Telework and Mental Health during COVID-19

Follow-up of telemedicine mental health interventions amid COVID-19 pandemic

The initiation of the program Mental Health Support Program for Coronavirus Infection addressed the increased demand for mental health services in the province of Salamanca, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The psychiatry service provided care for COVID-19 patients, their families, and healthcare workers who treated them, as these groups were identified as being at risk. This study aims to describe the assistance provided, including personnel and resources utilized, types of interventions carried out, and to assess the demand for mental health care and predominant symptoms and emotions experienced by patients. Billboards and the complex's intranet publicized the program. Specific clinical approach using telemedicine were provide from March 2020 to December 2021 to COVID-19 patients, their relatives, and healthcare workers. 216 patients were included with a mean age of 53.2 years, with women comprising 77.3% of this group. All the groups received treatment in similar proportions. Over a period of 730 h, a total of 1376 interventions were performed, with an average duration of 31.8 min per intervention. The program could treat 79.6% of these patients without requiring referrals to other services. When the program concluded, only 21 participants (9.7%) were discharged to the local mental health network to continue their mental health treatment. The program effectively reduced the burden on regular mental health services due to its ability to treat most patients without requiring referrals. The program was able to attend to most mental health requests with minimal involvement of the regular mental health service.

Teleworking Effects on Mental Health-A Systematic Review and a Research Agenda

Teleworking has become an increasingly adopted modality in organizations. However, changes in working conditions have led to several challenges regarding its impacts on professionals' health. The aim of this study is to provide a systematic review of the literature about the impact of teleworking on workers' mental health. The PRISMA protocol and VOSviewer were used to identify the main trends from the set of 64 articles. The co-occurrence analyzes showed combined relationships between this new type of work and its effects on workers' health, which resulted in four different clusters and a robust knowledge structure. Furthermore, the findings indicate that working from home has a dualistic nature. This study offers a prominent and promising framework regarding the teleworking impact on workers' health research agenda.

Experiences of working from home: umbrella review

INTRODUCTION

The concept of "working from home" is extremely topical following the COVID-19 pandemic; therefore, it is unsurprising that there has been an increased interest in collating research related to homeworking. This has been carried out by multiple reviews, all with slightly different research aims and methodologies. Collating the findings from the available reviews is therefore highly beneficial to establish the experience of homeworking to create recommendations for the future of home-based work.

METHODS

An umbrella review was carried out. In June 2022, literature searches were conducted across 4 electronic databases. Published reviews of literature that used a systematic process, were focused on working from home populations, and detailed factors that could be related to the personal experience of homeworking (eg, barriers, facilitators, advantages, disadvantages) were included.

RESULTS

A total of 1930 records were screened and 6 review articles were included. Results report on the following sections: working environment (eg, workplace design, space conditions), personal impact (eg, satisfaction, career impact), and health (eg, physical health, well-being) including a total of 19 themes. Mixed findings were apparent for nearly all included themes, highlighting the need to consider individual and contextual circumstances when researching working from home.

CONCLUSIONS

This review establishes the importance of retaining flexibility while homeworking for employees, managers, and organizations. Essentially, a one-size-fits-all approach to working from home is impractical as individual circumstances limit application. Eight recommendations for the future of working from home are suggested.

Work, telework, and mental health during COVID-19

This review addresses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers' mental health, in particular, teleworking conditions. Our analysis is based on documents from several international organizations and specialized scientific publications. The retrieved information reveals that the pandemic has had a significant effect on the mental health of frontline workers and employees who had to migrate to a virtual environment without prior warning. However, a positive aspect is reflected in the development of several remote mental health care devices implemented to protect vulnerable population, frontline workers, and the general population. Finally, this paper underscores the importance of developing public policies for protecting workers' mental health.

