Work from Home: The impacts on university employee’s well-being and individual work performance

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of the firms and institutions implemented work from home to continue their operations and keep the well-being of their employees. Indeed, organizations including the universities operate successfully amid the implementation of quarantine, digitalization, and limited face-to-face communication. We studied the impacts of the acceptance of work from home and well-being on individual work performance. We found that acceptance of work from home have indications of significant influences on employees' well-being and individual work performance. For the selected university employees, work from home is moderately preferred because of the cherished activities like commuting, time with friends, and the occurrence of more physical activities. The incidence of illnesses, sleep disturbance, anxiety, dissatisfaction, and loneliness were indicators of well-being concerns that influence individual work performance. Appreciation by others and the increased spirituality motivate the employees during the work from the home set-up. COVID-19 pandemic brings various issues in communication, resources, emotions, environment, financial difficulties, work-life imbalance, time management, stress, less work, and lack of access to office materials, to the employees. However, there are opportunities for better learning, better well-being, and more often family routines. Focus on work, work-life balance fit, positive attitude, less stress, and savings are benefits of working from home. University leadership, supervisors, and managers have an overview of the issues to be provided with solutions. The qualitative responses are potential research instruments to be tested for reliability. An adequate number of employees in different positions and universities to create a quantitative model is encouraged for future researchers.