The Covid-19 pandemic has played a significant role in accelerating the trend for many employees to work from home. While employers in particular 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 - although 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 will be presented at the closing event and empirical findings will be summarised.

Prof Dr Hajo Holst (University of Osnabrück) will present the results of the working environment monitor "Working in the Corona crisis" in relation to working from home. The results, which were obtained through multiple surveys, illustrate the various design requirements for future working from home.

Programme of the closing event
- 18:00 Opening
Prof. Dr. Thomas Breisig
- 18:15 Lecture and discussion
Experiences and results of the future discourse Working between home and office
Hiltraud Grzech-Sukalo, Dr. Claudia Czycholl
- 6:45 p.m. Lecture and discussion
Home office in the pandemic - findings of the working environment monitor "Working in the Corona crisis"
Prof. Dr Hajo Holst, Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Osnabrück
- 7:45 p.m. Outlook on a different practice
Dr Uwe Kröcher
- 8:00 p.m. End of the event

Participation in the event is free of charge. Please register by 7 July 2022 using the online registration form: uol.de/kooperationsstelle/anmeldung-homeoffice

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.