scholarly journals A survey-based approach used to analyse the indoor satisfaction and productivity level of user in smart working during lock-down due to the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 2042 (1) ◽  
pp. 012139
Author(s):  
Francesco Salamone ◽  
Lorenzo Belussi ◽  
Ludovico Danza ◽  
Italo Meroni
Keyword(s):  
Working Hours ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Visual Comfort ◽  
Productivity Level ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction ◽  
Work At Home ◽  
General Section ◽  
Specific Section ◽  
At Home

Abstract Italy was the first country in Europe to enter lock-down due to COVID-19 pandemic. Most employees have been forced to adopt a work at home solution to avoid any possibility of spreading the virus. The article presents the results of a survey carried out in March-June 2020, during the first lockdown in Italy, aimed at investigating how people perceive the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) of their households during working from home. The questionnaire consists in a general section reporting information about participant, households and rooms where they perform the working activities; a specific section reporting feedbacks on each IEQ aspects (thermal, visual comfort, air and acoustic quality), overall comfort, productivity and other external variables that can affect users’ well-being during working hours. A total of 330 participants from all over the Italian territory signed the consent to participate in the survey over a period of about 3 months. The dataset was used to define the global level of satisfaction, perception, preference and interference with work at home, considering the main indoor environmental factors. The Machine Learning (ML) approach was applied to identify the most useful model to predict the overall comfort satisfaction.

scholarly journals Playing catch up? An exploration of supplementary work at home among Australian public servants

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 538-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Cortis ◽  
Abigail Powell
Keyword(s):  
Working Hours ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Middle Level ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Working At Home ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
Work At Home ◽  
At Home

Working at home has conventionally been understood as a formal, employer-sanctioned flexibility or ‘telework’ arrangement adopted primarily to promote work–life balance. However, work at home is now most commonly performed outside of normal working hours on an informal, ad hoc basis, to prepare for or catch up on tasks workers usually perform in the workplace. Scholarly assessment of this type of work has been sparse. To fill this gap, we undertook secondary analysis of a large data set, the Australian Public Service Employee Census, to explore the personal and organisational factors associated with middle-level managers regularly taking work home to perform outside of and in addition to their usual working hours. We conceptualise this as ‘supplementary work’. The analysis shows how supplementary work is a flexibility practice associated with high workloads and poor organisational supports for work–life balance, distinguishing it from other forms of home-based work. Whereas previous studies have not found gendered effects, we found women with caring responsibilities had higher odds of performing supplementary work. These findings expand understandings of contemporary flexibility practices and the factors that affect them, and underline the need for more nuanced theories of working at home.

scholarly journals An RL-Based Approach for IEQ Optimization in Reorganizing Interior Spaces for Home-Working

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Ribino ◽  
Marina Bonomolo
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Quality Index ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Visual Comfort ◽  
Interior Spaces ◽  
Work Model ◽  
Furniture Layout ◽  
Indoor Spaces ◽  
Significant Health

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is a very important aspect in the design of spaces. It depends on fundamental requirements, and it aims to improve living quality and ensure high well-being for the occupants. Poor IEQ has significant health consequences as people spend a considerable portion of their time indoors. The restrictions imposed by the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have worsened this situation by requiring people to spend more time at home and adopt home-working as a primary work model. Such a situation requires individuals to reconfigure their interior home spaces for adapting to new emerging needs. This paper proposes an approach based on reinforcement learning to support the rearrangement of indoor spaces by maximizing the indoor environmental quality index in terms of thermal, acoustic and visual comfort in the new furniture layout scheme.

scholarly journals Exploration Study Of The Impact Of Working From Home (Wfh) On Employee Performance During The Covid-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Pramadhi Dharma
Keyword(s):  
Work Performance ◽  
Employee Performance ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Productivity Level ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Electricity Cost ◽  
Work From Home ◽  
Flexible Working Hours ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

