Seventeenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society

Abstract

Due to the spread of COVID-19 many people in the Swedish workforce began to perform their work from home in the spring of 2020. The situation during the pandemic is completely unique and its consequences for the work environment and productivity (positive / negative) is not yet fully known. There is knowledge about telework under normal conditions, but to be able to say something certain about the consequences when people are encouraged / forced to work from home, specific research is needed. Using photo-elicitation as a method for data collection the purpose of this ongoing project is to develop in-depth knowledge what happens to the work environment and employees’ and managers’ perceived well-being when they are more or less forced to work from home under COVID-19. The respondents are instructed to photograph their everyday work from home and based on these photographs, semi-structured qualitative interviews are performed. We highlight and discuss some preliminary results from the project.