Remote Work: The Great Equalizer of the Twenty-First Century? Stress and Employee Motivation in High- and Low-Cost Countries: Exemplary Analysis for Germany, Bulgaria, and Georgia

Covid-19 accelerated the increase of remote work. Not only do employees work from home instead of doing their daily commute to the office. Today, office jobs can literally be done from anywhere in the world where a sufficient infrastructure in terms of Internet access is available. This book chapter analyses to what extent geographical location and remote work influence motivation, stress, and efficiency of work, based on an employee survey conducted at the company iGaming.com Group GmbH, Berlin, with teams mainly in Germany and Bulgaria—countries that have substantially different economic environments and salary levels. Interestingly, the survey results show that location of work and different salary levels are almost negligible for motivation, stress, and work efficiency in comparison to management and leadership factors. In a summary, key success factors for remote work are outlined and conclusions are drawn for the further development of Georgia, which is already listed among the top five countries for remote work. The pre-requisites to support a prospering digital labour market from qualification, company culture, and organization to salary levels are outlined and combined with an outlook.