Navigating the Psychological Landscape of Remote Work: Understanding, Resilience, and Well-Being - Volume II

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Background

This Research Topic follows a previous issue on remote working. Please find the first volume here.

The pandemic COVID-19 forced remote working arrangements and it became a new normal in very short span to time. However, with fading away of the pandemic, employee returned to their workplaces. It offers the significant opportunity to examine the experience of all stakeholders (employers, employees, customers, and regulators) of remote working against working in a workplace.

Remote work involves working from home or working away from a range of locations remote from a workplace. These can include hotels, transport, and cafes. Remote working is not new and includes working in isolated worksites and in industries involving extensive travel such as transport and defense industries. It can involve commuting long distances and staying onsite at remote mining, agriculture harvesting, fisheries, and construction sites. With the development of online work, the nature of the workplace has changed to include the home or any location that is serviced by the internet. The rise of digitally enhanced platform work or gig work allows work to take place anywhere and at any time. Factors driving the spread of remote work include developments in information technology, mobile telephony, software and the internet, structural changes that have supported the growth in service and knowledge-based work, preferences for flexible working arrangements to support work-life balance and enforced remote working to reduce the spread of infection associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Studies have looked at whether workers had negative or positive experiences through homework. The positive factors identified include greater flexibility in allocating time, an improved work-life and work-family balance, increased personal time, and reduced commuting time. Negative effects include contestation over space, isolation, surveillance, work intensification, extended hours, and working on call. Age, gender, family composition, and occupation all impact the remote work experience. Stress, anxiety, and pressure on interpersonal relations appear to be a consequence of combining work and home life. This extends beyond remote workers and includes family and others residing in the home. Studies have identified mental and physical health threats that have emerged from remote working.

After COVID-19, many workers have returned to the workplace, others have remained working at home, and others have combined both arrangements. However, remote work is set to become institutionalized as a standard working arrangement and in the future hybrid work arrangements are likely. There is the opportunity for researchers to examine the psychology impact of remote working against the recent experiences of enforced and voluntary remote working, returning to the workplace and hybrid work arrangements. Although remote working is a boon for certain classes of employees like differently-abled, autistic, pregnant /single parent ladies or employees in dual-career families, it possess serious threats of loneliness, anxiety, loss of social skills, and moon lightening. The workplace programs and policies that reduce risks are important to inform organizations and policymakers. This special issue will examine the psychological impact of remote work.

The editors invite submissions that:
1. Examine the potential psychological challenges of remote work.
2. Examine the factors contributing to these challenges
3. Present findings on the experiences of remote working, especially against the subsequent return to the workplace and of hybrid work arrangements.
4. Discuss policies and programs to mitigate the risks and address the psychological challenges of remote work

Theoretical, empirical, and policy studies are welcome. All methods are welcome. All levels of analysis from individual and household experiences through to industry and country studies are welcome.

Keywords: Work-from-home, psychology, stress, remote working

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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