Examining the advantages and disadvantages of working from home from the perspectives of employees following the COVID-19 pandemic

Özsoy, E and Griffiths, MD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-6524, 2025. Examining the advantages and disadvantages of working from home from the perspectives of employees following the COVID-19 pandemic. Work: a Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation. ISSN 1051-9815

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Abstract

Background: Working from home (WFH) has become more popular and has spread rapidly around the world. This became especially noticeable during the COVID-19 pandemic because most individuals had to work from home if they were not key workers (e.g., healthcare and public safety workers). However, further research is needed on the possible consequences of WFH, particularly in terms of benefits and challenges.

Objective: The present study aimed to examine the advantages and disadvantages of WFH from an employee perspective.

Methods: Two simple questions were asked to white-collar Turkish employees (N = 613) who experienced WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic: “What do you think are the advantages of working from home?” and “What do you think are the disadvantages of working from home?” The answers to the questions were then content analyzed.

Results: The key advantages identified were protection from COVID-19, saving time, better focus on work, more time for self-improvement, reduced personal expenses, and reduced social pressure. The key disadvantages included increased work-family conflict, alienation from work, non-ergonomic working conditions, technostress, miscommunication, social isolation, increased workload, inefficiency, and depression.

Conclusions: The results indicate that although WFH has many advantages for employees, it also has many disadvantages that need to be carefully considered by both organizations and employees.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Work: a Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation
Creators:	Özsoy, E. and Griffiths, M.D.
Publisher:	Sage
Date:	29 April 2025
ISSN:	1051-9815
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1177/10519815251335018 DOI 2433736 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	30 Apr 2025 08:21
Last Modified:	30 Apr 2025 08:21
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53497

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