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Research Article

Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary, Doctoral School of Psychology, ELTE Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Balazs Aczel,
Marton Kovacs,
Tanja van der Lippe,
Barnabas Szaszi

Published: March 25, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249127
Peer Review
Reader Comments

The flexibility allowed by the mobilization of technology disintegrated the traditional work-life boundary for most professionals. Whether working from home is the key or impediment to academics’ efficiency and work-life balance became a daunting question for both scientists and their employers. The recent pandemic brought into focus the merits and challenges of working from home on a level of personal experience. Using a convenient sampling, we surveyed 704 academics while working from home and found that the pandemic lockdown decreased the work efficiency for almost half of the researchers but around a quarter of them were more efficient during this time compared to the time before. Based on the gathered personal experience, 70% of the researchers think that in the future they would be similarly or more efficient than before if they could spend more of their work-time at home. They indicated that in the office they are better at sharing thoughts with colleagues, keeping in touch with their team, and collecting data, whereas at home they are better at working on their manuscript, reading the literature, and analyzing their data. Taking well-being also into account, 66% of them would find it ideal to work more from home in the future than they did before the lockdown. These results draw attention to how working from home is becoming a major element of researchers’ life and that we have to learn more about its influencer factors and coping tactics in order to optimize its arrangements.

Citation: Aczel B, Kovacs M, van der Lippe T, Szaszi B (2021) Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges. PLoS ONE 16(3): e0249127. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249127

Editor: Johnson Chun-Sing Cheung, The University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG

Received: September 24, 2020; Accepted: March 11, 2021; Published: March 25, 2021

Copyright: © 2021 Aczel 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.

Data Availability: All research materials, the collected raw and processed anonymous data, just as well the code for data management and statistical analyses are publicly shared on the OSF page of the project: OSF: https://osf.io/v97fy/ .

Funding: TVL's contribution is part of the research program Sustainable Cooperation – Roadmaps to Resilient Societies (SCOOP). She is grateful to the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) for their support in the context of its 2017 Gravitation Program (grant number 024.003.025).

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Fleeing from the Great Plague that reached Cambridge in 1665, Newton retreated to his countryside home where he continued working for the next year and a half. During this time, he developed his theories on calculus, optics, and the law of gravitation—fundamentally changing the path of science for centuries. Newton himself described this period as the most productive time of his life [ 1 ]. Is working from home indeed the key to efficiency for scientists also in modern times? A solution for working without disturbance by colleagues and being able to manage a work-life balance? What personal and professional factors influence the relation between productivity and working from home? These are the main questions that the present paper aims to tackle. The Covid-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to analyze the implications of working from home in great detail.

Working away from the traditional office is increasingly an option in today’s world. The phenomenon has been studied under numerous, partially overlapping terms, such as telecommuting, telework, virtual office, remote work, location independent working, home office. In this paper, we will use ‘working from home’ (WFH), a term that typically covers working from any location other than the dedicated area provided by the employer.

The practice of WFH and its effect on job efficiency and well-being are reasonably well explored outside of academia [ 2 , 3 ]. Internet access and the increase of personal IT infrastructure made WFH a growing trend throughout the last decades [ 4 ]. In 2015, over 12% of EU workers [ 5 ] and near one-quarter of US employees [ 6 ] worked at least partly from home. A recent survey conducted among 27,500 millennials and Gen Z-s indicated that their majority would like to work remotely more frequently [ 7 ]. The literature suggests that people working from home need flexibility for different reasons. Home-working is a typical solution for those who need to look after dependent children [ 8 ] but many employees just seek a better work-life balance [ 7 ] and the comfort of an alternative work environment [ 9 ].

Non-academic areas report work-efficiency benefits for WFH but they also show some downsides of this arrangement. A good example is the broad-scale experiment in which call center employees were randomly assigned to work from home or in the office for nine months [ 10 ]. A 13% work performance increase was found in the working from home group. These workers also reported improved work satisfaction. Still, after the experiment, 50% of them preferred to go back to the office mainly because of feeling isolated at home.

Home-working has several straightforward positive aspects, such as not having to commute, easier management of household responsibilities [ 11 ] and family demands [ 12 ], along with increased autonomy over time use [ 13 , 14 ], and fewer interruptions [ 15 , 16 ]. Personal comfort is often listed as an advantage of the home environment [e.g., 15 ], though setting up a home office comes with physical and infrastructural demands [ 17 ]. People working from home consistently report greater job motivation and satisfaction [ 4 , 11 , 18 , 19 ] which is probably due to the greater work-related control and work-life flexibility [ 20 ]. A longitudinal nationally representative sample of 30,000 households in the UK revealed that homeworking is positively related with leisure time satisfaction [ 21 ], suggesting that people working from home can allocate more time for leisure activities.

Often-mentioned negative aspects of WFH include being disconnected from co-workers, experiencing isolation due to the physical and social distance to team members [ 22 , 23 ]. Also, home-working employees reported more difficulties with switching off and they worked beyond their formal working hours [ 4 ]. Working from home is especially difficult for those with small children [ 24 ], but intrusion from other family members, neighbours, and friends were also found to be major challenges of WFH [e.g., 17 ]. Moreover, being away from the office may also create a lack of visibility and increases teleworkers’ fear that being out of sight limits opportunities for promotion, rewards, and positive performance reviews [ 25 ].

Importantly, increased freedom imposes higher demands on workers to control not just the environment, but themselves too. WFH comes with the need to develop work-life boundary control tactics [ 26 ] and to be skilled at self-discipline, self-motivation, and good time management [ 27 ]. Increased flexibility can easily lead to multitasking and work-family role blurring [ 28 ]. Table 1 provides non-comprehensive lists of mostly positive and mostly negative consequences of WFH, based on the literature reviewed here.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249127.t001

Compared to the private sector, our knowledge is scarce about how academics experience working from home. Researchers in higher education institutes work in very similar arrangements. Typically, they are expected to personally attend their workplace, if not for teaching or supervision, then for meetings or to confer with colleagues. In the remaining worktime, they work in their lab or, if allowed, they may choose to do some of their tasks remotely. Along with the benefits on productivity when working from home, academics have already experienced some of its drawbacks at the start of the popularity of personal computers. As Snizek observed in the ‘80s, “(f)aculty who work long hours at home using their microcomputers indicate feelings of isolation and often lament the loss of collegial feedback and reinforcement” [page 622, 29 ].

Until now, the academics whose WFH experience had been given attention were mostly those participating in online distance education [e.g., 30 , 31 ]. They experienced increased autonomy, flexibility in workday schedule, the elimination of unwanted distractions [ 32 ], along with high levels of work productivity and satisfaction [ 33 ], but they also observed inadequate communication and the lack of opportunities for skill development [ 34 ]. The Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to study the WFH experience of a greater spectrum of academics, since at one point most of them had to do all their work from home.

We have only fragmented knowledge about the moderators of WFH success. We know that control over time is limited by the domestic tasks one has while working from home. The view that women’s work is more influenced by family obligations than men’s is consistently shown in the literature [e.g., 35 – 37 ]. Sullivan and Lewis [ 38 ] argued that women who work from home are able to fulfil their domestic role better and manage their family duties more to their satisfaction, but that comes at the expense of higher perceived work–family conflict [see also 39 ]. Not surprisingly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, female scientists suffered a greater disruption than men in their academic productivity and time spent on research, most likely due to demands of childcare [ 40 , 41 ].

In summary, until recently, the effect of WFH on academics’ life and productivity received limited attention. However, during the recent pandemic lockdown, scientists, on an unprecedented scale, had to find solutions to continue their research from home. The situation unavoidably brought into focus the merits and challenges of WFH on a level of personal experience. Institutions were compelled to support WFH arrangements by adequate regulations, services, and infrastructure. Some researchers and institutions might have found benefits in the new arrangements and may wish to continue WFH in some form; for others WFH brought disproportionately larger challenges. The present study aims to facilitate the systematic exploration and support of researchers’ efficiency and work-life balance when working from home.

Materials and methods

Our study procedure and analysis plan were preregistered at https://osf.io/jg5bz (all deviations from the plan are listed in S1 File ). The survey included questions on research work efficiency, work-life balance, demographics, professional and personal background information. The study protocol has been approved by the Institutional Review Board from Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary (approval number: 2020/131). The Transparency Report of the study, the complete text of the questionnaire items and the instructions are shared at our OSF repository: https://osf.io/v97fy/ .

As the objective of this study was to gain insight about researchers’ experience of WFH, we aimed to increase the size and diversity of our sample rather than ascertaining the representativeness of our sample. Therefore, we distributed our online survey link among researchers in professional newsletters, university mailing lists, on social media, and by sending group-emails to authors (additional details about sampling are in S1 File ). As a result of the nature of our sampling strategy, it is not known how many researchers have seen our participation request. Additionally, we did not collect the country of residence of the respondents. Responses analyzed in this study were collected between 2020-04-24 and 2020-07-13. Overall, 858 individuals started the survey and 154 were excluded because they did not continue the survey beyond the first question. As a result, 704 respondents were included in the analysis.

We sent the questionnaire individually to each of the respondents through the Qualtrics Mailer service. Written informed consent and access to the preregistration of the research was provided to every respondent before starting the survey. Then, respondents who agreed to participate in the study could fill out the questionnaire. To encourage participation, we offered that upon completion they can enter a lottery to win a 100 USD voucher.

This is a general description of the survey items. The full survey with the display logic and exact phrasing of the items is transported from Qualtrics and uploaded to the projects’ OSF page: https://osf.io/8ze2g/ .

Efficiency of research work.

The respondents were asked to compare the efficiency of their research work during the lockdown to their work before the lockdown. They were also asked to use their present and previous experience to indicate whether working more from home in the future would change the efficiency of their research work compared to the time before the lockdown. For both questions, they could choose among three options: “less efficient”; “more efficient”, and “similarly efficient”.

Comparing working from home to working in the office.

Participants were asked to compare working from home to working from the office. For this question they could indicate their preference on a 7-point dimension (1: At home; 7: In the office), along 15 efficiency or well-being related aspects of research work (e.g., working on the manuscript, maintaining work-life balance). These aspects were collected in a pilot study conducted with 55 researchers who were asked to indicate in free text responses the areas in which their work benefits/suffers when working from home. More details of the pilot study are provided in S1 File .

Actual and ideal time spent working from home.

To study the actual and ideal time spent working from home, researcher were asked to indicate on a 0–100% scale (1) what percentage of their work time they spent working from home before the pandemic and (2) how much would be ideal for them working from home in the future concerning both research efficiency and work-life balance.

Feasibility of working more from home.

With simple Yes/No options, we asked the respondents to indicate whether they think that working more from home would be feasible considering all their other duties (education, administration, etc.) and the given circumstances at home (infrastructure, level of disturbance).

Background information.

Background questions were asked by providing preset lists concerning their academic position (e.g., full professor), area of research (e.g., social sciences), type of workplace (e.g., purely research institute), gender, age group, living situation (e.g., single-parent with non-adult child(ren)), and the age and the number of their children.

The respondents were also asked to select one of the offered options to indicate: whether or not they worked more from home during the coronavirus lockdown than before; whether it is possible for them to collect data remotely; whether they have education duties at work; if their research requires intensive team-work; whether their home office is fully equipped; whether their partner was also working from home during the pandemic; how far their office is from home; whether they had to do home-schooling during the pandemic; whether there was someone else looking after their child(ren) during their work from home in lockdown. When the question did not apply to them, they could select the ‘NA’ option as well.

Data preprocessing and analyses

All the data preprocessing and analyses were conducted in R [ 42 ], with the use of the tidyverse packages [ 43 ]. Before the analysis of the survey responses, we read all the free-text comments to ascertain that they do not contain personal information and they are in line with the respondent’s answers. We found that for 5 items the respondents’ comments contradicted their survey choices (e.g., whether they have children), therefore, we excluded the responses of the corresponding items from further analyses (see S1 File ). Following the preregistration, we only conducted descriptive statistics of the survey results.

