The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 dramatically increased teleworking opportunities for federal employees. The increase in the number of teleworking employees presented numerous challenges for federal managers attempting to establish social networks, teamwork, and organizational commitment for their employees. This study used the case study design with a socio-technical conceptual framework as the basis to explore the strategies managers used. Data were collected via semistructured interviews with federal managers of teleworkers located in the Midwest region of the United States. A coding strategy was employed to organize the transcripts from the interviews into themes, and methodological triangulation was utilized by comparing the interview data with data from federal teleworking documents. From these analyses, 10 themes emerged: group meetings, knowledge-sharing networks, management of teleworkers, teleworker agreements, teleworker equipment, challenge of team building, telework as a reward, limitation on days teleworked, training, and flexibility of teleworkers. Managers incorporating these themes into best practices could have the tools and strategies to effectively implement and manage teleworking programs by helping to improve organizational commitment, teamwork, and socialization. The strategies could also help alleviate the isolation that some federal teleworkers experience. Widespread adoption of these strategies by managers could lead to increased teleworking opportunities for employees, thereby saving energy, reducing greenhouse gases, and reducing traffic congestion.

Organizational leaders and managers may not have the management acumen, organizational awareness, or leadership expertise to construct and implement effective strategies, policies, and procedures to help reduce the frequency of the phenomenon of workplace isolation. The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory, multiple case study was to gain a common understanding about how workplace isolation may influence a remote employee'€™s performance in a customer service organization in the United States. Emerson'€™s social exchange theory was used as the conceptual framework. A series of semistructured interviews with 21 remote workers that consisted of four different divisions at the same organization was conducted to yield thematic results. Data analysis included holistic and pattern coding. The most common understandings that emerged into themes were the need of social interaction, manager communication, and peer-to-peer interactions that had an influence on job performance. The knowledge acquired in this study can affect social change by providing insights for leaders, managers, and practitioners to create policies and strategies to improve the engagement, performance, and well-being of remote workers who may experience workplace isolation.

I samband med årsskiftet 2019–2020 erfar världen att ett nytt coronavirus upptäckts. Under våren 2020 är pandemin med den nya smittan COVID-19 ett faktum. För att förhindra smittspridning går Världshälsoorganisationen ut med olika riktlinjer och rekommendationer. Ur ett icke-medicinskt perspektiv gavs bland annat följande råd: social distansering, flexibelt arbete och distansarbete. En storskalig global omställning till distansarbete påbörjades. Denna litteraturstudies syfte var att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkat medarbetarens sociala liv och psykiska hälsa i samband med den snabba omställningen till distansarbete i hemmet på grund av COVID-19 pandemin. Inkluderade artiklar bearbetades utifrån en induktiv ansats och analyserade genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet genomsyras av dualitet och lyfts fram i tre kategorier Arbete, Förändringar i vardagen och Hälsa. Inom Arbete visar sig flera fördelar som sparad restid, tidsanpassning, flexibilitet och arbetsautonomi men även nackdelar som avsaknad av kollegor, prokrastinering, ökad arbetsbelastning. Förändringar i vardagen visar livsstilsförändringar som sämre kost och mindre fysisk aktivitet men även det motsatta. De sociala kontakterna förändras och social isolering upplevs. Hälsa visar både en förbättrad liksom en försämrad fysisk och psykisk hälsa detta utifrån arbetssituationen i hemmet med distraktioner från privatlivet gentemot arbetet och tvärtom samt arbetsplatsens faktiska utformning i hemmet. / Around New Year of 2019-2020, the world learned that a new coronavirus had been discovered. In the spring of 2020, the pandemic with the new infectious disease COVID-19 was a fact. To prevent the spread of infection, the World Health Organization issued various forms of recommendations. From a non-medical perspective, the following advice was given: social distancing, flexible work and teleworking. A large-scale global transition to teleworking began. The purpose of this literature study was to investigate the factors that have affected the domestic worker's social life and mental health in connection with the rapid transition to telework due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Included articles were processed based on an inductive approach and analyzed through a qualitative content analysis. The result is filled with duality and is highlighted in three categories Work, Changes in everyday life and Health. In Work, findings show several advantages such as saved travel time, time adaptation, flexibility and work autonomy, but also disadvantages such as lack of colleagues, procrastination, increased workload. Changes in everyday life show lifestyle changes such as poorer diet and less physical activity, but also the opposite. The social contacts change and social isolation is experienced. Health shows both improved and deteriorating physical and mental health based on the workplace and the work situation at home with distractions from work towards the private life and vice versa.

