Working from Home During Covid-19: How Do We ‘Do’ Social Interaction at a Distance?

ABSTRACT

With the rapid adoption of homeworking by organisations across the world owing to Covid-19, employees have been separated from their informal, social networks in the traditional office space. This paper explores how individuals maintain social interaction with colleagues when working remotely. A diary study technique was employed and snowball sampling was used. Initial results from the diaries of 29 participants are presented. The findings highlight various challenges that homeworkers face, including task-related inefficiencies relating to technology-enabled communications in the absence of face-to-face interaction. The paper ends by briefly highlighting how the study analysis will proceed. © 2020, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.