Telecommuting, Off-Time Work, and Intrusive Leadership in Workers’ Well-Being

Nicola Magnavita, Giovanni Tripepi and Carlo Chiorri
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Nicola Magnavita: Postgraduate School of Occupational Medicine, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Roma, Italy
Giovanni Tripepi: CNR-IFC Research Unit of Reggio Calabria, Institute of Clinical Physiology IFC, Italian National Research Council CNR, R Via Vallone Petrara, 65, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Carlo Chiorri: Department of Educational Sciences, University of Genova (Italy), 16126 Genova, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 7, 1-10

Abstract: Telecommuting is a flexible form of work that has progressively spread over the last 40 years and which has been strongly encouraged by the measures to limit the COVID-19 pandemic. There is still limited evidence on the effects it has on workers’ health. In this survey we invited 905 workers of companies that made a limited use of telecommuting to fill out a questionnaire to evaluate intrusive leadership of managers (IL), the request for work outside traditional hours (OFF-TAJD), workaholism (Bergen Work Addiction Scale (BWAS)), effort/reward imbalance (ERI), happiness, and common mental issues (CMIs), anxiety and depression, assessed by the Goldberg scale (GADS). The interaction between these variables has been studied by structural equation modeling (SEM). Intrusive leadership and working after hours were significantly associated with occupational stress. Workaholism is a relevant moderator of this interaction: intrusive leadership significantly increased the stress of workaholic workers. Intrusive leadership and overtime work were associated with reduced happiness, anxiety, and depression. These results indicate the need to guarantee the right to disconnect to limit the effect of the OFF-TAJD. In addition to this, companies should implement policies to prevent intrusive leadership and workaholism.

Keywords: smart work; psychosocial stressors; health promotion; work-related stress; COVID-19; anxiety; depression; happiness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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