Sick leave due to poor mental health has increased in Sweden and the need for more knowledge about possible work adaption is big. Under the right conditions telecommuting seems to have positive effects on mental health. Research shows that voluntariness is an important factor. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-reported symptoms of burnout, depression, sleeping problems and willingness to telecommute. The outcome was the amount of days a person wishes to telecommute. The sample consisted of 1383 white collar workers from private and public sector. Two linear regression analyzes were performed, one without and one with control variables. The result of this study showed no relationship between self-reported symptoms of burnout, depression, sleeping problems and willingness to telecommute. However, it showed a significant relationship between some of the control variables and the outcome. These were age, telecommuting experience, commuting time and the amount of telecommuting currently performed. Future studies should focus on including more people with higher levels of poor mental health, and also investigate the possibility of using telecommuting as work adaption for this group.

Under 2020 började allt fler företag anamma distansarbete som en metod för att minska smittspridning på grund av pandemin som drabbade världen. I tidigare forskning presenteras distansarbete som en frivillighet för såväl företag och anställda. Frivilligt distansarbete har enligt tidigare forskning visat på en högre produktivitet i jämförelse till traditionellt arbete på ett kontor. Under pandemin har arbete hemifrån varit ofrivilligt för många anställda. Studiens syfte är att undersöka upplevelser av förändring i effektivitet och produktivitet till följd av ofrivilligt distansarbete. Detta har undersökts via en intervjustudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer där insikt fåtts i hur anställda på olika företag i Sverige upplever sin effektivitet och produktivitet till följd av att få arbeta hemifrån. Resultatet av studien visar att anställda med ovilja att arbeta hemifrån har lägre produktivitet. Arbetstillfredsställelse är avgörande för bättre effektivitet. Arbetsmiljön i hemmet påverkar en anställds arbetstillfredsställelse. Vidare är effektiviteten mer mångtydig, vilket visar sig genom att distansarbete inte är för alla. Det kan oavsett vara ett bra alternativ för företag där anställda har personlighetsdrag som struktur och disciplin och därmed kan hantera distansarbetet på ett systematiskt sätt. Överlag finns en positiv inställning till arbete hemifrån även om övergången inte skett frivilligt, och i framtiden hoppas många på att kunna arbeta till viss del på distans och därmed få det bästa av två världar. / During the year 2020 a lot of companies began to adopt teleworking as a method of reducing the spread of the covid-19 infection. In previous research teleworking is presented as a flexible work arrangement where employees do not commute to an office, instead working from home as the main purpose. Teleworking has improved previous research with increased productivity, whereas traditional office work indicates lower productivity. During the covid-19 pandemic work from home has become unintended for a lot of employees. The purpose of this study was to examine employees’ experience of efficiency and effectiveness that occurred due to involuntarily teleworking. An interview study with semi-structured interviews has been used to gain insight into how employees at different companies experience their efficiency and effectiveness as a result of working from home. The result of the study indicates that employees with an unwillingness to work from home show lower efficiency. Great work satisfaction is crucial for better work effectiveness. Work environment at home has an impact on employee’s work satisfaction. Furthermore, the effectiveness is more ambiguous, which is shown by the fact that teleworking is not for everyone. Regardless, teleworking can be a great alternative for companies with employees who have personality traits with structure and discipline and thus can handle flexible work in a systematic way. Most of the employees are positive about teleworking even if the transition was involuntary, and there is a desire to be able to telework part-time in the future in order to get the best of two worlds.

