THE COVID-19 CRISIS AND REGULAR TELEWORK: THE EFFECT OF STRESS ON THE NIGERIAN OIL AND GAS EMPLOYEES’ WORK PERCEPTION

Abstract

Regular telework and COVID-19 pandemic are emerging subjects in business literature. However, there are limited studies relating both variables to employees’ stress. This study adopted the ex-post facto research design with a sample size of 400 to investigate the relationships between regular telework during the COVID-19 pandemic and the stress factor among Nigeria oil and gas employees. The demographic data were analyzed using Power BI, while MS Excel was used to test the three hypotheses. The empirical analysis revealed a significant change in the work culture towards mandatory telework as opposed to flexible working practiced by International Oil Companies prior to the pandemic. There was also a significant and positive relationship between regular teleworking and the stress factor of the sampled employees. It was evident that 66% of the sampled employees were not willing to continue telework beyond the Pandemic. However, if employers are able to provide appropriate work tools and a manageable workload more employees may be willing to continue with telework. An area recommended for further studies is gender-based telework and its effect on employees’ performance. JEL: L10; L71; M10 Article visualizations: