Remote Work and Well-being

ABSTRACT

Remote work traditionally has allowed people flexibility in how they approach their work practices, and the benefits and challenges of remote work are well documented in the literature. However, with the recent rapid shift to working from home for a significant portion of the workforce, the traditional notions about remote work have been challenged. Remote work looks different when everyone is doing it. There are now entire families who coexist in the same household during working hours, and the need to balance between
work and personal life is more pressing than ever before. In this research we study the impact of remote work on the well-being of people who have had to adapt their work lives to being at home. We focus on the cognitive aspect of getting work done, the challenges of negotiating boundaries and the impact on physical and mental well-being – all of which are important components of productivity and life satisfaction. Based on our findings from an external survey, we derive insights for how future workplaces that are looking to move to a hybrid model of remote work can adapt in the near future.

CCS Concepts
Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); Empirical studies in HCI.

Keywords

work-life boundary, well-being, modern workplace, COVID19

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/S

Shamsi Iqbal
Microsoft
Redmond, WA, USA
shamsi@microsoft.com

Shamsi Iqbal is a Principal Researcher in the Information and Data Sciences group at Microsoft Research AI, Redmond. Her primary research expertise is in the area of Attention Management for Multitasking Domains. Her work is motivated by the vision of transforming the field of productivity research in response to the changing technology landscape with an eye towards making people happy and satisfied with the process and the outcome. Currently she is focusing on how productivity is defined in the new era of multitasking and distraction, introducing novel ways of being productive and determining metrics for evaluating productivity. More specifically, she develops experiences and technology that helps people maintain focus when needed, but at the same time introduce new concepts of getting things done in limited focus environments.

Jina Suh
Microsoft
Redmond, WA, USA

Jina Suh a Principal Research Software Engineer in the HUE group at Microsoft Research Redmond Lab. She is also a first year PhD student at Paul G. Allen School of the Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington advised under James Fogarty and Daniel Weld. She is a proud alumnus of the Machine Teaching group where she grew her interest and passion for HCI and ML. Her research interests lie in Mental Health, Human-AI collaboration, visualization and tools for ML, and interpretability and bias in ML.

Mary Czerwinski
Microsoft
Redmond, WA, USA
marycz@microsoft.com

Mary Czerwinski is a Research Manager of the Human Understanding and Empathy group. Mary’s research focuses primarily on emotion tracking, information worker task management, health and wellness for individuals and groups. Her background is in visual attention and multitasking. She holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Indiana University in Bloomington.

Gloria Mark
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA, USA
gmark@uci.ca

Gloria Mark is Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. She received her PhD from Columbia University in psychology. She has been a visiting senior researcher at Microsoft Research since 2012. Her primary research interest is in understanding the impact of digital media on people’s lives and she is best known for her work in studying people’s multitasking, mood and behavior while using digital media in real world environments.

Jaime Teevan
Microsoft
Redmond, WA, USA
teevan@microsoft.com

Jaime Teevan is Chief Scientist for Microsoft‘s Experiences and Devices, where she is helping Microsoft create the future of productivity. Previously she was the Technical Advisor to Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, and a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research AI, where she led the Productivity team. Dr. Teevan has published hundreds of award-winning technical articles, books, and patents, and given keynotes around the world.

New Future of Work 2020, August 3–5, 2020
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