Telework and health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction:  with the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing policy, almost 9 million workers had their professional activities transferred to the home environment, called “remote work,” “home office,” or “telework.” This context worked as a laboratory in which companies could experiment with teleworking.

Objective:  to analyze the unprecedented telework growth and the teleworkers' profile, highlighting the impacts and consequences for the workers' health.

Methods:  analysis of relevant bibliography, exploration of secondary data from empirical research on objective and subjective teleworking conditions, publications in the media about telework in the pandemic and post-pandemic context, and analysis of remote work ads.

Results:  due to the way remote work occurred during the pandemic, in addition to its consequences for health, and living and working conditions, new challenges were raised for the working class. Among them: how to ensure adequate environmental and ergonomic working conditions and how to guarantee the limit of working hours, and the delimitation of working time, in view of the tendency for telework to be maintained in the post-pandemic period.

Conclusion:  the analysis revealed impacts on workers’ health that bring new challenges to the working class. Such impacts, among other reasons, are due to extended working hours, ergonomic conditions at home, and pressure to meet goals.

Keywords: COVID-19; telework; health; regulation; occupational health