Psychological impact of working from home on scientific and academic workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

SVITLANA POTAPENKO

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic spreads rapidly since it was firstly identified in December 2019. National lockdowns have been implemented in many countries, affecting workers of all sectors and forcing many people to work from home. The aim of this thesis is to estimate the psychological impact of working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic on academic and scientific workers and on the basis of these findings to formulate recommendations how to reduce the negative psychological impacts while working from home. The first part of this thesis, the literature review, presents the result of the study and analysis of books, journal articles, web resources, and materials on the relevant topics, such as a brief overview of the pandemics history, psychological impacts of remote work, and challenges faced by researchers and academics workers during Covid-19 pandemic. The second part of the thesis is my own research based on surveys provided to remote employees of Charles University and the Czech Academy of Science. The questionnaire was distributed by email and was completed by 103 participants out of the 200. According to the results, dependency was confirmed in the cases of procrastination, overwork and loss of social connections. Based on the respondents' answers, several activities were suggested to deal with the psychological impact while working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Physical exercise (walking or cycling), organizing tasks, setting schedules and goals, and finding ways to stay in touch with colleagues help to reduce the negative psychological impacts while working from home.

Keywords

work from home, telework, psychosocial impact, quarantine, academic workers, scientific workers, remote work, Covid-19

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 30. 3. 2022

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedúci: PhDr. Kristýna Krejčová, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Economics and Management

Master programme / odbor:
Economics and Management / Economics and Management