Working From Home: Experiences of Home-Working, Health Behavior and Well-Being During the 2020 UK COVID-19 Lockdown.

WELL-being; WORK environment; SEDENTARY lifestyles; HOME environment; EMPLOYEE attitudes; WORK; RESEARCH methodology; WHITE collar workers; INTERVIEWING; WORK-life balance; EXPERIENTIAL learning; HEALTH behavior; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; PSYCHOSOCIAL factors; TELECOMMUTING; STAY-at-home orders; OCCUPATIONAL adaptation; THEMATIC analysis; INDUSTRIAL hygiene; COVID-19 pandemic

This study shows that adaptations to working practices, in response to the Spring 2020 UK Covid-19 lockdown, incidentally affected health behaviours (e.g., physical activity, sedentary behaviour, dietary consumption) and wellbeing. Outside of the pandemic context, this suggests that organisational policies should encourage home-working practices that shield employee health and wellbeing. Objective: The Spring 2020 UK COVID-19 lockdown required normally office-based workers to modify their work-related practices to work at home. This study explored workers' experiences of adapting to home working, health behaviors and well-being. Methods: Twenty-seven home working employees (19 women; aged 23–57 years), from various industry sectors, gave individual semi-structured interviews. Topics focused on home working experiences, routine adaptations, and changes in health behaviors and well-being. Results: Four themes were extracted: changes to the work interface; adaptations to a new workspace; changes to work-life balance; and adjustments to a new social context. Notably, participants reported greater reliance on computer-based interactions, which they felt discouraged physical activity and increased sitting. Working in a domestic environment reportedly challenged work-home boundaries. Conclusions: Work practices can incidentally detrimentally impact health-related behaviors and well-being. Organizations should develop policies and procedures to promote health-conducive home working. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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