How Do COVID-19 Risk, Life-Safety Risk, Job Insecurity, and Work-Family Conflict Affect Miner Performance? Health-Anxiety and Job-Anxiety Perspectives

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has created challenging working conditions in coal-production activities. In addition to the massive loss of resources for miners, it has had a devastating impact on these individuals' mental health. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory and a resource-loss perspective, this study examined the impact of COVID-19 risk, life-safety risk, perceived job insecurity, and work-family conflict on miners' job performance. Moreover, this study investigated the mediating role of job anxiety (JA) and health anxiety (HA). The study data were collected through online structured questionnaires disseminated to 629 employees working in a coal mine in China. The data analysis and hypothesis generation were conducted using the structural equation modeling (partial least squares) method. The results demonstrated that the perception of COVID-19 risk, life-safety risk, job insecurity, and work-family conflict negatively and significantly impacted miners' job performance. In addition, JA and HA negatively mediated the relationships between the perception of COVID-19 risk, life-safety risk, perceived job insecurity, work-family conflict, and job performance. The findings of this study can give coal-mining companies and their staff useful insights into how to minimize the pandemic's effects on their operations.

Stress and depressive symptoms in university students in Hong Kong under the pandemic: Moderating effect of positive psychological attributes

Introduction

There are very few studies examining the psychological well-being of university students in Hong Kong under the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides COVID-19-related stress, the "social event" in 2019-2020 has caused significant stress in young people. As such, we attempted to answer several research questions in this paper. First, what are the relationships between stresses (COVID-19 and "social event" related stresses) and psychological well-being indexed by depressive symptoms? Based on the stress and coping perspective, we predicted that there would be positive relationships between both types of stress and depression. Second, what are the relationships between different positive psychological factors (including life satisfaction, resilience and emotional management, flourishing, and beliefs about adversity) and depression? Based on different theoretical models of positive psychology, we hypothesized that negative relationships would exist between positive psychological factors and depressive symptoms. Third, do positive psychological attributes moderate the associations between stresses (COVID-19 and "social event" related stresses) and depressive symptoms? Based on the positive psychology literature, we hypothesized that positive psychological attributes would buffer the negative impact of stresses on depression.

Methods

We recruited university students roughly one year after the first wave of the pandemic (N = 1,648) in early 2021. We used 25 items to measure COVID-19-related stress and "social event" related stress. For psychological well-being indexed by depressive symptoms, we used the "Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised (CESD-R)". For positive psychological attributes, we employed established measures of life satisfaction, resilience and emotional management, flourishing, and beliefs about adversity.

Results

Regarding the relationship between stress and depression, we found positive relationships between both types of stress and depressive symptoms. As predicted, negative relationships existed between all positive psychological attributes and depressive symptoms. Besides, the positive psychological attributes significantly moderated the effects of stresses on depression, suggesting that these factors can reduce the negative impacts of stresses on depression. The present findings provide support for those models, highlighting the importance of positive psychological attributes as protective factors for university students' depression.

Discussion

The findings of this study underscore the important role of positive psychological attributes in the stress-depression relationship in university students under the pandemic. The findings also generalize the positive youth development theory in the Chinese context. In terms of practice, university administrators and service providers should consider cultivating positive psychological attributes in university students with the purpose of promoting their psychological well-being.

Ageing workers' mental health during COVID-19: a multilevel observational study on the association with the work environment, perceived workplace safety and individual factors

OBJECTIVES

The stress and anxiety associated with the predisposition of ageing workers to severe COVID-19 illness, once occupationally infected, jeopardise their mental health. This study aimed to investigate the association between individual level, work environment exposure factors and perceived workplace safety with a decline in mental health of ageing workers from different industry sectors.

DESIGN

Observational study, prevalence assessment of survey added to longitudinal cohort data.

SETTING

The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) from 27 countries in Europe and Israel participating in the COVID-19 survey (summer 2020) and having prepandemic waves' SHARE data.

PARTICIPANTS

Workers aged 50-70 (n=6449) who attended their workplaces at least partially after the pandemic broke out.

PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE

Perceived decline in mental health compared with preoutbreak status.

