Is Our Home Ready for Working from Home?

Abstract

The Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused societal changes, including in terms of work from home (WFH). Since January 2020 in Thailand, several companies have shifted from office workplaces to full-scale or temporary WFH for white-collar employees who achieve professional tasks remotely. Insofar as worker time spent indoors has increased, what is the overall residential satisfaction under WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic? The objective of this research was to investigate overall residential satisfaction predictors for housing, neighborhood, and relevant variables of WFH characteristics pertinent to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected by online and onsite questionnaires from 293 respondents, all white-collar employees who inhabit landed houses. This study is analyzed with multiple linear regression and mean comparison with independent-samples t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results predicting overall residential satisfaction comprised eight vital predictors: 1) neighborhood appearance; 2) house size; 3) ventilation; 4) privacy; 5) comfort without air conditioning; 6) distance from healthcare centers; 7) domestic design, and 8) neighborhood cleanliness, at a significance level of p<0.05. Higher overall residential satisfaction levels were observed to be significant in terms of inhabiting a housing estate & single-detached house, number of WFH days, private workroom, house size, and newness of house.