Homeoffice: Ohne gute Beziehungen zwischen Kolleg*innen und Vorgesetzten gelingt es nicht

This article examines the conditions for the success of working from home under the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, a non-representative sample of more than 2800 employees in 19 small, medium-sized and large companies in various industries was examined with regard to both workplace conditions and conditions of working at home. Six perceptions were examined as criteria of success from the employee’s perspective: satisfaction with work-life integration, conflicts spilling over from work to family as well as vice versa from family to work perceived fairness of the employment relationship, health and desired extent of working from home after the pandemic. Remarkably, the sudden and forced implementation of working from home produced few differences in the formal design of working from home. Instead, the quality of relationships among colleagues and with supervisors proved to be a decisive factor, and one that was valid for all success criteria. Both company strategies and legal framework conditions can be conducive to this.