Understanding the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on teleworkers' experiences of perceived threat and professional isolation: The moderating role of friendship

Abstract

Drawing from conservation of resource theory and the social support resource theory, this study examines how the severity of an exogenous disruptive event – the COVID-19 pandemic – in one's community influences teleworkers' well-being outcomes indirectly through their perceptions of pandemic-related threat and experience of professional isolation, as well as the buffering effect of friendship on these relationships. Utilizing time-lagged data from participants of a two-wave survey panel (N = 351) and objective data of COVID-19 severity from counties around the United States, we found that perceived threat, but not professional isolation, mediated the negative effect of proportion of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the community on teleworkers' well-being outcomes. Further, consistent with our predictions, support from friends significantly weakened the negative effects of threat and professional isolation on well-being. Key theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.