Remote Work Decreases Psychological and Physical Stress Responses, but Full-Remote Work Increases Presenteeism

Bibliographic Details
Title: Remote Work Decreases Psychological and Physical Stress Responses, but Full-Remote Work Increases Presenteeism
Authors: Akiyoshi Shimura, Katsunori Yokoi, Yoshiki Ishibashi, Yusaku Akatsuka, Takeshi Inoue
Source: Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 12 (2021)
Publisher Information: Frontiers Media S.A., 2021.
Publication Year: 2021
Collection: LCC:Psychology
Subject Terms: occupational & industrial medicine, job stress, remote work, occupational mental health, presenteeism, COVID-19, Psychology, BF1-990
More Details: Introduction: Remote work was widely promoted in 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the effects of remote work on psychological and physical stress responses and presenteeism of workers remain unclear. This research aims to provide empirical evidence of the implications for people and organizations of this new scenario of working from home.Methods: A two-wave panel survey of before and after the pandemic was performed to investigate the effects of remote work on these aspects among office workers. A total of 3,123 office workers from 23 tertiary industries responded to a questionnaire. Participants were surveyed about their job stress conditions and sleep practices in both 2019 and 2020, who had not done remote work as of 2019 were included in the study. The effects of remote work on psychological and physical stress responses and presenteeism were analyzed by multivariate analysis, with the adjustment of age, gender, overtime, job stressors, social support, and sleep status.Results: The multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that remote work was associated with the reduction of psychological and physical stress responses independently of changes of job stressors, social support, sleep disturbance, and total sleep time on workdays. On the other hand, remote work of 5 days a week (full-remote) was associated with the reduction of work productivity.Conclusion: Promoting remote work can reduce psychological and physical stress responses, however, full-remote work has the risk of worsening presenteeism. From the viewpoint of mental health, the review of working styles is expected to have positive effects, even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 1664-1078
Relation: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.730969/full; https://doaj.org/toc/1664-1078
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.730969
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/1e2456ee3ff54cc2aa8da0e0e74dc3f2
Accession Number: edsdoj.1e2456ee3ff54cc2aa8da0e0e74dc3f2
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:16641078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.730969
Published in:Frontiers in Psychology
Language:English