The COVID-19 pandemic has played a significant role in shifting work to home offices for many employees. While employers had reservations about working from home before the pandemic, this scepticism gave way to widespread acceptance of this form of work after some time. Most employees and companies recognised advantages, in particular the elimination of commuting, the possibility of flexible and autonomous working hours and better work results. Even though disadvantages can certainly be observed, such as permanent availability or the increasing dissolution of work boundaries, most employees are (very) satisfied with working from home and would like to continue to use this work location in the future - albeit usually only on a few days a week. Both employees and companies are therefore in favour of hybrid forms of work between home office and on-site work.

Our project focused in particular on experiences with regulations for organising work from home. To this end, we looked at company and service agreements before and during the coronavirus pandemic. The main focus was on the question of which regulations have proven successful and what further regulation is required. The main results of the project were presented at the closing event and empirical findings were summarised.

Presentation slides by the project team (Dr Claudia Czycholl, Hiltraud Grzech-Sukalo)

In a keynote speech, Prof Dr Hajo Holst (University of Osnabrück) presented the results of the Working World Monitor "Working in the Corona Crisis" in relation to working from home. The results obtained from multiple surveys highlighted the various design requirements for good working from home in the future.

Presentation slides by Prof Dr Hajo Holst (University of Osnabrück)

The event took place as part of the future discourse "Working between Home & Office" sponsored by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture. Further information on the future discourse can be found on our project homepage.

Material from the workshop "Working from home without boundaries - how to counteract this?"
Prof. Dr. Jan Dettmers, FernUniverstät in Hagen, Industrial and Organisational Psychology

Working from home has long been the norm for many employees and is favoured by the majority. Greater self-determination and organisational autonomy, the elimination of commuting times, a better work-life balance or a better compatibility of academic appointment and private life are often cited as advantages. At the same time, however, the risk of overload is increasing for many people, which is primarily linked to the phenomenon of work becoming unbounded: employers' constant demands for availability can be observed, as can the excessive demands placed on employees to set boundaries between work and private life and to legitimise these to others and themselves.

The negative side effects of unbounded working can also be seen in connection with new management methods, which are referred to as "indirect management". Here, entrepreneurial success criteria are applied to the work of dependent employees and internalised by them to a much greater extent than in previous work regimes of direct control. This gives rise to phenomena that are discussed under the heading of "interested self-endangerment". These manifest themselves in presenteeism and unhealthy behaviour at work and have a negative impact on the ability to work and private life. Corporate business goals are prioritised over personal health.

In order to avoid the negative effects of remote working, individual and collective reflection on the organisation of availability requirements is necessary in addition to strengthening self-management skills. These coping strategies were presented and tested in practice during the workshop.

The speaker at the workshop was Prof. Dr Jan Dettmers, work and organisational psychologist at the Fern Universität Hagen. He has been researching the topic of work and health and the effects of unbounded work for many years. Among other things, he has developed a design and training concept for dealing with extended availability in a way that promotes health.

The event took place as part of the future discourse "Working between Home & Office" sponsored by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture.

The event was aimed at company and institution managers as well as Works and Staff Councils and other interested representatives of companies and institutions.

Further information can be found on our project homepage.

Speakers: Prof. Dr Wolfgang Däubler, (labour law expert, former University of Bremen).

In many companies and organisations, there is a growing need to further develop the "emergency regulations" for working from home made during the coronavirus pandemic and to establish binding rules. Most employees - although not all - want to continue working from home at least part of the time. This has a variety of consequences for work organisation.

In the workshop, we took a closer look at the key content of service and works agreements and discussed strategies for negotiation processes. To this end, Prof. Dr Wolfgang Däubler gave a presentation explaining the labour law background to the various regulatory aspects of teleworking, working from home and mobile working. This was followed by a joint exploration of specific implementation options, including the aspects of authorisation and access to home office, (health-friendly) design of office and home office workplaces, cost distribution and working hours/availability.

The event was aimed at company and institution managers as well as works and Staff Councils and other interested representatives of companies and institutions.

Presentation of the workshop

Presentation
Introduction to the topic of working from home. What can and should be regulated?
Project team: Working between home and office:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Breisig, Hiltraud Grzech-Sukalo,
Chair of Organisation and Human Resources, University of Oldenburg
Dr. Uwe Kröcher, Dr.in Claudia Czycholl,
Office for University and Trade Union Co-operation, University of Oldenburg

Presentation
Working from home at the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture
Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture

presentation
Mobile working and teleworking at the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture
Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture

Service agreement on teleworking and mobile working
between the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture and the General Staff Council of the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture

Further information on the project: uol.de/kooperationsstelle/homeoffice