Telecommuting Intensity in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic: Job Performance and Work-Life Balance

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic caused a prolonged and intensified telecommuting arrangement that raised a number of unprecedented concerns regarding its implications on employees’ job performance (JP) and work-life balance (WLB). This study primarily aimed at determining the relationship between telecommuting intensity and employees’ JP and WLB. Further, it sought to know if there was a significant difference in employees’ productivity when working at the office and at home. Lastly, it assessed whether previous frameworks on JP and WLB were still valid during the COVID-19 crisis. A total of 396 telecommuting employees from three BPO companies in the Philippines were gathered using stratified random sampling. Pearson correlation, T-test, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were executed for this study. The result of this study provides evidence that intensified telecommuting has a negative relationship with employees’ WLB. It means that longer time spent in telecommuting decreases the work-life balance of employees. On the other hand, telecommuting intensity is not significantly correlated with employees’ JP, supporting the second finding that there is no significant difference in the percentage of work done and the amount of time spent to finish a job at home and at the office. Lastly, CFA generated that the frameworks on JP and WLB were still applicable in the context of COVID-19. This study provides managers with findings to more carefully design telecommuting programmes with emphasis on supporting the factors that contribute to employees’ work-life balance.