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The combination of growth in gross domestic product, population, and employment in an area usually implies a growth in demand for workplace properties, somewhere employees can carry out work. This, in combination with a deindustrialization process where more and more people shift to jobs within the service sector has historically fuelled the demand for office space in most across the western world, not least in Sweden. During the year of 2020, due to the ongoing pandemic many employees have been forced or encouraged to work from home, telework. With so many employees teleworking and many organisations reconsidering where work should be carried out, the importance and future of offices is questioned. The aim of this thesis was to obtain a deeper understanding of how increased telework will affect the office space market. In doing so, four research questions were formulated assessing the effect of telework on the office space market, the drivers and obstacles towards increased telework, and finally the Corona pandemic effect on the future of telework. The approach of finding evidence to answer research questions was interviewing real estate professionals, employers and employees, conducting a survey, and performing an extensive literature review on previous work surrounding the topic. The result shows that telework will likely lead to decentralisation of offices, increased demand for flexibility, changes in requested office design and eventually a somewhat weakened demand for office space. Result further shows that the main drivers towards increased telework were found to be the event of a crisis, improved results, development of information and communication technology (ICT), and improved work-life balance. The main obstacles were found to be social isolation, loss of organisational culture, and teamwork suffering. Lastly, results show that the Corona pandemic has served as a catalyst for many to realise the potential of telework while simultaneously helping many to realise the importance of the office as a meeting place. In conclusion, the Corona pandemic has pushed the change towards increased telework and possibly, we need to reconsider what is implied with work in our society. / Kombinationen av tillväxt i bruttonationalprodukt, befolkning och antal arbetare i ett område medför vanligtvis en ökad efterfrågan på arbetsplatsfastigheter, någonstans arbetare kan utföra sitt arbete. Detta, i kombination med en avindustrialiseringsprocess där fler och fler människor jobbar inom tjänstesektorn har historiskt sett drivit på efterfrågan för kontor i de flesta länder i västvärlden, inte minst i Sverige. Under året 2020 har den pågående pandemin resulterat i att många arbetare tvingats eller uppmuntrats arbeta hemifrån, distansarbete. Med så många som arbetar på distans och då många organisationer ser över var arbete helst ska utföras, ifrågasätts betydelsen och framtiden av kontor. Syftet med detta arbete var att få en djupare förståelse för hur ökat distansarbete kan komma att påverka marknaden för kontorsyta. Därigenom formulerades fyra forskningsfrågor som granskar effekten av distansarbete på kontorsmarknaden, drivkrafterna och hindren för ökat distansarbete och slutligen Coronapandemins effekt på framtiden för distansarbete. Tillvägagångssättet för att hitta bevis som kan svara på forskningsfrågor var att intervjua yrkesverksamma inom fastighetsmarknaden, arbetsgivare, anställda, genomföra en enkätundersökning samt utföra en omfattande litteraturgranskning av tidigare arbete kring ämnet. Resultatet visar att distansarbete sannolikt kommer att leda till decentralisering av kontor, ökad efterfrågan på flexibilitet, förändringar i efterfrågad kontorsdesign och så småningom en något försvagad efterfrågan på kontor. Resultatet visar även att de viktigaste drivkrafterna mot ökat distansarbete är inträffandet av en kris, förbättrat resultat, utveckling av informations- och kommunikationsteknik och förbättrad balans mellan arbete och privatliv. De största hindren visade sig vara social isolering, försvagad organisationskultur och att samarbete kan gå förlorad. Slutligen visar resultatet att Coronapandemin har fungerat som en katalysator för många att inse potentialen med distansarbete samtidigt som många insett betydelsen av kontoret som mötesplats. Sammanfattningsvis har Coronapandemin drivit på förändringen mot ökat distansarbete och möjligtvis måste vi tänka om kring vad arbete betyder i vårt samhälle.

<p>This study explores telecommuter travel behaviour by examining discretionary travel distance and mode choice. The study utilizes data obtained from the 2005 origin-destination survey conducted by TRANS, a joint transportation planning committee serving the National Capital Region of Canada. The study compares and explains the discretionary travel behavior of teleworkers relative to other population groups and identifies that the average teleworker travels 3 times farther than regular workers and 1.7 times farther than non-workers for discretionary purposes. Regression indicates that dependent children, vehicle accessibility, housing type, residential distance to the urban core, land-use mix, residence within a Greenbelt region and day of the week all positively affect travel distance. Conversely, age, proximity to shopping centers and inclement weather demonstrate significant negative effects. Then, through binary logistic regression, the study confirms that work status significantly influences mode choice. Similarly, the following predictor variables demonstrate a significant positive effect towards active mode choice: teleworker work status, larger household size, greater income, warmer temperature, closer proximity to shopping centers, apartment housing type, trips for recreational and restaurant purposes, taking subsequent trips in a day, and travel between 8:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. On the contrary, increased entropy, trips within the Greenbelt region, dependent children under 16 years old, increased vehicle accessibility and trips for transporting someone or for shopping purposes all reduce the probability of active travel mode choice.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)