Heterogeneous effects of telework on job satisfaction across gender and employment precarity: evidence from postpandemic Japan

Scholars have long investigated the impact of flexible work arrangements (FWA) on job satisfaction. However, in recent years, many workplaces have abruptly introduced telework as a form of FWA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, only to later call workers back to offices as the pandemic subsides. This trend is particularly prevalent in societies with inflexible work cultures like Japan. Nevertheless, we know little about how telework affects job satisfaction unequally among workers during and after the pandemic. Using the nationwide survey dataset collected by the Government of Japan’s Cabinet Office from 2020 to 2023, this study examines heterogeneous associations between telework and job satisfaction. Propensity score matching analyses based on the counterfactual framework show that the average effect of telework is substantially positive in both 2020 and 2023, but its magnitude decreases by over two-thirds during this period. Nonetheless, female nonregular workers experienced a larger psychological return on telework in 2023 despite its null effect in 2020. Male nonregular workers also see a high telework effect on job satisfaction in 2020 and 2023, whereas the effect size among their regular counterparts declines to near zero. These findings suggest that, in postpandemic Japan, (1) regular workers, particularly men, do not gain psychological benefits from telework under the traditional work culture requiring them to be present in the office, but (2) telework underpins job satisfaction of relatively precarious workers with less job security and benefits; and thus (3) the expanded usage of telework may help mitigate labor stratification in worker well-being.