Background information

The summary of the key demographic information of the 704 complete responses is presented in Table 2 . A full summary of all the collected background information of the respondents are available in S1 File .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249127.t002

Efficiency of research work

The results showed that 94% (n = 662) of the surveyed researchers worked more from home during the COVID-19 lockdown compared to the time before. Of these researchers, 47% found that due to working more from home their research became, in general, less efficient, 23% found it more efficient, and 30% found no difference compared to working before the lockdown. Within this database, we also explored the effect of the lockdown on the efficiency of people living with children (n = 290). Here, we found that 58% of them experienced that due to working more from home their research became, in general, less efficient, 20% found it more efficient, and 22% found no difference compared to working before the lockdown. Of those researchers who live with children, we found that 71% of the 21 single parents and 57% of the 269 partnered parents found working less efficient when working from home compared to the time before the lockdown.

When asking about how working more from home would affect the efficiency of their research after the lockdown, of those who have not already been working from home full time (n = 684), 29% assumed that it could make their research, in general, less efficient, 29% said that it would be more efficient, and 41% assumed no difference compared to the time before the lockdown ( Fig 1 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249127.g001

Focusing on the efficiency of the subgroup of people who live with children (n = 295), we found that for 32% their research work would be less efficient, for 30% it would be no different, and for 38% it would be more efficient to work from home after the lockdown, compared to the time before the lockdown.

Comparing working from home to working in the office

When comparing working from home to working in the office in general, people found that they can better achieve certain aspects of the research in one place than the other. They indicated that in the office they are better at sharing thoughts with colleagues, keeping in touch with their team, and collecting data, whereas at home they are better at working on their manuscript, reading the literature, and analyzing their data ( Fig 2 ).

The bars represent response averages of the given aspects.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249127.g002

Actual and ideal time spent working from home

We also asked the researchers how much of their work time they spent working from home in the past, and how much it would be ideal for them to work from home in the future concerning both research efficiency and well-being. Fig 3 shows the distribution of percentages of time working from home in the past and in an ideal future. Comparing these values for each researcher, we found that 66% of them want to work more from home in the future than they did before the lockdown, whereas 16% of them want to work less from home, and 18% of them want to spend the same percentage of their work time at home in the future as before. (These latter calculations were not preregistered).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249127.g003

Feasibility of working more from home

Taken all their other duties (education, administration, etc.) and provided circumstances at home (infrastructure, level of disturbance), of researchers who would like to work more from home in the future (n = 461), 86% think that it would be possible to do so. Even among those who have teaching duties at work (n = 376), 84% think that more working from home would be ideal and possible.

Researchers’ work and life have radically changed in recent times. The flexibility allowed by the mobilization of technology and the continuous access to the internet disintegrated the traditional work-life boundary. Where, when, and how we work depends more and more on our own arrangements. The recent pandemic only highlighted an already existing task: researchers’ worklife has to be redefined. The key challenge in a new work-life model is to find strategies to balance the demands of work and personal life. As a first step, the present paper explored how working from home affects researchers’ efficiency and well-being.

Our results showed that while the pandemic-related lockdown decreased the work efficiency for almost half of the researchers (47%), around a quarter (23%) of them experienced that they were more efficient during this time compared to the time before. Based on personal experience, 70% of the researchers think that after the lockdown they would be similarly (41%) or more efficient (29%) than before if they could spend more of their work-time at home. The remaining 30% thought that after the lockdown their work efficiency would decrease if they worked from home, which is noticeably lower than the 47% who claimed the same for the lockdown period. From these values we speculate that some of the obstacles of their work efficiency were specific to the pandemic lockdown. Such obstacles could have been the need to learn new methods to teach online [ 44 ] or the trouble adapting to the new lifestyle [ 45 ]. Furthermore, we found that working from the office and working from home support different aspects of research. Not surprisingly, activities that involve colleagues or team members are better bound to the office, but tasks that need focused attention, such as working on the manuscript or analyzing the data are better achieved from home.

A central motivation of our study was to explore what proportion of their worktime researchers would find ideal to work from home, concerning both research efficiency and work-life balance. Two thirds of the researchers indicated that it would be better to work more from home in the future. It seemed that sharing work somewhat equally between the two venues is the most preferred arrangement. A great majority (86%) of those who would like to work more from home in the future, think that it would be possible to do so. As a conclusion, both the work and non-work life of researchers would take benefits should more WFH be allowed and neither workplace duties, nor their domestic circumstances are limits of such a change. That researchers have a preference to work more from home, might be due to the fact that they are more and more pressured by their work. Finishing manuscripts, and reading literature is easier to find time for when working from home.

A main message of the results of our present survey is that although almost half of the respondents reported reduced work efficiency during the lockdown, the majority of them would prefer the current remote work setting to some extent in the future. It is important to stress, however, that working from home is not equally advantageous for researchers. Several external and personal factors must play a role in researchers’ work efficiency and work-life balance. In this analysis, we concentrated only on family status, but further dedicated studies will be required to gain a deeper understanding of the complex interaction of professional, institutional, personal, and domestic factors in this matter. While our study could only initiate the exploration of academics’ WFH benefits and challenges, we can already discuss a few relevant aspects regarding the work-life interface.

Our data show that researchers who live with dependent children can exploit the advantages of working from home less than those who do not have childcare duties, irrespective of the pandemic lockdown. Looking after children is clearly a main source of people’s task overload and, as a result, work-family conflict [ 46 , 47 ]. As an implication, employers should pay special respect to employees’ childcare situations when defining work arrangements. It should be clear, however, that other caring responsibilities should also be respected such as looking after elderly or disabled relatives [ 48 ]. Furthermore, to avoid equating non-work life with family-life, a broader diversity of life circumstances, such as those who live alone, should be taken into consideration [ 49 ].

It seems likely that after the pandemic significantly more work will be supplied from home [ 50 ]. The more of the researchers’ work will be done from home in the future, the greater the challenge will grow to integrate their work and non-work life. The extensive research on work-life conflict, should help us examine the issue and to develop coping strategies applicable for academics’ life. The Boundary Theory [ 26 , 51 , 52 ] proved to be a useful framework to understand the work-home interface. According to this theory, individuals utilize different tactics to create and maintain an ideal level of work-home segmentation. These boundaries often serve as “mental fences” to simplify the environment into domains, such as work or home, to help us attend our roles, such as being an employee or a parent. These boundaries are more or less permeable, depending on how much the individual attending one role can be influenced by another role. Individuals differ in the degree to which they prefer and are able to segment their roles, but each boundary crossing requires a cognitive “leap” between these categories [ 53 ]. The source of conflict is the demands of the different roles and responsibilities competing for one’s physical and mental resources. Working from home can easily blur the boundary between work and non-work domains. The conflict caused by the intrusion of the home world to one’s work time, just as well the intrusion of work tasks to one’s personal life are definite sources of weakened ability to concentrate on one’s tasks [ 54 ], exhaustion [ 55 ], and negative job satisfaction [ 56 ].

What can researchers do to mitigate this challenge? Various tactics have been identified for controlling one’s borders between work and non-work. One can separate the two domains by temporal, physical, behavioral, and communicative segmentation [ 26 ]. Professionals often have preferences and self-developed tactics for boundary management. People who prefer tighter boundary management apply strong segmentation between work and home [ 57 , 58 ]. For instance, they don’t do domestic tasks in worktime (temporal segmentation), close their door when working from home (physical segmentation), don’t read work emails at weekends (behavioral segmentation), or negotiate strict boundary rules with family members (communicative segmentation). People on the other on one side of the segmentation-integration continuum, might not mind, or cannot avoid, ad-hoc boundary-crossings and integrate the two domains by letting private space and time be mixed with their work.

Researchers, just like other workers, need to develop new arrangements and skills to cope with the disintegration of the traditional work-life boundaries. To know how research and education institutes could best support this change would require a comprehensive exploration of the factors in researchers’ WFH life. There is probably no one-size-fits-all approach to promote employees’ efficiency and well-being. Life circumstances often limit how much control people can have over their work-life boundaries when working from home [ 59 ]. Our results strongly indicate that some can boost work efficiency and wellbeing when working from home, others need external solutions, such as the office, to provide boundaries between their life domains. Until we gain comprehensive insight about the topic, individuals are probably the best judges of their own situation and of what arrangements may be beneficial for them in different times [ 60 ]. The more autonomy the employers provide to researchers in distributing their work between the office and home (while not lowering their expectations), the more they let them optimize this arrangement to their circumstances.

Our study has several limitations: to investigate how factors such as research domain, seniority, or geographic location contribute to WFH efficiency and well-being would have needed a much greater sample. Moreover, the country of residence of the respondents was not collected in our survey and this factor could potentially alter the perception of WFH due to differing social and infrastructural factors. Whereas the world-wide lockdown has provided a general experience to WFH to academics, the special circumstances just as well biased their judgment of the arrangement. With this exploratory research, we could only scratch the surface of the topic, the reader can probably generate a number of testable hypotheses that would be relevant to the topic but we could not analyze in this exploration.

Newton working in lockdown became the idealized image of the home-working scientist. Unquestionably, he was a genius, but his success probably needed a fortunate work-life boundary. Should he had noisy neighbours, or taunting domestic duties, he might have achieved much less while working from home. With this paper, we aim to draw attention to how WFH is becoming a major element of researchers’ life and that we have to be prepared for this change. We hope that personal experience or the topic’s relevance to the future of science will invite researchers to continue this work.

Supporting information

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249127.s001

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Szonja Horvath, Matyas Sarudi, and Zsuzsa Szekely for their help with reviewing the free text responses.

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How to Work on Your Dissertation from Home (And Actually Be Productive)

Graduate school can be isolating at times and the dissertation phase can be especially challenging. But for many, this pandemic has taken that experience to a new level.

As you compile your last bit of research or prepare the final touches for your upcoming defense, campus building closures and travel restrictions may make you feel anxious about your progress. To help you stay on the path to success, we’ve put together some tips to help you stay positive and productive while working on your dissertation from home.

Get to know the city of Dallas (virtually!) through our guide — The Graduate Student's Guide to Living in Dallas — and learn what it's like to live, study, and socialize here!

Create a Routine

Start by establishing where you’ll work. The best way to stay focused is to keep your workspace separate from where you relax . Even if space is limited, designate one or two areas where you’ll answer emails, attend meetings, and write and revise your chapters. That way, when you need to rest, you can move into another space, like your comfy sofa or bed, and disconnect from work-related stress.

Next, create a basic schedule that you can follow each day. Don’t map out each hour, but having some structure will give you more control over your day. Aim to have a standard start and end time each day and make sure others are aware. Because we are all online as we work from home, it’s easy to feel like you have to respond immediately. Most likely, though, an email that comes in at 10 pm can wait until the next day, and you’ll be rested and ready to take it on first thing in the morning.

Find Time to Unwind

Find something that requires another part of your brain and allows you to recharge. If you’ve been reading all day, go ahead and indulge in a movie marathon. If you’ve been sitting in front of a screen for hours, take a walk or go for a run outside.

Taking up a new hobby may be a great idea, but if the idea of spending money or learning a new skill sounds daunting, just keep it simple. You might be able to take advantage of free virtual fitness classes, which some institutions are providing to students, or you could find something you like on YouTube. Having an activity that you enjoy and provides an escape can give you something to look forward to and keep your mind fresh.

Ask for Help When You Need It

Although you may not see your dissertation advisor as often, they are still available to guide you. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re stuck and need their help. Ask if you can schedule regular video chats to discuss your progress. Having set appointments will create a sense of accountability that will motivate you to stay on track and will provide you with the valuable feedback you need to improve your work.

Similarly, SMU librarians are still on call and there to help you! Not only will they help you access resources, they are there to assist you with other components of the dissertation process, such as formatting and citations. If you need another expert’s opinion on putting your dissertation together, considering getting in touch with a librarian. You’ll be amazed at the wealth of knowledge they possess and how much they can truly assist you.

Stay Connected to Family, Friends, and Colleagues

Being apart doesn’t mean you can’t spend valuable time with friends and family. Fortunately, we live in an age where virtual hangouts are possible and incredibly easy. Keeping in touch with loved ones — even if it’s a simple phone call — can give you a boost of confidence when you’re in need of some extra encouragement.

