Work-life balance and its associated factors during work from home among telecommunication company employees

Abstract

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, several workplaces have adjusted their working styles and implemented ‘work from home’ as a measure. It has been expected that work from home remains practical despite the pandemic will ease in the future. Work from home involving lifestyle and time management changes affects ‘work-life balance’. However, studies of the relationship between work-life balance and work from home are still limited.
Objectives: To study the level of work-life balance and its associated factors during work from home among telecommunication company employees in a northern province, Thailand.
Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted by collecting the data via an online questionnaire among all 600 employees of a telecommunication company between February and May 2022. The questionnaires consist of personal demographic variables, work and work from home related variables, as well as work-life balance assessment form. Data were analyzed by descriptive and analytical statistics including bivariate analysis and multiple logistic regression.
Results: The response rate was 46.0%. The work-life balance score was a mean percentage of 69.2  14.2. After adjustment for confounders by multiple logistic regression, factors significantly associated with ‘low’ work-life balance were female (OR = 2.22, 95% CI 1.17 - 4.22), having a young child (OR = 2.61, 95% CI 1.10 - 6.19) and having heavy workload (OR = 5.41, 95% CI 2.62 - 11.15). In contrast, factors significantly associated with ‘high’ work-life balance were having a good relationship with the family (OR = 0.39, 95% CI 0.19 - 0.81), getting adequate rest (OR = 0.07, 95% CI 0.01 - 0.36), having strong organizational support (OR = 0.43, 95% CI 0.21 - 0.87), high job satisfaction (OR = 0.42, 95% CI 0.21 - 0.83) and flexible working hours (OR = 0.23, 95% CI 0.10 - 0.53).
Conclusion: Work-life balance was related to ‘personal variables such as gender, relationship with the family, having children and adequate rest’ and to ‘work and work from home related variables such as workload, organizational support, job satisfaction, and flexible working hours. Organizations should set policies and measures based on such factors to promote a good work-life balance for employees who work from home.