Work environment and health of bank employees working from home: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Teleworking in the banking sector has increased considerably as a result of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This work examines the role that home work environment and organisational support for teleworking played in the health of bank employees who were forced to work from their homes during the health emergency. For this, the authors propose and test a structural equation model and a moderated serial mediation model using a sample of 1037 bank employees in Spain, obtained through an online self-administered survey. The results reveal the direct and indirect effects of home physical conditions on health, mediated by family interference with work and technological overload. The results also show that the organisation's support for teleworking enhances the impact of home physical conditions on family interference and technological overload, also detecting that the indirect effects of physical conditions on health have been conditioned by the organisation's support for teleworking. The study therefore provides a better understanding of the impact of home environment on teleworkers' health and identifies useful strategies to improve the well-being of bank employees who wish to work from home.