Satisfaction with one’s job and working at home in the Covid-19 pandemic: a two-wave study

Abstract

As greater numbers of people have worked at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, workers, organizations and policy makers have begun considering the benefits of a sustained move towards homeworking, with workers’ satisfaction with homeworking often cited as a key driver. But is satisfaction with homeworking that relevant to workers’ overall job satisfaction? In this study, we examine whether job and homeworking satisfaction are predicted by different demands and resources, namely those well-established in the job design literature (workload, job autonomy, social support) for the former and those specific to the context of homeworking (loneliness, work-nonwork interference, work–nonwork interference and adequacy of homeworking environment) for the latter. We also explore whether homeworking satisfaction mediates the relationship between homeworking demands and resources and job satisfaction. Findings of a study of university workers during the COVID -19 pandemic (N = 753 in phase 1, 471 in phase 2) support our expectations about the domain-specific nature of the predictors of job and homeworking satisfaction, autonomy is positively related to job satisfaction, while loneliness, nonwork-to-work interference, and inadequate homeworking environment are negatively related to homeworking satisfaction. Results also support the argument that satisfaction with homeworking mediates the relationship between homeworking factors and job satisfaction, reinforcing the value of differentiating the two concepts.