You can also use technology to create a virtual study group. Invite other colleagues who are in the same phase of their dissertation to attend a weekly meeting where you can talk about your work and bounce ideas off of each other. Not only will it benefit your dissertation progress, but chatting with friends improves your overall wellbeing.

Give Others Grace

If you are living with others, they may not understand how difficult the dissertation process can be. Your advisor may not be as responsive as you’d like because they, too, are managing their own full load. Consequently, you may find yourself more anxious about your progress, which can often manifest as irritability and anger.

Understand that most people, like you, are trying to do the best that they can in this situation. Try to be open with others about how you’re feeling and be direct about your needs. They may not be able to address your problems instantly, but maintaining good communication will help you stay grounded throughout this process. It will also allow those around you to have a better sense of what kind of support you need.

Finally — Don’t Push Yourself Too Much

Some days are going to be fantastic and others are going to be…well, not so great. Just remember that you always have the power to turn things around and try again . Be determined to finish, but don’t push yourself to the brink of exhaustion.

The dissertation process is a long haul, but having to work on your dissertation under socially distant circumstances can leave many feeling lost and overwhelmed. And honestly, that’s ok. This is a highly unusual time to be a graduate student — you’re navigating a course that hasn’t been trekked yet. So pour yourself a cup of coffee, power up your laptop, and just take it one page at a time.

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A literature survey and qualitative analysis on work-from-home research before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Powers, Alissa
Advisor(s): Redmiles, David

The COVID-19 pandemic shook the world into a frenzy of Zoom meetings and online activity. In one month, more people began working from home than at any other point in history. This major shift poses a question: Did the increase in the number of people and extent of work occurring from home change studies on this activity? I conduct a literature survey and use qualitative coding and analysis methods to compare the research on working from home conducted in the 20 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to the studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. I find that the research methods remain largely the same, but the scope and topics change. The scope decreases during the COVID-19 pandemic to focus more on the individual instead of on the organization or society. Meanwhile, the topics shift to focus more on health, well-being, and empathy in challenging times. I discuss my results and potential directions for future research. I also provide key insights for future researchers to keep in mind as they continue researching working from home during a pandemic.

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How working from home works out

Key takeaways.

Forty-two percent of U.S. workers are now working from home full time, accounting for more than two-thirds of economic activity.
Policymakers should ensure that broadband service is expanded so more workers can do their jobs away from a traditional office.
As companies consider relocating from densely populated urban centers in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, cities may suffer while suburbs and rural areas benefit.
Working from home is here to stay, but post-pandemic will be optimal at about two days a week.

Working from home (WFH) is dominating our lives. If you haven’t experienced the phenomenon directly, you’ve undoubtedly heard all about it, as U.S. media coverage of working from home jumped 12,000 percent since January 1 .

But the trend toward working from home is nothing new. In 2014 I published a study of a Chinese travel company, Ctrip, that looked at the benefits of its WFH policies (Bloom et al. 2014). And in the past several months as the coronavirus pandemic has forced millions of workers to set up home offices, I have been advising dozens of firms and analyzing four large surveys covering working from home. 2

The recent work has highlighted several recurring themes, each of which carries policy questions — either for businesses or public officials. But the bottom line is clear: Working from home will be very much a part of our post-COVID economy. So the sooner policymakers and business leaders think of the implications of a home-based workforce, the better our firms and communities will be positioned when the pandemic subsides.

The US economy is now a working-from-home economy

Figure 1 shows the work status of 2,500 Americans my colleagues Jose Barrero (ITAM) and Steve Davis (Chicago) and I surveyed between May 21-25. The responders were between 20 and 64, had worked full time in 2019, and earned more than $20,000. The participants were weighted to represent the U.S. by state, industry, and income.

We find that 42 percent of the U.S. labor force are now working from home full time, while another 33 percent are not working — a testament to the savage impact of the lockdown recession. The remaining 26 percent are working on their business’s premises, primarily as essential service workers. Almost twice as many employees are working from home as at a workplace.

If we weight these employees by their earnings in 2019 as an indicator of their contribution to the country’s GDP, we see that these at-home workers now account for more than two-thirds of economic activity. In a matter of weeks, we have transformed into a working-from-home economy.

Although the pandemic has battered the economy to a point where we likely won’t see a return to trend until 2022 (Baker et al. 2020), things would have been far worse without the ability to work from home. Remote working has allowed us to maintain social distancing in our fight against COVID-19. So, working from home is a not only economically essential, it is a critical weapon in combating the pandemic.

Figure 1: WFH now accounts for over 60% of US economic activity

Source: Response to the question “Currently (this week) what is your work status?” Response options were “Working on my business premises“ , “Working from home” , “Still employed and paid, but not working“ , “Unemployed, but expect to be recalled to my previous job“ , “Unemployed, and do not expect to be recalled to my previous job“ , and “Not working, and not looking for work“

Data from a survey of 2,500 US residents aged 20 to 64, earning more than $20,000 per year in 2019 carried out between May 21-29, by QuestionPro on behalf of Stanford University. Sample reweighted to match current CPS.

Shares shown weighted by earnings and unweighted (share of workers)

The inequality time bomb

But it is important to understand the potential downsides of a WFH economy and take steps to mitigate them.

Figure 2 shows not everyone can work from home. Only 51 percent of our survey reported being able to WFH at an efficiency rate of 80 percent or more. These are mostly managers, professionals, and financial workers who can easily carry out their jobs on their computers by videoconference, phone, and email.

The remaining half of Americans don’t benefit from those technological workarounds — many employees in retail, health care, transportation, and business services cannot do their jobs anywhere other than a traditional workplace. They need to see customers or work with products or equipment. As such they face a nasty choice between enduring greater health risks by going to work or forgoing earnings and experience by staying at home.

Figure 2: Not all jobs can be carried out WFH

Source: Data from a survey of 2,500 US residents aged 20 to 64, earning more than $20,000 per year in 2019 carried out between May 21-25 2020, by QuestionPro on behalf of Stanford University. Sample reweighted to match the Current Population Survey.

In Figure 3 we see that many Americans also lack the facilities to effectively work from home. Only 49 percent of responders can work privately in a room other than their bedroom. The figure displays another big challenge — online connectivity. Internet connectivity for video calls has to be 90 percent or greater, which only two-thirds of those surveyed reported having. The remaining third have such poor internet service that it prevents them effectively working from home.

Figure 3: WFH under COVID-19 is challenging for many employees

Source: Pre-COVID data from the BLS ATUS . During COVID data from a survey of 2,500 US residents aged 20 to 64, earning more than $20,000 per year in 2019 carried out between May 21-25 2020, by QuestionPro on behalf of Stanford University. Sample reweighted to match the Current Population Survey.

In Figure 4, we see that more educated, higher-earning employees are far more likely to work from home. These employees continue to earn, develop skills, and advance careers. Those unable to work from home — either because of the nature of their jobs or because they lack suitable space or internet connections — are being left behind. They face bleak prospects if their skills erode during the shutdown.

Taken together, these findings point to a ticking inequality time bomb.

So as we move forward to restart the U.S. economy, investing in broadband expansion should be a major priority. During the last Great Depression, the U.S. government launched one of the great infrastructure projects in American history when it approved the Rural Electrification Act in 1936. Over the following 25 years, access to electricity by rural Americans increased from just 10 percent to nearly 100 percent. The long-term benefits included higher rates of growth in employment, population, income, and property values.

Today, as policymakers consider how to focus stimulus spending to revive growth, a significant increase in broadband spending is crucial to ensuring that all of the United States has a fair chance to bounce back from COVID-19.

Figure 4: WFH is much more common among educated higher-income employees

Trouble for the cities?

Understanding the lasting impacts of working from home in a post-COVID world requires taking a look back at the pre-pandemic work world. Back when people went to work, they typically commuted to offices in the center of cities. Our survey showed 58 percent of those who are now working from home had worked in a city before the coronavirus shutdown. And 61 percent of respondents said they worked in an office.

Since these employees also tend to be well paid, I estimate this could remove from city centers up to 50 percent of total daily spending in bars, restaurants, and shops. This is already having a depressing impact on the vitality of the downtowns of our major cities. And, as I argue below, this upsurge in working from home is largely here to stay. So I see a longer-run decline in city centers.

The largest American cities have seen incredible growth since the 1980s as younger, educated Americans have flocked into revitalized downtowns (Glaeser 2011). But it looks like 2020 will reverse that trend, with a flight of economic activity from city centers.

Of course, the upside is this will be a boom for suburbs and rural areas.

Working from home is here to stay

Working from home is a play in three parts, each totally different from the other. The first part is pre -COVID. This was an era in which working from home was both rare and stigmatized.

A survey of 10,000 salaried workers conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed only 15 percent of employees ever had a full day working from home. 3

Indeed, only 2 percent of workers ever worked from home full time. From talking to dozens of remote employees for my research projects over the years, I found these are mostly either lower-skilled data entry or tele-sales workers or higher-skilled employees who were able to do their jobs largely online and had often been able to keep a job despite locating to a new area.

Working from home before the pandemic was also hugely stigmatized — often mocked and ridiculed as “shirking from home” or “working remotely, remotely working.”

In a 2017 TEDx Talk , I showed the result from an online image search for the words “working from home” which pulled up hundreds of negative images of cartoons, semi-naked people or parents holding a laptop in one hand and a baby in the other.

Working from home during the pandemic is very different. It is now extremely common, without the stigma, but under challenging conditions . Many workers have kids at home with them. There’s a lack of quiet space, a lack of choice over having to work from home, and no option other than to do this full time. Having four kids myself I have definitely experienced this.

COVID has forced many of us to work from home under the worst circumstances.

But working from home post- COVID should be what we look forward to. Of the dozens of firms I have talked to, the typical plan is that employees will work from home between one and three days a week and come into the office the rest of the time. This is supported by our evidence on about 1,000 firms from the Survey of Business Uncertainty I run with the Atlanta Fed and the University of Chicago. 4

Before COVID, 5 percent of working days were spent at home. During the pandemic, this increased eightfold to 40 percent a day. And post-pandemic, the number will likely drop to 20 percent.

But that 20 percent still represents a fourfold increase of the pre-COVID level, highlighting that working from home is here to stay. While few firms are planning to continue full time WFH after the pandemic ends, nearly every firm I have talked to about this has been positively surprised by how well it has worked.

The office will survive but it may look different

“Should we get rid of our office?” I get that question a lot.

The answer is “No. But you might want to move it.”

Although firms plan to reduce the time their employees spend at work, this will not reduce the demand for total office space given the need for social distancing. The firms I talk to are typically thinking about halving the density of offices, which is leading to an increase in the overall demand for office space. That is, the 15 percent drop in working days in the office is more than offset by the 50 percent increase in demand for space per employee.

What is happening, however, is offices are moving from skyscrapers to industrial parks. Another dominant theme of the last 40 years of American cities was the shift of office space into high-rise buildings in city centers. COVID is dramatically reversing this trend as high rises face two massive problems in a post-COVID world.

Just consider mass transit and elevators in a time of mandatory social distancing. How can you get several million workers in and out of major cities like New York, London, or Tokyo every day keeping everyone six feet apart? And think of the last elevator you were in. If we strictly enforce six feet of social distancing, the maximum capacity of elevators could fall by 90 percent 5 , making it impossible for employees working in a skyscraper to expediently reach their desks.

Of course, if social distancing disappears post-COVID, this may not matter. But given all the uncertainty, my prediction is that when a vaccine eventually comes out in a year or so, society will have become accustomed to social distancing. And given recent nearly missed pandemics like SARS, Ebola, MERS, and avian flu, many firms and employees may be preparing for another outbreak and another need for social distancing. So my guess is many firms will be reluctant to return to dense offices.

So what is the solution? Firms may be wise to turn their attention from downtown buildings to industrial park offices, or “campuses,” as hi-tech companies in Silicon Valley like to call them. These have the huge benefits of ample parking for all employees and spacious low-rise buildings that are accessible by stairs.

Two types of policies can be explored to address this challenge. First, towns and cities should be flexible on zoning, allowing struggling shopping malls, cinemas, gyms, and hotels to be converted into offices. These are almost all low-rise structures with ample parking, perfect for office development.

