Is working from home good or bad work? Evidence from Australian employees

Alfred Dockery and Sherry Bawa ()
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Sherry Bawa: School of Economics and Finance, Curtin Business School

No WP1402, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Working Paper series from Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School

Abstract: There is concern that workers are finding it increasingly difficult to balance work and family life and face growing time stress. Working from home is one form of flexibility in working arrangements that may assist workers to juggle work and non-work commitments. However, it may also provide a pathway for greater intrusion of work into family life and for added work-related stress. Around 17% of Australian employees work some of their usual working hours from home, and one-third of these do so under a formal agreement with their employer. Based on evidence from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, these proportions seem to have remained surprisingly stable over the past decade. Overall, the ability to work some hours from home is seen by employees as a positive job attribute that provides flexibility to balance work and non-work commitments and this is particularly so for employees who have a formal agreement to work from home. However, working from home is also associated with long hours of work and the evidence provides grounds for concern that working from home does facilitate greater intrusion into non-work domains of life through this channel.

Keywords: time allocation; labour supply; working conditions; job satisfaction. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I32 J13 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2014-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap, nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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