Satisfaction with working from home during COVID-19 pandemic

At the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people who worked from home increased drastically. New working conditions were not standardized, and work efficiency depended on the possibility of separating work from household and family obligations. Although there is no solid evidence of the negative impact of remote work on the workers’ health during the pandemic, it was observed that women were more tired or depressed than men, while men maintained a better balance between private and work time. The aim of this research was to determine the satisfaction of Croatian workers who started working from home at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, and to examine the relationship between satisfaction and age and gender. It is a crosssectional study, in which 232 (121 male and 111 female) employees of a telecommunications company were involved. Each participant filled out a questionnaire once, immediately after eight months of working from home. The majority (59.9%) of the participants were satisfied while working from home. No difference in satisfaction was found between men and women (χ2(1)=1.179, P=0.278) and younger and older participants (U=6347.0, P=0.821). Dissatisfaction of the participants was related to longer working hours (χ2(2)=14.015, P<0.001), disturbance by household members (χ2(2)=14.601, P<0.001) and inability to separate private from work time (χ2(1)= 28.917, P