Second, we need to think more like economists by introducing airline-style pricing for mass transit and elevators. The challenges with social distancing arise during peak capacity, so we need to cut peak loads.

For public transportation this means steeply increasing peak-time fares and cutting off-peak fares to encourage riders to spread out through the day.

For elevator rides we need to think more radically. For example, office rents per square foot could be cut by 50 percent, but elevator use could be charged heavily during the morning and evening rush hours. Charging firms, say $10 per elevator ride between 8:45 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. and 5:15 p.m., would encourage firms to stagger their working days. This would move elevator traffic to off-peak periods with excess capacity. We are moving from a world where office space is in short supply to one where elevator space is in short supply, and commercial landlords should consider charging their clients accordingly.

Making a smooth transition

From all my conversations and research, I have three pieces of advice for anyone crafting WFH policies.

First, working from home should be part time.

Full-time working from home is problematic for three reasons: It is hard to be creative at a distance, it is hard to be inspired and motivated at home, and employee loyalty is strained without social interaction.

My experiment at Ctrip in China followed 250 employees working from home for four days a week for nine months and saw the challenges of isolation and loneliness this created.

For the first three months employees were happy — it was the euphoric honeymoon period. But by the time the experiment had run its full length, two-thirds of the employees requested to return to the office. They needed human company.

Currently, we are in a similar honeymoon phase of full-time WFH. But as with any relationship, things can get rocky and I see increasing numbers of firms and employees turning against this practice.

So the best advice is plan to work from home about 1 to 3 days a week. It’ll ease the stress of commuting, allow for employees to use their at-home days for quiet, thoughtful work, and let them use their in-office days for meetings and collaborations.

Second, working from home should be optional.

Figure 5 shows the choice of how many days per week our survey of 2,500 American workers preferred. While the median responder wants to work from home two days a week, there is a striking range of views. A full 20 percent of workers never want to do it while another 25 percent want to do it full time.

The remaining 55 percent all want some mix of office and home time. I saw similarly large variations in views in my China experiment, which often changed over time. Employees would try WFH and then discover after a few months it was too lonely or fell victim to one of the three enemies of the practice — the fridge, the bed, and the television — and would decide to return to the office.

So the simple advice is to let employees choose, within limits. Nobody should be forced to work from home full time, and nobody should be forced to work in the office full time. Choice is key — let employees pick their schedules and let them change as their views evolve. The two exceptions are new hires, for whom maybe one or two years full time in the office makes sense, and under-performers, who are the subject of my final tip.

Third, working from home is a privilege, not an entitlement.

For WFH to succeed, it is essential to have an effective performance review system. If you can evaluate employees based on output — what they accomplish — they can easily work from home. If they are effective and productive, great; if not, warn them, and if they continue to underperform, haul them back to the office.

This of course requires effective performance management. In firms that do not have effective employee appraisal systems management, I would caution against working from home. This was the lesson of Yahoo in 2013 . When Marissa Mayer took over, she found there was an ineffective employee evaluation system and working from home was hard to manage. So WFH was paused while Mayer revamped Yahoo’s employee performance evaluation.

The COVID pandemic has challenged and changed our relationships with work and how many of us do our jobs. There’s no real going back, and that means policymakers and business leaders need to plan and prepare so workers and firms are not sidelined by otherwise avoidable problems. With a thoughtful approach to a post-pandemic world, working from home can be a change for good.

Figure 5: There is wide variation in employee demand for WFH post-COVID

Source: Response to the questions: “In 2021+ (after COVID) how often would you like to have paid work days at home?“

Data from a survey of 2,500 US residents aged 20 to 64, earning more than $20,000 per year in 2019 carried out between May 21-25, by QuestionPro on behalf of Stanford University.

Sample reweighted to match the Current Population Survey.

1 Newsbank Access World News collection of approximately 2,000 national and local daily U.S. newspapers showing the percentage of articles mentioning “working from home” or “WFH.”

2 These are the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey ; the Survey of Business Uncertainty ; the Bank of England Decision Maker Panel ; and the survey I conducted of 2,500 U.S. employees.

3 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Flexibilities and Work Schedules News Release. Sept. 24, 2019 .

4 Firms Expect Working from Home to Triple. May 28, 2020. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta .

5 In a packed elevator each person requires about four square feet. With six-foot spacing we need a circle of radius six-feet around each person, which is over 100 square feet. If an elevator is large enough to fit more than one person, experts have advised riders to stand in your corner, face the walls and carry toothpicks (for pushing the buttons), as explained in this NPR report .

Baker, S.R., Bloom, N., Davis, S.J., Terry, S.J. (2020). COVID-Induced Economic Uncertainty (No. 26983). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J., Zhichun, J.Y. (2014). Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment. Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Glaeser, E. (2011). Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier. Penguin Books.

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Remote Working Dissertation Topic Ideas

Published by Owen Ingram at December 29th, 2022 , Revised On August 16, 2023

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has become increasingly popular, and many businesses are considering implementing more remote employment contracts. Although working remotely offers apparent advantages for many people, it also has drawbacks and practical and legal difficulties.

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Remote employment is a new area of study, and so we have suggested some ideas for you to consider. So here is our list of remote working dissertation topics.

This Article Provides A List Of Remote-Working Dissertation Topics:

What aspects do remote employees believe to be critical in deciding to work remotely?
How does managing remote employees compare to managing employees who work on-site?
How much does gender affect a worker’s decision to work remotely?
Why are distant workers’ levels of productivity and quality
Lower than those of on-site workers?
What can be done to increase the output and standard of remote workers?
Why can only tech professionals choose their place of employment?
How can affiliate marketing make it possible for you to work from home?
Does remote work increase or decrease the labour productivity of a company?
The great remote work revolution winners and losers
Back to the office or remote work? The statistics just changed
The revolution in remote work: how to succeed from anywhere
Why is yahoo not? Allow employees to work remotely
Obtaining your boss, working remotely, and spending more time engaging in your favourite activities
How can remote work be successful for everyone?
Employee resources and advice for remote work
Keeping the kids busy while you work from home
Facts and figures about remote work that you should know
Risks: Elon musk’s perspective on remote work has challenges
The top websites for remote employment in 2022
Genuine remote work does exist, so why did it only start to gain popularity during the covid-19 pandemic?
Reasons why the value of remote work remains today
The mysterious absence of remote work in job listings
Is the “remote work window” privilege about to end? The phenomenon of remote work analysis
The impact of distant work on information workers’ ability to collaborate
Evaluating the expansion of remote work and its effects on effort, well-being, and work-life balance
A review of the literature on the impact of working from home on British workers’ productivity and quality of life
Research on the employee perceptions of remote work and cyber security in an international organization during the pandemic
An examination of work-life balance and remote employment in the UK
A work design perspective on practical remote work during the covid-19 pandemic
Remote work affects women’s work-life balance and attitudes toward gender roles
Effects of employer surveillance on distant employees
The impact of remote work on information workers’ ability to collaborate
An investigation into the attitudes of information technology professionals toward working from home
An overview of the negative consequences working from home has on physical and mental health: how can we improve health?
The effects of remote work and digital labour on individuals, businesses, and society

The success of your dissertation depends on how catchy and interesting your topic is. Take your time to consider various remote working issues before you make the final choice. Make sure that you find enough relevant material on the selected title before you start writing a dissertation .

If you need a professional dissertation service that can help you with the topics, the proposal or the whole thesis paper, we are just a click away .

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How to find remote working dissertation topics.

To find remote working dissertation topics:

Examine effects on productivity.
Explore work-life balance challenges.
Investigate technology implications.
Analyze remote team dynamics.
Consider remote management strategies.
Assess impacts on mental health. Choose a topic aligning with your field and research interests.

Dissertation topics on remote work

The following is a non-exhaustive list of subjects for the preparation of a dissertation on remote work: maintaining employee motivation, internal communication and remote work.

Photo Credit: Unsplash XPS

Topic 1 - Remote work and maintaining employee motivation

The notion of remote work has become widespread since the start of the crisis, the professional world and working methods having indeed been severely impacted by the health crisis. Problem: how to manage to keep motivation intact while working from home? How is this motivation essential for the continuity of the company's performance? First, give the main definitions, that of remote work and that of motivation . Talk about what has changed in the professional world and the psychological side of these changes for a large number of employees. Dealing with the importance of motivation, its relationship with the well-being of employees, but also with the performance of a group. Finally, talk about methods that allow you to keep motivation intact despite a troubling situation.

Topic 2 - Internal communication and remote work

Luckily, modes of communication have changed a lot, and even when employees work from home, they can come into contact with their company at any time. Problem: how does good internal communication guarantee better employee motivation? The first part can be devoted to the definitions and the links which exist between the concepts. In another part talk about the link between communication, involvement and motivation of employees. Also, give the advantages for employees of maintaining regular contact with their co-workers and not only with their manager. Finally, talk about the different modes of communication, and the link with new technologies and with company performance .

Topic 3 - Psychological well-being of employees: depression and remote work

The topics to be defined here are well-being at work and the link between depression and telework. Since the start of the health crisis and the successive confinements, a large number of employees have felt lost, and the rate of people with depression has also greatly increased. Problem: how can remotely work promote depression in certain employees, and how to maintain psychological well-being despite the current crisis? The first part deals with the link between well-being at work and performance, as well as the link between telework and depression. How to avoid episodes of depression? What is the manager's role? Talk about internal communication and employee involvement, how can you give teleworkers enough motivation to allow them to feel useful within the company?

Topic 4 - Telecommuting and performance

This topic is about remote work and performance. Two themes which are linked, especially now, when the health crisis is far from over. Problem: how can remote work be a driver of performance? To answer this question, the candidate can talk about remote work as a whole and give its main advantages. Also give the definition of performance, as well as the new work habits which today govern the professional lives of thousands of employees. What is the role of the manager? How is it possible to improve performance in new work habits that must be governed by learning autonomy and confidence?

Topic 5 - Perception of evaluation by teleworkers

This topic is about evaluation and remote work. To improve company performance and ensure that work gets done despite the distance, managers have implemented a control system. However, this system is not always well received by employees. Problem: how to set up an effective and non-intrusive control system for teleworkers? Define the different management methods and a fortiori of possible evaluations. Establish the link between controls, performance, trust and employee well-being. How do workers view the controls to which they are subject? What is the point of maintaining open communication with your team to get their feedback? What is the role of trust in management and in remote work? What is the correct organization to meet business requirements and performance? Sources: Grenoble EM, Sociabble, Global Watch, Qualtrics, Culture RH

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Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges

Balazs Aczel

1 Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary

Marton Kovacs

2 Doctoral School of Psychology, ELTE Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary

Tanja van der Lippe

3 Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Barnabas Szaszi

Associated data.

All research materials, the collected raw and processed anonymous data, just as well the code for data management and statistical analyses are publicly shared on the OSF page of the project: OSF: https://osf.io/v97fy/ .

Introduction

Mostly positive	Mostly negative
Less commuting	Isolation from colleagues
More control over time	Less defined work-life boundaries
More autonomy	Higher need for self-discipline
Less office-related distractions	Reliance on private infrastructure
More comfortable environment	Communication difficulties with colleagues
More flexibility with domestic tasks	Communication difficulties with colleagues

Materials and methods

Efficiency of research work

Comparing working from home to working in the office

Actual and ideal time spent working from home

Feasibility of working more from home

Background information

Data preprocessing and analyses

Background information question	Subgroup	Number of responses	Proportion of the subgroup
Gender	Female	356	50.57
Gender	Male	338	48.01
Gender	Prefer not to say	9	1.28
Gender	Other	1	0.14
Academic position	full professor	209	29.69
Academic position	associate professor	172	24.43
Academic position	assistant professor	126	17.90
Academic position	PhD student	72	10.23
Academic position	postdoc	72	10.23
Academic position	non-academic researcher	38	5.40
Academic position	research assistant	14	1.99
Academic position	not applicable	1	0.14

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Object name is pone.0249127.g002.jpg

The bars represent response averages of the given aspects.

