Switching Off From The Home Office

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of employees to work from home. Working remotely and working from home has specific elements that cause workload and increase need for recovery. Psychological detachment is the most important form of recovery; it helps people to temporarily detach from their workload. There is limited research of psychological detachment in remote working, and none of it has focused on exploring activities for self-promotion of detachment. COVID-19 pandemic outlines a new context for remote working, whereas the literature to date has considered remote working as voluntary or partial agreement. We conducted 87 interviews to examine remote workers’ experiences from home-based working and the ways they self-promote psychological detachment. The findings reveal the conditions in the home environment that cause a need for recovery: Increasing working hours and work intensity, decreased physical activity among remote employees, weakened social network and slowness in support. Further, we found that remote workers self-promote psychological detachment through cognitive, physical, time-bound and nonwork activities. The current study extended the literature of recovery and psychological detachment to remote working, added a new context to literature for remote working and provided guidelines for remote workers and employers to enhance employee well-being and recovery from work.