Remote work in a virtual office: Changing the social space of an employee in an organization

Abstract

Today’s workplace environment allows employees to work anywhere, anytime, without any restrictions. Nevertheless, both organizations and employees working in virtual office mode face a number of difficulties. Research on the advantages and disadvantages of working remotely for employees and organizations and how to overcome the difficulties of working in a virtual office format has become particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Purpose. This article provides a brief review of research aimed at studying the psychosocial characteristics of the employee’s workplace in the traditional and virtual office in the foreign scientific literature. Method. More than 50 articles relevant to the topic of the ongoing research project were selected for theoretical analysis. Based on the selected literary sources, the advantages and limitations of remote work for the employee and the functioning of the organization were determined; the ways to maintain the psychological well-being of employees were considered. Findings. The key indicators of telecommuting that affect employee stress levels at work (interrupted communication, work overload, work-home imbalance), and on the organization (threat to social relationships and disrupted communication) were considered. Potential ways of maintaining employee’s psychological well-being in virtual offices are listed: training, amendments in rules and organizational norms, psychosocial design of the workplace, maintaining work-life balance, meeting the needs of working women, technical equipment of the premises and accessibility of technology. An interdisciplinary approach in the study of key problems of the employee in the organization is substantiated.