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Object name is pone.0249127.g003.jpg

Supporting information

Acknowledgments.

We would like to thank Szonja Horvath, Matyas Sarudi, and Zsuzsa Szekely for their help with reviewing the free text responses.

Funding Statement

TVL's contribution is part of the research program Sustainable Cooperation – Roadmaps to Resilient Societies (SCOOP). She is grateful to the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) for their support in the context of its 2017 Gravitation Program (grant number 024.003.025).

Data Availability

PLoS One. 2021; 16(3): e0249127.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Johnson Chun-Sing Cheung, D.S.W.

Academic Editor

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Comments to the Author

Reviewer #1: PONE-D-20-30010

Title: Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges

Reviewer’s article summary: This manuscript provides results from a survey on work-life balance among academics who switched to remote work-from-home during the Covid-19 pandemic. I believe the article contributes insight on both the work-life balance among academics and how researchers have experienced their work during the pandemic, and will be of interest to the PloS One audience. Below, please see suggestions for improving the manuscript.

Abstract: Please include a brief statement about methodology, including sample size of the survey population, how the survey was conducted (convenience sample? Recruitment strategy?).

Introduction: The authors questions, “Is the relation between working from home and productivity influenced by personal and professional factors?” This question seems like a non-starter – how could working from home not be influenced by personal and professional factors? Advise revising this question to better focus your key arguments (i.e. what personal and professional factors most influence the productivity of working from home?).

“just as well increased autonomy over time use” – awkward sentence; please revise to clarify.

“physical and social distance to teal members” – do you mean team members?

Table 1 – please refer to the table in the text to guide the audience to this comparison of pros/cons in context of the introduction. It may also better position this manuscript within the literature to include more details from the studies that list these pros/cons (i.e. include the % of people who have reported each of the pros/cons within the table itself, and include a reference to the study where each % was derived).

Reference to Snizek in the 80’s – the benefit of including this quote is questionable; it would be more helpful to include more recent literature on this point since generational changes have perhaps changed this experience.

“just as well high levels of work productivity and satisfaction” – awkward sentence, please revise for clarity.

Materials and Methods: Please provide the study number for IRB approval.

The authors do include links to their study procedure, but it would be helpful for a more complete overview of the procedure within the manuscript so the audience can more easily ascertain the methodology employed. In comparison, the “Materials” section provides intricate detail that may not be necessary (in this reviewer’s opinion, it would be more efficient to simply list the types of questions asked—i.e. “Survey questions asked participants to report on changes that occurred in relation to research work efficiency, comparison of home to office work, amount of time spent…”(etc. or something of this nature)–with a link to the actual survey instrument).

There is no section or statement regarding data analysis. Please describe your analytical procedure (descriptive statistics, any regressions?) and software used for analysis.

Results – Recommend providing a demographics table in the manuscript that displays sample size and % for the information described in the “background information” section. Please include data about the countries where respondents live, if available; if not available, please include a statement regarding residence in the Methods section (i.e. was the sample all within a single country?).

Figures – please include sample size (n = ) in the figure titles.

” From these values we can assume that some of the obstacles of their work were specific to the pandemic lockdown and not directly to working from home” – please explain and clarify.

“…seems to be a generally wanted and beneficial model of work” – this statement seems to ignore the result that nearly half of respondents reported being less efficient during the pandemic. Recommend revising this statement, and including a summary that the results indicate although almost half of the respondents reported reduced work efficiency, they would prefer the current remote work setting to some extent in the future. May also be useful to note that the implications of this require further investigation – what is it about this new work situation that people prefer? What amount of time did people previously spend in commute that they now can use for other tasks or personal interests? What other factors have changed that make the current situation more preferred?

#5 – incomplete reference

There are several references that are now quite old (1987, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009…) – Recommend reviewing these carefully to ensure that there is not more recent literature that would shed better light on the subject.

Figure 1 – recommend revising the X axis to show sample size, and the bar labels to show % to increase clarity of results.

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/ . PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at gro.solp@serugif . Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Author response to Decision Letter 0

17 Feb 2021

Dear Dr. Johnson Cheung,

We are happy to submit a revised version of our manuscript to PLOS One.

We would like to thank you and the reviewer for their comments and suggestions.

Below, you can find the detailed responses to all comments in bold.

Balazs Aczel, on behalf of all co-authors

Reviewer #1

We have added these aspects to the Abstract.

We agree with the reviewer and changed that question as suggested.

Table 1 is referred to in the text, just above the table. After due consideration of this suggestion, we judged that three paragraphs about the pros/cons provide sufficient details on the given topic. We found no sound way to merge the empirical reports of the referred studies to provide overall percentages of people reporting each pros/cons.

The old Snizek reference serves as an indicator that academics have already experienced some of the drawbacks of working from home at the start of the popularity of personal computers. We have now extended our Introduction with more studies from the recent literature, especially with those conducted during the pandemic.

We have now placed the Procedure section before the Materials section. At the beginning of the Materials section, we provide a link to the original content of our Qualtrics survey. This file contains the wording of the items and the display logic of the questions. We would also prefer to keep the detailed description of the survey items in the manuscript as most of the items were developed by the authors for the study. Should the Editor prefer that, we could move the Materials section to the Supporting Information and leave just the link to the exact survey questions in the manuscript.

Now, we state in the Data preprocessing and Analyses section that we used the R statistical software for the analyses and that we report only descriptive statistical results in this study.

The table with the sample size and proportions for all the levels of all the survey items is provided in the Supplementary Materials. However, as the whole table is more than 4 pages long, we think that by including the table in the main text we would corrupt the readability of the manuscript.

Now, we state in the Sampling section that the country of residence of the respondents is not known.

The sample sizes are now included in the figure titles.

We would like to thank the reviewer for pointing out the vagueness of this section. We rephrased the sentence and added one more sentence to the section to clarify our point.

We have now updated this sentence incorporating the reviewer’s suggestion. The updated paragraph is on page 16.

We fixed the incomplete reference.

We agree that some of our references are from the ‘80s or ‘90s, yet they are still good sources of our claims (e.g., how researchers found working from home when personal computers started or that setting up a home office comes with physical and infrastructural demands). Nevertheless, we have added more recent studies to our references, especially from the relevant literature that has been published since our initial submission 5 months ago:

Johnson N, Veletsianos G, Seaman J. US Faculty and Administrators’ Experiences and Approaches in the Early Weeks of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Online Learn. 2020;24(2):6–21.

Barrero JM, Bloom N, Davis SJ. Why Working From Home Will Stick. Univ Chic Becker Friedman Inst Econ Work Pap. 2020;(2020–174).

Korbel JO, Stegle O. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on life scientists. Genome Biol. 2020;21(113).

Ghaffarizadeh SA, Ghaffarizadeh SA, Behbahani AH, Mehdizadeh M, Olechowski A. Life and work of researchers trapped in the COVID-19 pandemic vicious cycle. bioRxiv. 2021;

Thank you for the recommendation. We have now modified this figure.

Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx

Decision Letter 1

23 Feb 2021

PONE-D-20-30010R1

Please submit your revised manuscript by Apr 09 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at gro.solp@enosolp . When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Reviewer #1:

Reviewer’s response to revisions: Overall, the authors have revised the manuscript to increase clarity and improve understanding of the contributions that this research provides regarding the future outlook for academics working from home. I have a few minor comments:

Limitations: This revised document brings to light the fact that 1) we do not know how the transition to working from home differs between countries since country was not a survey question (which could differ significantly given a number of social and technological/infrastructure factors), and 2) since the analysis only included descriptive statistics there is great potential in learning more from this dataset – and it is wonderful that the dataset will be publicly available. I do recommend adding a statement on limitations, both because it is a best practice, and because it shows that the authors have been thoughtful about the limits of their current analysis.

Results – Recommend providing a demographics table in the manuscript that displays sample size and % for the information described in the “background information” section. I appreciate the authors’ response to this request, but suggest that as a standard practice a shortened version of the key demographics could be provided in a table within the text, and the remainder of the demographics table could be in the supplemental material (having these results within the table is standard in my field since it provides the background information necessary for academics to easily understand the full scope of the results). In response to the question of length, I would suggest that the paragraph that lists the % of respondents who were male/female, etc. could be shortened and simply refer to the table instead.

Figure 1 – recommend revising the X axis to show sample size, and the bar labels to show % to increase clarity of results. The authors responded that this change was made in the revision, but I could not find the updated figure in the revised document.

Author response to Decision Letter 1

Overall, the authors have revised the manuscript to increase clarity and improve

understanding of the contributions that this research provides regarding the future outlook for

academics working from home. I have a few minor comments:

Limitations: This revised document brings to light the fact that 1) we do not know how the

transition to working from home differs between countries since country was not a survey

question (which could differ significantly given a number of social and

technological/infrastructure factors), and 2) since the analysis only included descriptive

statistics there is great potential in learning more from this dataset – and it is wonderful that

the dataset will be publicly available. I do recommend adding a statement on limitations, both

because it is a best practice, and because it shows that the authors have been thoughtful

about the limits of their current analysis.

We have now included a statement of limitations regarding the missing information

on country of residence and made it more clear in the limitations section that the

present study was only exploratory.

Results – Recommend providing a demographics table in the manuscript that displays

sample size and % for the information described in the “background information” section. I

appreciate the authors’ response to this request, but suggest that as a standard practice a

shortened version of the key demographics could be provided in a table within the text, and

the remainder of the demographics table could be in the supplemental material (having

these results within the table is standard in my field since it provides the background

information necessary for academics to easily understand the full scope of the results). In

response to the question of length, I would suggest that the paragraph that lists the % of

respondents who were male/female, etc. could be shortened and simply refer to the table

We have now included the key demographics as a table (Table 2) in the manuscript in

addition to the full summary of all the responses in the Supplementary information.

Figure 1 – recommend revising the X axis to show sample size, and the bar labels to show

% to increase clarity of results. The authors responded that this change was made in the

revision, but I could not find the updated figure in the revised document.

We made sure that all the figures are updated and uploaded with this submission

Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.pdf

Decision Letter 2

12 Mar 2021

PONE-D-20-30010R2

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ , click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at gro.solp@gnillibrohtua .

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Acceptance letter

16 Mar 2021

Dear Dr. Aczel:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact gro.solp@sserpeno .

If we can help with anything else, please email us at gro.solp@enosolp .

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr. Johnson Chun-Sing Cheung

3 Reasons Why Working From Home Isn’t as Easy as It Looks

In reality, the work-from-home life isn't as dreamy as it looks. here's why..

Posted July 17, 2024 | Reviewed by Davia Sills

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Working from home offers freedom and autonomy that many employees crave.
However, working from home also comes with some hidden drawbacks.
Remote employees may struggle with blurred boundaries, feelings of isolation, and sleep problems.

Imagine a life where you reclaim your time, working hard yet stress -free in your own space. At home, you can meditate or exercise without the hassle of commuting, enjoy great coffee whenever you like, and have healthy lunches and snacks at your fingertips. No more dealing with uncomfortable office temperatures or poor lighting.

The stress of a corporate open office setup fades away, and you no longer wake up before dawn to sit in traffic for hours, nor do you spend your evenings stuck in the same gridlock.

Expensive, unsatisfying lunches and fake office niceties have become things of the past. Instead, you find yourself healthier and happier, with more time to spend with your spouse and children. While this scenario sounds quite appealing to some, others living the same reality may disagree.

The shift to remote work, initially welcomed with enthusiasm during the pandemic, has significantly transformed the way people perceive work. While remote work offers numerous benefits, it also conceals drawbacks that can affect people’s well-being and productivity .

1. Blurring Work-Life Boundaries

Working from home offers incredible flexibility, allowing individuals to set their schedules and work from any environment. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for parents, enabling them to structure their work around family needs. However, this same flexibility can blur work-life boundaries , creating challenges in maintaining a clear separation between professional and personal life.

For instance, without defined work hours, employees may find themselves working longer than intended. Distractions at home can interrupt work, stretching a 6-hour task into a 12-hour ordeal. Over time, this lack of clear boundaries can lead to decreased productivity and burnout .

