Working from home: When is it too much of a good thing?

Abstract

Based on an integration of meta-theoretical perspectives on the “too much of a good thing” effect with psychological demands and resources theories, we propose and test nonlinear relations between the percentage of time people work from home and a variety of important work-related outcomes (i.e., professional isolation, work from home satisfaction, work from home self-efficacy, work performance, job satisfaction). Then, also based on resource theories, we explore whether and how certain work from home resources (i.e., previous experience working from home, appropriate technologies to facilitate working from home, dedicated workspaces) buffer these nonlinear relations. Data on working from home were provided by n = 994 employees in Germany across 32 monthly measurement waves between April 2020 and December 2022. Our results support the general idea that the percentage of time people work from home has nonlinear associations with a variety of important work-related outcomes. However, only in a few cases (i.e., work performance, job satisfaction) do these relations take the form of inverse U-shapes that would be indicative of “too much of a good thing.” Our exploratory analysis suggests that, in several cases, work from home resources can buffer these nonlinear associations. These findings have implications for the continued development of meta-theoretical perspectives on “too much of a good thing” and for employees' and organizations' attempts to make working from home a positive and productive experience.