Currently, many countries around the globe including Indonesia are hugely affected by a novel pandemic COVID-19. This pandemic has impacted the economic and social sectors as well as caused dramatic changes in work patterns. Many employees are forced to shift their current working style from the office to work from home (WFH). This study aims to determine the impact of WFH on employee performance and to provide information regarding the advantages and disadvantages of WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic from the employee perspective. This exploratory study used the descriptive method and the data were obtained from the responses of 75 employees that are currently on WFH at different sectors in Surabaya. Evidently, 63% of the respondents are private employees, followed by 33% of them belongs to government employees, and 4% of employees have their state-owned enterprises. There were 83% of employees who experiences WFH due to the prevention of spreading COVID-19 transmission. The analysis of the work performance revealed that 47% of the respondents did not experience any differences between WFH and conventional office’s working style. In addition, 29% of employees expressed their opinion regarding the decrease in productivity level during WFH, and 20% of them admitted that their performance level elevated during WFH. In fact, based on the employees’ opinions, the biggest advantages of WFH include flexible working hours, efficient personal budget cuts for transportation costs, and more quality time to spend with families. However, the disadvantages of WHF are the increase in internet and electricity cost, some tasks from work that could not be performed at home such as scientific laboratory experiments, and the lack of focus to work properly due to distraction at home especially if they have their children around all time. Furthermore, even though work from home was accepted by most employees, but according to some correspondents’ opinions, the current WFH trend was not ideal for many different types of jobs.

scholarly journals Motivation and Satisfaction of Employees: Analysis, Risks, Ways of Improvement

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (520) ◽  
pp. 378-384
Author(s):  
O. M. Poplavska ◽  
◽  
T. S. Kononenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Employee Satisfaction ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Working Students ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Combination Of Material ◽  
Safe Working

The article examines the state of motivation and the level of satisfaction of employees (on the example of working students and teachers of higher education institutions) in the pandemic and presents the most significant instruments for their strengthening. In particular, the authors, based on the results of a sociological study, define that in the context of the pandemic, the values of employees have changed, which causes the need to strengthen the motivation instruments that provide safe working conditions, help reduce the «toxicity of the environment» and provide a decent level of remuneration. Researching the level of satisfaction and motivation of employees, the following risks of motivation and decrease in employee satisfaction from work for the company are systematized and distinguished: operational, brand (image), productivity, and also well-being. By introducing the concept of «motivational portfolio», by which the authors understand the set of instruments, measures that provide internal and external motivation of employees; the following recommendations are formed to strengthen the efficiency of motivation and increase the level of staff satisfaction: 1) harmonious combination of material and intangible components of motivation; 2) taking into account the value profile of employees; 3) combining and coordinating the goals (tasks) of the employee and the company; 4) strengthening the social component of motivation (improving the social package, involving intangible motives, such as working hours management, labor organization, ensuring decent safe working conditions, recognizing the results of work and its value for society).

Compensatory Coping Through the Extension of Working Hours

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maie Stein ◽  
Sylvie Vincent-Höper ◽  
Nicole Deci ◽  
Sabine Gregersen ◽  
Albert Nienhaus
Keyword(s):  
Job Demands ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Leader Member Exchange ◽  
Workplace Health ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Data Analyses ◽  
Member Exchange ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Advance Knowledge

Abstract. To advance knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the relationship between leadership and employees’ well-being, this study examines leaders’ effects on their employees’ compensatory coping efforts. Using an extension of the job demands–resources model, we propose that high-quality leader–member exchange (LMX) allows employees to cope with high job demands without increasing their effort expenditure through the extension of working hours. Data analyses ( N = 356) revealed that LMX buffers the effect of quantitative demands on the extension of working hours such that the indirect effect of quantitative demands on emotional exhaustion is only significant at low and average levels of LMX. This study indicates that integrating leadership with employees’ coping efforts into a unifying model contributes to understanding how leadership is related to employees’ well-being. The notion that leaders can affect their employees’ use of compensatory coping efforts that detract from well-being offers promising approaches to the promotion of workplace health.

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