The telework tradeoff: Stress mitigation vs. constrained restoration

Abstract

As a coping strategy, telework may reduce stress from some sources; however, it may also undermine restorative functions of the home. Investigating this tradeoff between stress mitigation and the constraint of restoration, we analysed questionnaire data from 101 full-time Swedish governmental employees whose workplace relocated to another city. After the relocation, 58 employees performed a 20 per cent of their ordinary paid work at home. Coping with commuting and parenting demands frequently figured among reasons for teleworking. Having a separate room for telework appeared to ameliorate spatial but not temporal or mental overlap of work and non-work life. Teleworkers and non-teleworkers alike experienced the home more as a place of restoration than one of demands. Teleworking was reliably associated with restoration, conditional on gender; of those who teleworked, women reported less, and men more, effective restoration than their counterparts among non-teleworkers. © 2007 International Association of Applied Psychology.