RESULTS

Multilevel analyses demonstrated that 24.5% (95% CI 23.5% to 25.5%) of ageing workers in Europe experienced mental health decline associated with national-level self-reported COVID-19 burden. Workplace safety perception was the strongest predictor, as each one-point increase in unsafe perception was associated with 60% of mental health decline (OR=1.6, 95% CI 1.47 to 1.74), explaining 30% of increased reported mental health symptoms of ageing workers. Safety perception mediates the mental health outcomes of the work environment, such as workplace contagion risk and work location. Female gender (OR=1.77, 95% CI 1.55 to 2.02), financial difficulties (OR=1.19, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.28), higher vulnerability index (comorbidities, age >60) (OR=1.11, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.18), pre-existing mental problems (OR=1.78, 95% CI 1.55 to 2.04) and increased national burden of COVID-19 (OR=1.01, 95% CI 1.0 to 1.02) were associated with declines in mental health, whereas exclusively working on-site was protective.

CONCLUSION

Vulnerable subgroups for mental health declines among ageing workers were revealed, which warrant their screening and employers' evaluation of workplace conditions of ageing workers to prevent mental health-related implications. Workplace interventions should aim to reduce work environment influences on infection risk and mental distress.

Benefits and Risks of Teleworking from Home: The Teleworkers’ Point of View

Using a qualitative research-based approach, this study aimed to understand (i) the way home-based teleworkers in France perceive and organize their professional activities and workspaces, (ii) their teleworking conditions, (iii) the way they characterize the modalities and the nature of their interactions with their professional circle, and more broadly (iv) their quality of life ‘at work’. We performed a lexical and morphosyntactic analysis of interviews conducted with 28 teleworkers (working part-time or full-time from home) before the COVID-19 crisis and the associated establishment of emergency telework. Our results confirm and complement findings in the literature. Participant discourses underlined the beneficial effects of teleworking in terms of professional autonomy, flexibility, concentration, efficiency, performance, productivity, and being able to balance their professional and private lives. Nevertheless, they also highlighted the deleterious effects of teleworking on temporal workload, setting boundaries for work, work-based relationships and socio-professional integration. Despite the study limitations, our findings highlight the need for specific research-based and practical strategies to support the implementation of a sustainable telework organization in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.

Psychological Research on Sleep Problems and Adjustment of Working Hours during Teleworking in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Exploratory Study

Mandatory home isolation caused by COVID-19 in professional contexts led to a situation that required work activities to be converted into a remote modality. The literature on this topic is very recent, given the pandemic and the uncertainty of virtual and face-to-face work modalities. This study aimed to examine the effects of adults' prolonged exposure to screens on sleep quality, the type of devices used according to age and gender, periods of access to such devices and the impact on performance in the context of telework due to COVID-19. Specifically, the study analyzed the differences in the use of devices and in the time spent using them during and after teleworking between genders and age groups. A total of 127 Portuguese participants answered the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and a questionnaire that we specifically developed to characterize teleworking habits. The results showed differences between men and women regarding the use of devices and its impact on sleep quality, as well as differences in terms of age. These results are discussed in terms of how the current work context may affect performance, sleep, gender differences and the adverse effects of exposure to screens during and after work hours.

Work schedule flexibility and teleworking were not good together during COVID-19 when testing their effects on work overload and mental health

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven organizations to implement various flexible work arrangements. Due to a lack of longitudinal studies, there is currently no consensus in specialized literature regarding the consequences of flexible work arrangements on employee mental health, as well any long term potential impacts. Using the Job Demand-Resource Model, this study documents consequences of the implementation of two types of flexible work arrangement: work schedule flexibility and teleworking on employee mental health over time, and the mediating role played by work overload during the accelerated implementation of flexible work arrangements in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a longitudinal design and probabilistic sampling, 209 workers participated in this study, twice answering a flexible work arrangement and mental health questionnaire during the pandemic. Findings of this moderated-mediation suggest that work schedule flexibility generates positive effects on mental health over time due to decreased work overload, but only for employees not working from home. These results offer theoretical and practical implications applicable to organizations considering implementation of flexible work arrangements, particularly with regard to how these flexible practices could support a balance between demand and resources, their impact on work overload, and employee mental health over time.

The Corporate (Magic) Circle: Fun Work or Controlled Play?

