Does working from home work? That depends on the home.

Publisher: Public Library of Science Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101285081 Publication Model: eCollection Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1932-6203 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 19326203 NLM ISO Abbreviation: PLoS One Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science

COVID-19*/epidemiology ; COVID-19*/psychology; Humans ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Job Satisfaction ; Middle Aged ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Workplace/psychology ; Efficiency ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Teleworking ; Netherlands ; Burnout, Professional/psychology ; Personal Satisfaction ; Pandemics

Working from home (WFH) has risen in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an ongoing debate about the productivity implications of WFH, but the physical climate of the home office has received only limited attention. This paper investigates the effect of home office satisfaction and environment-improving behavior on productivity and burnout tendency for WFH employees. We surveyed over 1,000 Dutch WFH individuals about their home office and perceived WFH performance. We fit logistic regressions and structural equation models to investigate the effect of home office satisfaction and characteristics on self-reported productivity, burnout tendency, and willingness to continue WFH. Our results reveal that individual differences in WFH productivity are explained by heterogeneity in the physical home office environment. Higher satisfaction with home office factors is significantly associated with increased productivity and decreased burnout tendency. We continue by showing that more ventilation during working hours is associated with increased productivity, willingness to continue WFH, and burnout resilience. This effect is fully mediated by satisfaction with the home office. We find that higher home office satisfaction is associated with WFH success and air-quality-improving behavior is associated with higher satisfaction. Our results underline a holistic perspective such that investing in a healthy and objectively measured physical climate is a key aspect of the bright future of working from home. The move from the work office to the home office needs to be accompanied by careful design and investment in the quality of the office and its climate.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Stroom et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2000 Nov;26(6):1534-55. (PMID: 11185781)
J Appl Psychol. 2008 Nov;93(6):1412-21. (PMID: 19025257)
Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 3;11(1):2971. (PMID: 33536464)
Lancet Respir Med. 2020 Jul;8(7):658-659. (PMID: 32473123)
Indoor Air. 2004;14 Suppl 8:65-74. (PMID: 15663461)
J Appl Psychol. 2007 Nov;92(6):1524-41. (PMID: 18020794)
Indoor Air. 2004;14 Suppl 7:92-101. (PMID: 15330777)
Nat Hum Behav. 2022 Jan;6(1):43-54. (PMID: 34504299)
Econ Inq. 2022 Apr;60(2):508-527. (PMID: 35440832)
Tob Control. 2001 Sep;10(3):233-8. (PMID: 11544387)
Appl Psychol. 2021 Jan;70(1):16-59. (PMID: 33230359)
Work. 2021;69(4):1171-1189. (PMID: 34420999)
Build Environ. 2017 Mar;114:178-186. (PMID: 28785124)
PLoS One. 2019 May 22;14(5):e0216362. (PMID: 31116745)
Scand J Work Environ Health. 2012 Jul;38(4):299-313. (PMID: 22678492)
Build Environ. 2024 Jun 1;257:. (PMID: 38966206)
Work. 2004;22(3):219-29. (PMID: 15156087)
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Aug 25;112(34):10641-4. (PMID: 26261327)
Appetite. 2021 Feb 1;157:105002. (PMID: 33068668)
Indoor Air. 2004;14 Suppl 7:74-81. (PMID: 15330775)
PLoS One. 2020 Dec 11;15(12):e0243278. (PMID: 33306679)
PLoS Med. 2018 Jul 10;15(7):e1002605. (PMID: 29990359)
JAMA. 2021 May 25;325(20):2112-2113. (PMID: 33861316)
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2012 Mar;38(2):325-39. (PMID: 21967320)
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1986 Dec;51(6):1173-82. (PMID: 3806354)
PLoS One. 2020 Aug 6;15(8):e0236029. (PMID: 32760082)
Psychol Sci Public Interest. 2015 Oct;16(2):40-68. (PMID: 26403188)
BMC Public Health. 2011 Jan 03;11:2. (PMID: 21199571)
Environ Health Perspect. 2016 Jun;124(6):805-12. (PMID: 26502459)
J Abnorm Psychol. 2003 Nov;112(4):558-77. (PMID: 14674869)

Date Created: 20240807 Date Completed: 20240807 Latest Revision: 20240809

20240809

PMC11305525

10.1371/journal.pone.0306475

39110683