How does working from home during COVID-19 affect what managers do? Evidence from time-use studies

ABSTRACT

Our study examines the effects of the sudden shift to WFH on three specific aspects of managerial work how managers allocate their time across different activities;whether the incidence and length of different activities (e.g., meetings) changed;and whether the changes in time allocation and activity structure varied according to the type of organization employing the manager. We use this evidence to inform and inspire the discussion of two questions related to the development of human-computer interaction (HCI) technology. In particular 1) can HCI technology reduce (or even eliminate) the possible additional burden that managers experience due to the shift to working from home? And 2) can HCI technology help take advantage of opportunities for improving managerial productivity and wellbeing that are made possible by this shift? Our findings indicate that the forced transition to WFH created by the COVID pandemic was associated with a drastic reduction in commuting time. Managers did not reallocate the "extra" time to personal activities, rather reallocating the time gained from commuting toward more time spent in meetings. These results suggest an attempt to to recoup some of the extemporaneous interactions that typically happen in the office. Furthermore, managers employed by larger organizations - i.e. managers whose typical interactions are likely to be more complex and include a broader number and variety of people - were disproportionately affected by WFH arrangements during the COVID pandemic. We find that this group ended up spending more time in work-related meetings, and less time in personal activities, relative to managers employed by small/medium-sized organizations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)