Work-life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic. A European perspective

Abstract

The EU’s remote working landscape, marked by heterogeneity, underwent significant changes due to COVID-19. We use Eurofound’s longitudinal Living, Working and COVID-19 e-survey to explore work-life balance shifts among remote workers from spring 2020 to spring 2022. Quantitative analysis reveals heightened work-life balance challenges for married, female, parent, and university-educated remote workers. Employer work-life balance intensified post-pandemic, while self-employed workers faced consistent challenges. Countries with less of a history of remote work exhibited reduced remote worker satisfaction through all phases of the pandemic. While sectoral effects were not pronounced, this study underscores nuanced demographic and employment-related impacts of remote work on work-life balance. Its findings provide new insights to the study of EU remote work dynamics, offering implications for workforce well-being and management strategies.