A 2022 study investigated the long-term effects of working from home during various phases of the pandemic and identified three primary challenges people faced in maintaining boundaries within their homes:

Time and place: There was difficulty in separating work hours from personal time and workspaces from living spaces.
Care and housework: The overlap between professional responsibilities and domestic duties, including caregiving , proved to be challenging.
Emotional, social, spiritual , and aesthetic labor: Remote work folds emotional, social, spiritual, and aesthetic labor into home life, leading to blurred boundaries and increased stress. Imagine a scenario where you have gotten half-ready for a Zoom call, with your toddler screaming for lunch, a friend crashing at your place for the weekend, and your to-do and self-care lists hanging over your head like a guillotine. This is what a bad work-from-home day can look like.

Women, in particular, reported higher levels of integration between professional work and domestic responsibilities, such as caregiving and housework.

One mother said, “I work on my laptop either on the couch or at the dining table…Our home office is used by my husband. When the kindergartens closed in the spring, and the children were at home, I worked in the sauna as it was the quietest place in the house.”

2. Social Isolation and Loneliness

“Perhaps empathy diminishes a little when people don’t meet and are just distant faces on the screen. You can’t see the reactions of others and have become more ‘business-oriented,’” said another participant.

Remote work can be a lonely experience, lacking social interactions inherent in an office environment. Office settings offer opportunities for casual conversations, team-building activities, and after-work socializing, which are essential for building a sense of community and belonging. For individuals living alone or those who are introverted, the isolation of remote work can be particularly challenging over a long time.

“The cheering up of coworkers has diminished as I find myself working a lot in my own bubble. In the office, I circulated to say hi and got people smiling. I also spontaneously praised others. In telework, spontaneous expression of emotions is clearly more difficult, but not completely forgotten,” said one participant.

A 2023 survey conducted by Buffer asked participants about their experiences of remote work. While over 90 percent of respondents expressed a positive attitude towards remote work in terms of flexibility and autonomy, 23 percent indicated that it is a lonely experience. A February 2023 study published in Personality and Individual Differences and other research also highlights the absence of a social environment and the feeling of loneliness experienced by remote workers.

Another study suggested that employees who experienced high levels of loneliness related to their work reported higher levels of emotional exhaustion, poorer work-life balance, increased minor counterproductive work behaviors, depression , and insomnia . Loneliness can exacerbate feelings of isolation and stress, leading to adverse outcomes.

3. Impaired Sleep Schedule

The flexibility of remote work can disrupt sleep patterns. Employees may work late into the night to meet deadlines or handle unexpected tasks, leading to irregular sleep schedules. Poor sleep, as we now know quite well, can have severe consequences on physical and mental health—impaired cognitive function, weakened immune system, and increased risk of chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.

In one study , researchers were surprised to find that remote health workers were more likely to develop insomnia than those providing in-person care during the pandemic, with women and older workers being at higher risk.

This was likely due to the added pressures of childcare and overseeing online education while working from home, which contributed to worse sleep for health workers with children. Additionally, changes in work schedules, reduced exposure to sunlight, and prolonged psychological stress were identified as potential factors disrupting sleep.

“It’s the reason why everyone is walking around in a fatigued state. Our circadian system is dysregulated, we’re not getting enough light during the day, and then add in all the psychological stressors,” explained the researchers.

While the allure of remote work lies in its promise of flexibility and autonomy, it’s essential to acknowledge and address the hidden challenges that can undermine these benefits. Diving into a remote working arrangement without mentally and logistically preparing yourself can have a direct impact on your physical and emotional well-being.

A version of this post also appears on Forbes.com.

Mark Travers, Ph.D., is an American psychologist with degrees from Cornell University and the University of Colorado Boulder.

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More From Forbes

6 work from home office essentials you need in 2024.

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Remote work is more than just a laptop and a seat; you need to create a welcoming space in which you ... [+] feel most energized and productive while at home

There's a science to working from home.

There's more to remote work than your company-provided laptop, work phone, and a sofa or dining chair.

To work effectively and perform your best in your remote job, you need to surround yourself with the right environment.

The good news is that you don't even need a massive room to have the perfect home office space. You can implement some of the below ideas with a small space. And the items don't need to cost you a fortune either, but they will significantly help you stay focused and productive while maintaining your health and wellbeing.

In an interview, several experts shared their top tips for how to design your work-from-home office space and what factors you should bear in mind when working remotely:

Mark Mcshane, founder of Cupid PR has extensive experience in running large enterprises and start-ups, and is currently leading a fully remote team, which has given him insights into creating effective work-from-home office spaces. His advice on features, color schemes, essential items, and considerations for the home office?

"In designing a work-from-home office, the criterion should be such that it is functional and inspiring. I would begin with a basic color scheme situated around soft grays, whites, and beiges to help bring about a calm and professional environment," he says. "Enunciate this neutrality with pops of color in deep blues or greens for the commanding effect, which puts energy and interest into a room without being too much to distract."

Mcshane also recommends adding decorative features that allow for personal touches, making the space. "These may include fine art prints, plants, and stylish storage. Lighting is equally important: check that you are getting sufficient natural light and supplement it with adjustable desk lamps fitted with LED bulbs, which help guard against straining your eyes," he advises.

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024, low-cost office essentials for your remote job.

On a shoestring budget? These must-have items have you covered:

1. Ergonomic Chair

"Comfort is everything, as an ergonomic chair will help in supporting your posture and gives you lesser instances of back pain," recommends Mcshane. His personal favorite is the Hbada Office Task Desk Chair, which is a budget-friendly option currently available on Amazon for $99.

"You will want your desk to be sturdy. You might want to check the SHW Home Office 48-Inch Computer Desk on Amazon; it provides ample space without breaking the bank," Mcshane says.

3. Lighting

"Invest in quality lighting, such as LED task lights and overhead fixtures," recommends Ryan Norman, founder of Norman Builders , a home remodeling company in New Hampshire. "Proper lighting reduces eye strain and improves focus. For those on a budget, natural light is free—place your desk near a window."

3. Laptop Stand and Keyboard/Mouse Combo

"For keeping your screen at eye-level, preventing strained necks, a laptop stand is quite a worthy investment," Mcshane says, "like the Amazon Basics Ventilated Adjustable Laptop Stand." Laptop stands can also help prevent overheating of your laptop, which can result in malfunctions.

Keyboard and mouse combos can help with your typing comfort and efficiency, such as Mcshane's recommended Logitech combo.

Incorporate calming color schemes with pops of color for a bolder, sophisticated, or artsy look

5. Storage Solutions

Last but not least, storage is important to declutter and help you stay focused. One easy and inexpensive storage option that Mcshane recommends is the Keter Modular Drawer System. In addition to Amazon, storage solutions, as well as a chair and desk can often be found at retailers such as Staples, IKEA, Target, Office Depot, and Walmart, in options that fit most budgets and are generally good quality.

6. Artwork, Plants, And Other Personal Touches

And if you have some money to spare, you can add to these essentials with inexpensive (or expensive if you prefer) touches to add character to your space. Like Maria Szandrach, CEO of Mentalyc , says, "Prioritize essentials first and gradually add more items as your budget allows."

Kristin Kintlian, co-owner of Bonsai Builders , a luxury home construction company in Massachusetts, recommends: "Add personal touches to make the space your own. Artwork, photos, or live plants can boost creativity and motivation."

Szandrach shares that she even has a few succulents and a snake plant in her work from home office.

What To Consider When Setting Up Work From Home Office Space

What are some things you should consider before purchasing items for your work from home space?

1. Your Routine

"Consider how you’ll use the space and set it up for your needs," Kintlian continues. "Measure the area, create a floor plan, and think about your daily routine. The right office configuration will make working from home seamless."

In Kintlian's home office, she has a desk facing away from the window to avoid glare on her monitor, a bookcase for reference materials, and cabinets to keep everything organized.

Ergonomics should be your number one consideration when choosing essentials for your work from home ... [+] office space

2. Color Scheme

Ashley Southworth is a founder and creative director at Southworth Interior Design located in Bakersfield, California, and she has been working remotely since July 2023. She recommends her clients to choose a color scheme that they naturally gravitate towards. "Considering the psychology of color is also a beneficial approach as studies have shown that colors such as blue, yellow, or green can boost efficiency and creativity while red and orange can promote higher activity levels," Southworth says.

"When it comes to design, I personally love a dark and moody room but I would try to steer a client away from using this approach in a home office as it may prevent productivity and instead encourage a few too many siestas."

Naptime or mid-afternoon slumps anyone?

According to Southworth, World Market carries a wide variety of comfortable and stylish desk chairs at excellent prices if you're looking to go more up-market. "The Paige Charcoal Gray Linen Square Back Office Chair is a great classic option while the Rifle Paper Co. x Cloth & Company Oxford Office Chair comes in a variety of colors with whimsical designs."

"Target consistently carries stylish desk accessories that don't break the bank," she says. But for art, her go-to is digital art downloads on Etsy. "There are literally thousands of printable art options with many being under $10. I purchased this Vintage Southwestern Gallery Wall Set by Arte Serene Co. for my personal home office and I am obsessed! For a more high end look I recommend having your digital art printed on giclee; however, I doubt anyone will notice if you print yours from your local neighborhood 1 hour printing service."

4. Noise Level

"Choose a quiet area, if possible, or soundproof, if necessary," advises Alina Samchenko, COO of tech start-up HireDevelopersBiz.

5. Lighting

Reiterating what Mcshane and Norman mentioned earlier, Pam Hutter , a California-based architect, says, "Focus on natural light by placing your desk near a window. Add task lighting, ambient lighting and overhead lighting for different needs."

Hutter also suggests that you should plan your office with purpose and efficiency in mind. "The right setup and gear make working from home both productive and enjoyable. Invest in the essentials, then add personal touches to inspire you. Your home office should motivate you to start and end each workday," she says.

6. Work/Life Balance

Last but not least, Norman adds, "If possible, separate your office from living spaces with a room divider or partition. The physical barrier helps establish work-life boundaries."

Samchenko reminds professionals:

Plants and artwork add personality to your office, enabling you to focus and enjoy your remote job

"Remember, the trick to a working home office is finding or creating a space in which you can be both comfortable and productive. In other words, it pays to take some planning time and make an investment in your setup—it could make half the difference between your productivity and well-being."

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UTA professor wins best dissertation award

Wednesday, Jul 17, 2024 • Brian Lopez : contact

Hanbo Shim, a University of Texas at Arlington assistant professor of management, recently won the Ralph Alexander Best Dissertation Award from the Academy of Management’s (AoM) Human Resources Division. The award will be presented at AoM’s 84th annual meeting this August.

The AoM Human Resources Division is dedicated to understanding and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of human resources practices. It is one of AoM’s largest divisions, with over 3,300 members. The Ralph Alexander award is presented to research dissertations that have contributed to solving significant obstacles in the human resources field.

Dr. Shim’s winning dissertation, “Understanding the Construct and Measure of Job Performance Over Time,” delves into the ways employee job performance is captured in the short term and long term.

“This study highlights the importance of more frequent or short-term performance feedback so employees can make more effective behavioral decisions on a short-term basis,” Shim explained. “It also informs individual employees about what would be ideal short-term performance behaviors to win a more favorable rating in the long term.”

Through his research, Shim found that there was a deep correlation between short-term tasks and long-term employee ratings.

“Individuals’ short-term performance behaviors—such as performing their own tasks or helping others—can lead to different levels of long-term performance with different patterns,” said Shim. “This implies that the momentary decisions you make every day or every week in terms of how you work can create differences in your annual performance ratings.”

He hopes his research will have a lasting impact on not only the field of human resources, but also on the decision-making capabilities of leadership as a whole.

“Once you have more accurate and frequent data about employee performance, you’re able to make more timely and effective decisions,” he said.

Shim was happy to receive this prestigious award, though he views it more as a successful team effort that will allow the field to advance.

“I celebrated when I found out, not just with the people here at UTA, but with my fellow researchers and my dissertation director, Michael Sturman, at Rutgers,” he said. “I felt joy, but I was also grateful to have the opportunity to give back. It feels great to find out that we can contribute something big to the organization and people we serve.”

