Online education during two Lithuanian COVID-19 lockdowns: effects on work-life balance of educators

The education sector was one of the sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Educators are people who even before the pandemic expressed high levels of stress. Therefore, the pandemic, which continued for more than two years with repeated and prolonged lockdowns and prompting the need for classes to be conducted online, had a significant impact on the well-being of educators. This chapter looks at educators who taught students during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores the changes in their work-life balance (WLB) and health, and what institutional support they perceived as being available to them. A longitudinal, two-period, quantitative study was conducted in Lithuania with the same 301 educators during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. The results revealed that educator stress, burnout, and feeling pain increased during the second lockdown. The WLB and perceived institutional support decreased during the second lockdown compared to the first. The study also revealed the importance of institutional support for educators and their work. The findings could be useful for future health and other crises, not only for educators, but also for other employees when called on to work online and stay in isolation.