EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF TELEWORK ON THE ROMANIAN EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING – A DYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT

The pandemic context has forced the acceleration of some major trends without developing an adequate support mechanism by the society, which determined the damage of the perception of the well-being by widely implementing teleworking. The aim of this research is to assess employee well-being correlated to professional development and competencies, autonomy, job satisfaction, commitment, emotional dimension, work-life balance and organizational climate, determined based on content analysis and customized in the context of telework. The information has been collected through a questionnaire performed in February-March 2021 and January-February 2022 in order to determine the change of perceiving in time the dimensions of evaluating the well-being and evolution trends, subject to a short period of investigation, corresponding to COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of the variables considered was quantified using the regression models. The empirical results reveal that well-being in teleworking was associated with a favorable organizational climate and with higher competencies, observing the depreciation trend of perception. We found a statistically significant positive link between job satisfaction, a favorable balance work-life and the well-being of employees. Emotional exhaustion had a negative statistically significant impact on the well-being of employees. The autonomy paradox emphasizes that a high level of it negatively affects well-being. The evolution in perceiving engagement by respondents reveals an improvement of well-being by a higher frequency of positive affects in 2022, which reconsiders the initial opinion during the analyzed period. Inclusion of the gender dimension highlights significant differences in appreciating the well-being of employees in the context of teleworking. © 2022, Bucharest University of Economic Studies. All rights reserved.