— Written by Thomas Johns , College of Business

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Work from home could lead to more homes in vacant offices

The former world headquarters of Pfizer in New York’s Midtown will be converted into roughly 1,500 new rental apartments. The former Pfizer office is seen here on November 9, 2020.

Most Americans know the No. 1 rule in real estate: “location, location, location.” But for some developers, there’s a new winning strategy: “recycle, recycle, recycle.”

A growing number of office buildings have found second lives as apartments, boosted by the Covid-era work-from-home movement that slashed office attendance and thinned out cities’ downtowns.

But breaking up sterile, expansive workspaces into inviting homes is harder than you might think. Real estate developers say these projects can be like working out a puzzle: Office buildings are designed with very different considerations than apartment dwellings. Some conversions aren’t possible, and unexpected costs can add up.

Even so, as office vacancies hit a record 20.1% in the United States in the second quarter of this year, according to a recent report from Moody’s Analytics, and the supply of homes remains persistently below demand, local governments have upped incentives for office building conversions. These include tax breaks and speedier approval processes for real estate developers willing to remake the spaces.

Nearly 70 million square feet of office space, or 1.7% of the total US supply, was in the process of being converted for other uses in the first three months of 2024, according to a recent report from commercial real estate firm CBRE. Sixty-three percent of those conversions are expected to be into multi-family housing.

How does it work?

At first glance, The Crosby, an apartment building that opened in 2020 in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood, seems like a typical luxury high-rise. It boasts plush amenities like a fitness center and pool deck. Residents of The Crosby’s 336 apartment units may not know, though, that their building was the former West Coast headquarters of oil and gas company Texaco.

Converting an office space like Texaco’s into luxury units requires “basically gutting everything,” said Jaime Lee, CEO of Jamison Group, the building’s owner, which oversaw the renovation.

“We are basically clearing the floors,” she said. “You just have the floors, the building shell and the elevators left.”

Oil and gas company Texaco's former west coast headquarters was converted into an apartment building called The Crosby. It opened in 2020.

Unlike a traditional office layout, each apartment unit needs to have at least one bathroom and a kitchen, meaning plumbing must be reworked. And most office buildings have central air conditioning, so the system needs to be replaced with individual cooling and heating systems for each unit.

A rental unit apartment building in the East Village neighborhood of New York, US, on Tuesday, July 12, 2022.

Related article Half of US tenants can’t afford to pay their rent. Here’s what’s ahead

Sometimes, the project is more costly than initially expected. “Especially for buildings that have been around for a long time and have seen lots of different tenants over the years —there have been times when we’ve opened up a wall and realized there is more work to be done,” Lee said.

Although converting unused office buildings into housing units may seem like an easy remedy for the affordable housing crisis , some office buildings (even those that are entirely empty or have multiple floors sitting empty) cannot feasibly be converted into housing, said Chris Sherman, the president of Sherman Associates, a real estate developer based in Minneapolis.

“Only about 15% of office buildings here in the markets that we’re based in are potentially good candidates for office-to-housing conversions,” Sherman said.

Older buildings are best, he said. Apartments require operable windows, which most newer buildings lack. New buildings also tend to have a larger square footage. While that may initially seem like a positive, apartment units need to have access to windows facing the exterior. To have access to natural light, the units can’t stretch too far from the windows, Sherman said.

“You end up with a scenario where you’re not able to utilize a lot of the middle of that floor plate,” Sherman said.

Local governments play a role

Older buildings also qualify for historic tax credits, making these conversions more financially feasible, said Sherman.

The key to these conversions is local government buy-in, said Jason Ward, the co-director of the RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness. Recent tax breaks and major cities loosening zoning restrictions like the required width of apartment stairways and parking requirements have made more of these transformations possible, Ward said.

In September, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced an effort to eliminate mandates that parking spaces be included with new construction, freeing up space to build more homes.

One of the largest ever office-to-residential conversions will begin construction soon: The former headquarters of Pfizer in New York’s Midtown will be converted into roughly 1,500 new rental apartments.

Los Angeles also recently established a faster approval process for the conversion of existing buildings that are at least 15 years old.

“Encouraging the reuse of buildings is a sustainable practice to extend the life of buildings and retain much of the resources that went into their initial construction,” a March ordinance from the city said.

Local governments aren’t only pushing for office building conversions, though. John Watson, CEO of Indianapolis-based Core Redevelopment, said he has transformed abandoned schools and hotels into housing, as well.

“Large office buildings are probably the most difficult to do,” Watson said. “Hotels and schools are easy.”

The project Watson is most proud of, though, is the Stadium Lofts, an apartment building built from the remnants of an old baseball stadium in Indianapolis. He bought the stadium from the city for $1 and revitalized it for $28 million, including $5 million from the city.

“I went to the city and said, ‘Look, this is physically possible, but I have a $5 million gap between what it’s worth and what it costs,’ and the city said they’d fund the gap because it would help expand downtown and add to the vibrancy of the neighborhood,” Watson told CNN. “It turned out to be one of the best projects I ever did.”

Stadium Lofts began accepting residents more than a decade ago. The studio, one- and two-bedroom rental units attract college-aged students from Indiana University's nearby Indianapolis campus, John Watson, Stadium Lofts' developer, said. Stadium Lofts pictured here on October 22, 2013.

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Seven graduate students honored with Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (7/18/2024) – Seven graduate students advised by Department of Chemistry faculty members were recently awarded the University of Minnesota’s Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. The seven students honored by this prestigious award are Kaylee Barr, Brylon Denman, Madeline Honig, Chris Seong, Sneha Venkatachalapathy, Murphi Williams, and Caini Zheng.

Kaylee Barr , a Chemical Engineering and Materials Science PhD student, is entering her fifth year in the Reineke Group . Before making the move to Minnesota, she received her BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas. “I came to the University of Minnesota because of the department's developments in polymer science, and because I was interested in the intersection of polymer science and drug delivery in Theresa Reineke's lab,” she says. Here at UMN, Kaylee studies how bottlebrush polymer architecture affects pH-responsive oral drug delivery. This summer, she is excited to grow professionally and as a scientist in an intern position at Genentech.

Brylon Denman is a Chemistry PhD candidate in the Roberts Group . She joined the UMN community in 2020 after completing her BS in Biochemistry at St. Louis University. “My research in the Roberts group seeks to resolve regioselectivity and reactivity issues within aryne methodology via ligand control,” Brylon says. “To accomplish this task, I have taken a mechanistic and hypothesis driven approach to understand how key molecular parameters modify regioselectivity and reactivity. I hope to use the knowledge I have gained from these studies to both improve the synthetic utility of aryne intermediates, and improve the sustainability of aryne reactions.” Brylon is also passionate about sustainable and green chemistry. As a founding member of the Sustainable and Green Chemistry committee, Brylon strives to collaborate with other department teammates to strengthen the culture of green and sustainable chemistry through integration into teaching, research, and community engagement. “In my career I aim to continue this advocacy and use my breadth of knowledge to enact sustainable change at a major pharmaceutical company as emphasizing sustainability on such a large scale can lead to a large impact,” she says. As she works through her internship at AbbVie this summer, Brylon is looking towards the future to outline her next steps after graduation.

Madeline Honig first experienced Chemistry at UMN during a summer REU experience in the Bühlmann Lab . She formally joined the Prof. Bühlmann's team in Fall 2020 after earning her BA in Chemistry from Earlham College. Her research here at UMN has focused on the development and improved understanding of polymeric membrane-based ion-selective electrodes (ISEs). “One of my projects involves developing a quantitative parameter to better define the upper detection limits of these sensors which can be used to more accurately define sensor performance and predict the working range under different conditions,” Madeline says. “This research led us to investigate the unexplained 'super-Nernstian' responses of some pH-selective electrodes and expand the phase boundary model (the quantitative model that predicts ISE behavior) to include the formation of complexes between protonated ionophores and counter-ions in the sensing membrane. ISEs have been widely used for decades in clinical blood analysis among many other applications so it's exciting that I was still able to add to our fundamental understanding of how these sensors function.” One of Madeline’s goals is to use her research to enable the development of improved sensors that can be used in a wider range of conditions. Over the course of her graduate studies, Madeline has had the opportunity to be a graduate student mentor for two other students: Ariki Haba, a visiting master's student from Japan, and Katie O'Leary, a summer REU student, who both made significant contributions to the project. “Acting as a graduate mentor was really cool and I hope I can also make graduate-level chemistry research more approachable for everyone that I work with,” Madeline says. For her significant research efforts, Madeline was also recently selected in a national competition as one of the four winners of the 2024 Eastern Analytical Symposium Graduate Student Research Award. She will accept the award in November in Plainsboro NJ at the Eastern Analytical Symposium.

Chris Seong , an international student from New Zealand and PhD candidate in the Roberts Group, came to UMN after completing his BA with Distinction in Chemistry at St. Olaf College in 2020. Chris’ overarching chemistry interests involve the development of methods to utilize naturally abundant carboxylic acids as feedstock to synthesize medicinally relevant products, which are traditionally made with non-renewable starting materials derived from fossil fuels. “My earlier work has been focused on making alkyl-alkyl bonds through decarboxylation, but lately, in true Roberts Group fashion, I have turned my attention to using a similar mechanism to do aryne chemistry,” Chris says. He is currently working to publish a paper on the aryne project that he has been working on with two talented group mates; Sal Kargbo and Felicia Yu. “I am really excited to share this cool chemistry with the world,” he says. Outside of the lab, Chris is working on expanding his network to apply for jobs in the pharmaceutical industry – specifically in the early process space.

Sneha Venkatachalapathy is a member of the Distefano Group and an international student from India. She completed her BS in Chemistry with a minor degree in Biotechnology from Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida, India in 2020. “Chemistry has always been my passion since high school. I still remember my first successful brown ring test that has left a remarkable fascination and interest towards chemistry,” Sneha says. “This early fascination has driven my academic journey, guided by mentors like Dr. Subhabrata Sen, who encouraged me to pursue a PhD in the United States.” Sneha was drawn towards working in the Chemical Biology research field where she could directly contribute to developing human life. “Joining Dr. Mark Distefano’s lab at UMN provided me with the chance to collaborate with Dr. Mohammad Rashidian from Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Together, we work towards expanding the scope of protein prenylation to construct protein-based cancer diagnostic tools,” she says. Sneha’s goal for her time in the UMN PhD program is to create innovative protein-based tools for cancer detection and treatment, aiming to enhance patient’s quality of life. She says she is looking forward to continuing to develop her leadership skills as she continues her doctorate, and is also exploring future opportunities beyond UMN. “One thing that motivates me daily is the belief that my research contributions to the scientific community would enhance our understanding of cancer diagnostic methods, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes worldwide,” she says.

Murphi Williams completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, then joined the Bhagi-Damodaran at UMN in 2020. When it comes to research, Murphi is interested in chemical biology, more specifically, looking into proteins involved in important biological problems. “One of my major projects is developing and characterizing a potential inhibitor for Mycobacterium tuberculosis , the bacteria that causes tuberculosis,” Murphi says. “Tuberculosis is the leading infectious disease so my projects center on understanding and inhibiting heme proteins important for the bacteria. Specifically, a previous lab member identified a small molecule that I've been characterizing the activity of in cells.” Her current research goal is to express and purify the protein targets for her small molecule inhibitor in the lab to further demonstrate the in vitro activity. She is also contemplating a future career in science communication. Outside of the lab, she enjoys working on her garden.

Caini Zheng joined the Chemistry at the UMN in 2019 after finishing her undergraduate studies at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She is currently a sixth-year graduate student co-advised by Profs. Tim Lodge and Ilja Siepmann . Her research focuses on the phase behavior of soft materials, including polymers and oligomers. Her DDF statement is titled "Self-Assembly of Polymers and Amphiphiles into Bicontinuous Phases". Caini is currently working on a project to elucidate the self-assembly of glycolipids through molecular dynamics simulations coupled with machine learning methods. In the future, she wants to work in the industry on bridging data science with traditional material research.

Delta pauses global flight schedule

Delta has paused its global flight schedule this morning due to a vendor technology issue that is impacting several airlines and businesses around the world. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible to resume operations.

