Working from home in the Coronavirus crisis: Towards a transformation of work environments?[Homeoffice in der Corona-Krise – eine nachhaltige Transformation der Arbeitswelt?]

The coronavirus crisis has brought rapid and sweeping changes to the daily work life of many employees. To comply with social distancing rules, many private and public organizations let all or part of their staff work from home. This study analyzes this new work environment on the basis of unprecedented data: a survey conducted at nine points in time among roughly 700 telecommuting employees. The results demonstrate that employees working from home show an increase in perceived productivity and commitment. The vast majority wish to continue to work flexibly on a remote basis, at least to some extent. However, we also observe a trend towards excessive workloads resulting in exhaustion. This increases the urge for policymakers and employee representations to take action. The study concludes with recommendations on how to improve the general conditions concerning telework.