Entertainment games have traditionally been articulated as leisure. However, they have also been used in the work context, in the form of serious games or gamification. In this qualitative research, we aimed to investigate the purpose of games used in the work context. To accomplish this, we conducted six semi-structured interviews and analyzed the discourses of the heads of the companies that produce serious games or gamification projects for work environments. Based on these statements, we assessed the views of the work context, the workers, and the projects the companies produce. We found that games have acquired different purposes, such as employee control to increase organizational results or enhance workers' happiness and wellbeing. Although these purposes seemed to stand out in all the analyzed speeches, several other different purposes emerged, according to the conditions of entry into the market and the type of projects produced.

The Impact of Working from Home on Mental Health: A Cross-Sectional Study of Canadian Worker's Mental Health during the Third Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a considerable expansion in the way work settings are structured, with a continuum emerging between working fully in-person and from home. The pandemic has also exacerbated many risk factors for poor mental health in the workplace, especially in public-facing jobs. Therefore, we sought to test the potential relationship between work setting and self-rated mental health. To do so, we modeled the association of work setting (only working from home, only in-person, hybrid) on self-rated mental health (Excellent/Very Good/Good vs. Fair/Poor) in an online survey of Canadian workers during the third wave of COVID-19. The mediating effects of vaccination, masking, and distancing were explored due to the potential effect of COVID-19-related stress on mental health among those working in-person. Among 1576 workers, most reported hybrid work (77.2%). Most also reported good self-rated mental health (80.7%). Exclusive work from home (aOR: 2.79, 95%CI: 1.90, 4.07) and exclusive in-person work (aOR: 2.79, 95%CI: 1.83, 4.26) were associated with poorer self-rated mental health than hybrid work. Vaccine status mediated only a small proportion of this relationship (7%), while masking and physical distancing were not mediators. We conclude that hybrid work arrangements were associated with positive self-rated mental health. Compliance with vaccination, masking, and distancing recommendations did not meaningfully mediate this relationship.

Gamification-based intervention for enhancing team effectiveness and coping flexibility: Randomized controlled trial

This study aimed to evaluate a newly developed gamification-based intervention of serious play training (SPT). A randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess the efficacy of the new intervention program in comparison with a widely adopted cognitive-behavioral training (CBT) program. Real-life work teams were recruited to enhance the ecological validity of outcome evaluation. The participants comprised 250 Chinese working adults (68% men; median age = 25 years, range: 18-40) who took part voluntarily. They were randomly assigned to the SPT, CBT, and waitlist conditions. For outcome evaluation, team effectiveness was the primary outcome, whereas coping flexibility was the secondary outcome. For explanation of outcome changes, group cohesion and discriminative thinking were tested as the hypothesized learning mechanisms. The results revealed that the SPT group alone reported greater team effectiveness over time, with an increase in group cohesion found to explain the improvement. Both the SPT and CBT groups reported greater coping flexibility over time, with discriminative thinking found to account for the beneficial changes. These findings provide initial evidence indicating the efficacy of utilizing the gamification approach in corporate training for team-building and personal coping.

Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Quality of Life, Mental Health, and Level of Physical Activity in Colombian University Workers: A Longitudinal Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong influence on people’s quality of life, and the different restrictive measures during the phases of the pandemic have had consequences for physical and mental health. This study determined the changes in health-related quality of life (HRQoL), sleep quality, depression symptoms (DS), and physical activity (PA) level of middle-aged Colombian university personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis was performed following a longitudinal design on a sample of 354 people at four points before and during the pandemic. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), the SF-12v2, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSDS) were included in an online survey. The measurements showed a decrease in quality of life with respect to PCS from 91.66 ± 10.78 to 83.64 ± 17.22 (p = 0.000) and MCS from 87.57 ± 12.23 to 80.90 ± 17.31, while poor sleep quality increased from 25.99% to 47.46% (p = 0.000), with DS reaching the peak during mandatory confinement (14.69%). Regarding the level of physical activity, the period of mandatory confinement inverted the proportion, highlighting active people as a minority (32.2%). In the multivariate analysis, we adjusted for age, sex, BMI, and socioeconomic level, discarding confounding effects and their interactions with the results obtained. In conclusion, this study showed that the pandemic has had a negative impact on sleep quality, HRQoL, DS, and PA level.