Customers with flights scheduled for Friday should continue checking their flight status via the Fly Delta app and Delta.com .

We are also working to issue a travel waiver this morning that will allow customers scheduled to travel Friday, July 19, to manage changes to their itinerary via Delta.com or the Fly Delta app.

We apologize for the inconvenience as our teams continue work to resolve the issue.

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What Is CrowdStrike?

CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software is used by scores of industries, including airlines, hospitals and retailers, to prevent hacks and data breaches.

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By Kate Conger and Claire Moses

July 19, 2024

On Friday morning, flights were canceled, broadcasters went off air, trains didn’t run and medical procedures were delayed around the world. Frustrated workers were confronted with blue computer screens and no obvious way to get back online.

The root of the problem? CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company dedicated to preventing exactly this sort of global outage.

CrowdStrike, which was founded in 2011, is a cloud-based cybersecurity platform whose software is used by scores of industries around the world to protect against hackers and outside breaches.

Its software secures computers at many Fortune 500 companies, and the company has built a reputation over the years as one that can solve even the toughest security problems. CrowdStrike was tapped to investigate the hack of Sony Pictures in 2014, which resulted in the release of confidential data from the movie studio, and the hack of the Democratic National Committee in 2016, which exposed Hillary Clinton’s emails. CrowdStrike serves about 29,000 customers and has about $4 billion in annual sales.

Cybersecurity software like CrowdStrike’s has broad privileges to run across a computer system, including into sensitive areas. That means when errors occur, the ripple effect can be significant.

CrowdStrike updates its security software automatically and silently. A flawed update on Friday morning, of its Falcon Sensor software, resulted in crashes of machines running Microsoft Windows operating system and caused the worldwide chaos.

We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers,” George Kurtz, the chief executive of CrowdStrike, said in an interview on the “Today” show. “We know what the issue is. We’re resolving and have resolved the issue now.”

Mr. Kurtz said the outages were not the result of a security incident or cyberattack.

An updated fix of the software has been sent to computers, but experts said outages would most likely persist as CrowdStrike customers worked to reboot computers that had already been affected. Some systems were able to automatically install the fix, Mr. Kurtz said, while others would require manual intervention from I.T. specialists.

CrowdStrike, which went public in 2019, is worth about $76 billion. Its stock fell dramatically on Friday after news of the outage, and remained down about eight percent that morning.

“This is an unprecedented event and not something we or anyone had in their cards,” analysts for Evercore, an investment banking firm, wrote in a note to investors. “This event clearly proves that cyber needs to be diversified and the idea of relying on one or two vendors will come under scrutiny.”

Kate Conger is a technology reporter based in San Francisco. She can be reached at [email protected]. More about Kate Conger

Claire Moses is a Times reporter in London, focused on coverage of breaking and trending news. More about Claire Moses

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PDF EFFECTS OF REMOTE WORK ON THE WORKPLACE AND WORKERS
tBachelor of Business AdministrationAbstract This thesis is a research on effects of remote work on workers and the workpla. e and how workers react to a switch to remote work. The research was carried out in re-sponse to the COVID-19 pandemic that started in the beginning of 2020 and forced companies to switch to rem.
An Exploratory Case Study of How Remote Employees Experience Workplace
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Collection at ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks. For more information, please [email protected].
The Effects of At-Home Remote Work Environments on Human Cognitive
roles, without the preparation or education of the dynamics that surround home-based remote work systems. This thesis benefits the Human Factors community by investigating the effects of at-home remote-based work environments on cognitive performance, and work task performance, of employees who currently work remotely from home.
The Relationship Between Remote Work and Job Satisfaction: The
The Designated Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REMOTE WORK AND JOB SATISFACTION: THE MEDIATING ROLES OF PERCEIVED AUTONOMY, WORK-FAMILY ... working from home is not the best environment because it allows for more home distractions (Fonner & Roloff, 2010). For instance, Marissa Mayer, former CEO of
Remote Working and its Impact on Employee Job Satisfaction During COVID-19
Three themes emerged for RQ1: (1) remote working has an impact on job satisfaction and (2) job satisfaction and the impact remote. working has on job satisfaction is influenced by the number of days an individual works. remotely per week. Two themes emerged for RQ2: (1) COVID-19 has impacted job satisfaction.
(PDF) The Impact of Work-from-Home on Employee ...
Abstract and Figures. During the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has unquestionably become one of the most extensively employed techniques to minimize unemployment, keep society operating ...
Challenges and opportunities of remotely working from home during Covid
The theory of self-determination [28, 29] can offer insights into how employees have been encouraged to embrace the new working style from home and excel in a short period of time.The self-determination theory suggests that individuals are either intrinsically or extrinsically motivated to behave in specific ways [30].Intrinsic motivation becomes the dominant driver when an individual wants to ...
Impact of Work from Home Policies on Workplace Productivity and
Benefits of Work from Home Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic . When the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. intensified in March of 2020, the majority of U.S. companies were forced to close their offices and send their employees to work from home. With little to no time to prepare for this sudden shift online, many business executives feared the
Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges
The flexibility allowed by the mobilization of technology disintegrated the traditional work-life boundary for most professionals. Whether working from home is the key or impediment to academics' efficiency and work-life balance became a daunting question for both scientists and their employers. The recent pandemic brought into focus the merits and challenges of working from home on a level ...
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The phenomenon of working from home (WFH) is linked to a variety of megatrends that companies have confronted over many years. These include demographic change, leading to shortages of skilled workers in many regions and professions; the individualisation of needs and lifestyles as a result of changing values; and most particularly, the digitalisation of the world of work (Schmoll and Süß ...
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Working from home, working remote, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, leadership, motivation, efficiency, gender, sustainability, internationalization, globalization Acknowledgments We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to our thesis in any form. A special thanks to Selcen Öztürkcan who have offered us guiding,
The Impact of Enforced Working from Home on Employee Job Satisfaction
1. Introduction. As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 72% of employees worldwide were required to switch overnight to working from home (WFH) [].According to a Survey Monkey report, more than 89% of employees surveyed (n = 9059) were satisfied with their WFH arrangements [].However, a Martec Group 2020 study reported that only 32% of respondents (n = 1214) were satisfied with their ...
PDF "WORKING" REMOTELY
2In the 2018 American Community Survey (ACS), 5.3% of workers reported working from home (based on the authors' calculations). In the American Time-Use Survey between 2013 and 2017, 20.5% of workers reported spending some time working from home and 11.4% reported spending the entire day working remotely that day (Brynjolfsson et al.,2020).
How to Work on Your Dissertation from Home (And Actually Be ...
Create a Routine. Start by establishing where you'll work. The best way to stay focused is to keep your workspace separate from where you relax. Even if space is limited, designate one or two areas where you'll answer emails, attend meetings, and write and revise your chapters. That way, when you need to rest, you can move into another ...
Impact of Work from Home Policies on Workplace Productivity and
Since March 2020, nearly 42% of the U.S. labor force has begun working from home full-time (Wong). This thesis will investigate the impact of work from home policies (WFH policies) on workplace productivity and employee sentiments both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic and will conclude with recommendations for maximizing the ...
PDF A literature survey and qualitative analysis on work-from-home research
For the purposes of this thesis, the de nition of working from home is as follows: Working from home: A work practice in which members of an organization perform all of their work from home. I crafted this de nition based on my own experiences working from home and the studies conducted on working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
PDF The Impact That Working From Home Has on The Overall Motivation and
particular focus on working from home. Working from home can be defined as a form of flexible working that allows an employee to work from home for some or all of the working week that may also be used alongside other flexible working arrangements such as part time working hours (ACAS, n.d.). The term working from home will be used throughout this
A literature survey and qualitative analysis on work-from-home research
Author(s): Powers, Alissa | Advisor(s): Redmiles, David | Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic shook the world into a frenzy of Zoom meetings and online activity. In one month, more people began working from home than at any other point in history. This major shift poses a question: Did the increase in the number of people and extent of work occurring from home change studies on this activity?
PDF The Influence of Working from Home on Employees' Productivity
The study results indicate that working from home has an influence on productivity of the employees. While influences of some of the factors are either positive or negative, the influence of some of the factors depend on the characteristics and attitude of the employees and the circumstances. 1. Introduction.
How working from home works out
We find that 42 percent of the U.S. labor force are now working from home full time, while another 33 percent are not working — a testament to the savage impact of the lockdown recession. The remaining 26 percent are working on their business's premises, primarily as essential service workers. Almost twice as many employees are working from ...
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Remote Working Dissertation Topic Ideas. Published by Owen Ingram at December 29th, 2022 , Revised On August 16, 2023. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has become increasingly popular, and many businesses are considering implementing more remote employment contracts. Although working remotely offers apparent advantages for many ...
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Topic 5 - Perception of evaluation by teleworkers. This topic is about evaluation and remote work. To improve company performance and ensure that work gets done despite the distance, managers have implemented a control system. However, this system is not always well received by employees. Problem: how to set up an effective and non-intrusive ...
Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges
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UTA professor wins best dissertation award
The Ralph Alexander award is presented to research dissertations that have contributed to solving significant obstacles in the human resources field. Dr. Shim's winning dissertation, "Understanding the Construct and Measure of Job Performance Over Time," delves into the ways employee job performance is captured in the short term and long ...
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Most Americans know the No. 1 rule in real estate: "location, location, location." But for some developers, there's a new winning strategy: "recycle, recycle, recycle."
Seven graduate students honored with Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (7/18/2024) - Seven graduate students advised by Department of Chemistry faculty members were recently awarded the University of Minnesota's Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. The seven students honored by this prestigious award are Kaylee Barr, Brylon Denman, Madeline Honig, Chris Seong, Sneha Venkatachalapathy, Murphi Williams, and Caini Zheng.
Delta pauses global flight schedule
Delta has paused its global flight schedule this morning due to a vendor technology issue that is impacting several airlines and businesses around the world. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible to resume operations.Customers with flights scheduled for Friday should continue checking their flight status via the Fly Delta app and Delta.com.
What Is CrowdStrike?
CrowdStrike's cybersecurity software is used by scores of industries, including airlines, hospitals and retailers, to prevent hacks and data breaches. By Kate Conger and Claire Moses On Friday ...

Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges

Introduction

Materials and methods

Efficiency of research work.

Comparing working from home to working in the office.

Actual and ideal time spent working from home.

Feasibility of working more from home.

Background information.

Data preprocessing and analyses

Background information

Efficiency of research work

Comparing working from home to working in the office

Actual and ideal time spent working from home

Feasibility of working more from home

Supporting information

Acknowledgments

How to Work on Your Dissertation from Home (And Actually Be Productive)

Create a Routine

Find Time to Unwind

Ask for Help When You Need It

Stay Connected to Family, Friends, and Colleagues

Give Others Grace

Finally — Don’t Push Yourself Too Much

Want help planning your next visit to SMU and the city of Dallas? Explore the city virtually through our guide — The Graduate Student's Guide to Living in Dallas.

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A literature survey and qualitative analysis on work-from-home research before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

How working from home works out

The US economy is now a working-from-home economy

Figure 1: WFH now accounts for over 60% of US economic activity

The inequality time bomb

Figure 2: Not all jobs can be carried out WFH

Figure 3: WFH under COVID-19 is challenging for many employees

Figure 4: WFH is much more common among educated higher-income employees

Trouble for the cities?

Working from home is here to stay

The office will survive but it may look different

Making a smooth transition

Figure 5: There is wide variation in employee demand for WFH post-COVID

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Dissertation topics on remote work

Topic 1 - Remote work and maintaining employee motivation

Topic 2 - Internal communication and remote work

Topic 3 - Psychological well-being of employees: depression and remote work

Topic 4 - Telecommuting and performance

Topic 5 - Perception of evaluation by teleworkers

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Introduction

Materials and methods

Efficiency of research work

Comparing working from home to working in the office

Actual and ideal time spent working from home

Feasibility of working more from home

Background information

Data preprocessing and analyses

Supporting information

Funding Statement

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Author response to Decision Letter 1

Decision Letter 2

Acceptance letter

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