and parenting in the valuation of telework/distance education; women were more positive than men and participants with children were more positive than participants without children. The same was the case for respondents with their own workspace and better-quality internet. There is a strong relation between paternity and the preference for the distance model, in the sense of valuing the distance model, as well as a relation between those who have their own work space and the appreciation of the distance model. In general, respondents to our survey showed that they are not fond of adopting telework/distance learning in the future.
Highlights
These numbers suggest that there is no association for age, but there is for gender and parenthood
We can conclude that people in general are not willing to adopt telework/distance education. With this investigation it was possible to meet the objectives of knowing the experiences perceived by several individuals in Portugal in teleworking and in distance learning, both mandatory due to the serious pandemic situation, the conditions of the work and teaching environment, and the opinions of workers and students, which allowed us to understand whether these alternatives will have a strong presence or not in the post-pandemic era
It is possible to conclude the following: First Question: Regarding appreciating telework/distance learning, there is no association for age, but there is for gender and parenthood
Summary
Companies around the world had to quickly adapt to teleworking and reinvent themselves [2,3]. The President of the Portuguese Republic first decreed a state of emergency to be effective from 19 March 2020 [6], with successive renewals until 2 May at 11:59 pm. On 22 March 2020, several measures introduced by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers came into effect [8], including the mandatory “adoption of the teleworking regime, regardless of the employment relationship, whenever the functions in question allow it”. The worsening of the health situation forced the Presidency of the Republic to declare a new state of emergency [9], going into effect 8 January 2021 until 11:59 pm on 30 April 2021
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