The Involuntary Use of Home Office and Perceived Work- Related Social Isolation During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Work Engagement and Burnout in the Norwegian Banking Sector Navn:

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to dramatic changes in people's everyday life and organizations have experienced a radical shift to follow the government's restrictions. Restrictions aiming to segregate people have led organizations to force their employees to work from home. This change to the involuntary use of home office is predicted to have psychological effects on employees' work engagement and well-being. Further, employees have been prone to experiencing work-related social isolation both when working from home and at the office due to social restrictions. This perceived isolation is suggested to be associated with worsened mental health and reduced work engagement. Further, this study aims to investigate whether perceived work-related social isolation moderates the relationship between the involuntary use of home office and work engagement and burnout. These relationships will be investigated in the light of the Job Demands-Resource model. We employed a cross-sectional research design containing responses from four Norwegian banks located in western Norway, including 135 participants. The respondents self-reported average days spent involuntarily working from home each month during the pandemic, perceived work-related social isolation, work engagement, and burnout. The results of our analysis indicated a significant and positive relationship between perceived work-related social isolation and burnout and a significant negative relationship between perceived work-related social isolation and work engagement. Thus, the findings suggest that leaders should be aware of whether their employees experience work-related social isolation and meet them with sufficient resources to prevent burnout. At the same time, there was no significant relationship found between the involuntary use of home office and work engagement or burnout. Further, no support was found for perceived work-related social isolation to moderate the relationship between the involuntary use of home office and work engagement or burnout. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Limitations and directions for further research are also provided