IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rco/dpaper/486.html

Self-control and Performance while Working from Home

Author

Listed:
  • Julia Baumann

    (Wirtschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung)

  • Anastasia Danilov

    (HU Berlin)

  • Olga Stavrova

    (Universität Lübeck)

Abstract

This study explores the role of trait self-control in individuals’ changes in performance and well-being when working from home (WFH). In a three-wave longitudinal study with UK workers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we find that low self-control workers experienced a significant positive adjustment to WFH over time: The number of reported work distractions decreased, and self-assessed performance increased over the period of four months. In contrast, high self-control individuals did not show a similar upward trajectory. Despite the positive adjustment of low self-control individuals over time, on average, self-control was still positively associated with performance and negatively associated with work distractions. However, trait self-control was not consistently associated with changes in well-being. These findings provide a more nuanced view on trait self-control, suggesting that low self-control individuals can improve initial performance over time when working from home.

Suggested Citation

  • Julia Baumann & Anastasia Danilov & Olga Stavrova, 2023. "Self-control and Performance while Working from Home," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 486, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    • Handle: RePEc:rco:dpaper:486
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://rationality-and-competition.de/wp-content/uploads/discussion_paper/486.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Bloom & Ruobing Han & James Liang, 2022. "How hybrid working from home works out," POID Working Papers 059, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.
    3. Michael Gibbs & Friederike Mengel & Christoph Siemroth, 2023. "Work from Home and Productivity: Evidence from Personnel and Analytics Data on Information Technology Professionals," Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 7-41.
    4. Etheridge, Ben & Wang, Yikai & Tang, Li, 2020. "Worker productivity during lockdown and working from home: evidence from self-reports," ISER Working Paper Series 2020-12, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vij, Akshay & Souza, Flavio F. & Barrie, Helen & Anilan, V. & Sarmiento, Sergio & Washington, Lynette, 2023. "Employee preferences for working from home in Australia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 782-800.
    2. Markus Nagler & Johannes Rincke & Erwin Winkler, 2024. "Working from home, commuting, and gender," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Masayuki Morikawa, 2023. "Productivity dynamics of remote work during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 317-331, July.
    4. Janice Eberly & John G. Fernald, 2022. "Jackson Hole 2022 - Reassessing Economic Constraints: Potential Output (The Impact of COVID on Productivity and Potential Output)," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, August.
    5. Michele Mariani & Livia Ristuccia & Pasqualino Montanaro, 2023. "Propensity to work remotely in the Bank of Italy: a behavioural analysis," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 753, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    6. Jannis Bischof & Joachim Gassen & Anna Rohlfing-Bastian & Davud Rostam-Afschar & Caren Sureth-Sloane, 2024. "Accounting for Transparency: a Framework and Three Applications in Tax, Managerial, and Financial Accounting," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 76(4), pages 573-611, December.
    7. Julia Baumann & Anastasia Danilov & Olga Stavrova, 2023. "Self-control and performance while working from home," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(4), pages 1-19, April.
    8. Burdett, Ashley & Etheridge, Ben & Tang, Li & Wang, Yikai, 2024. "Worker productivity during Covid-19 and adaptation to working from home," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    9. Ketter, Laura & Morris, Todd & Yu, Lizi, 2025. "A New Equilibrium: COVID-19 Lockdowns and WFH Persistence," IZA Discussion Papers 17975, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Laura Ketter & Todd Morris & Lizi Yu, 2025. "A new equilibrium: COVID-19 lockdowns and WFH persistence," Papers 2506.16671, arXiv.org.
    11. Guillaume Gueguen & Claudia Senik, 2022. "Adopting Telework. The causal impact of working from home on subjective wellbeing," Working Papers halshs-03455306, HAL.
    12. Gueguen, Guillaume & Senik, Claudia, 2022. "Adopting Telework. The causal impact of working from home on subjective well-being in 2020," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 2201, CEPREMAP.
    13. Guillaume Gueguen & Claudia Senik, 2023. "Adopting telework: The causal impact of working from home on subjective well‐being," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(4), pages 832-868, December.
    14. Guillaume Gueguen & Claudia Senik, 2022. "Adopting Telework. The causal impact of working from home on subjective wellbeing," PSE Working Papers halshs-03455306, HAL.
    15. Bertoni, Marco & Cavapozzi, Danilo & Pasini, Giacomo & Pavese, Caterina, 2025. "The causal effect of working from home on mental health of 50+ Europeans," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    16. Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2023. "The remote work revolution: Impact on real estate values and the urban environment: 2023 AREUEA Presidential Address," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(1), pages 7-48, January.
    17. Martijn Stroom & Piet Eichholtz & Nils Kok, 2024. "Does working from home work? That depends on the home," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(8), pages 1-19, August.
    18. Pablo Zarate & Mathias Dolls & Steven J. Davis & Nicholas Bloom & Jose Maria Barrero & Cevat Giray Aksoy, 2024. "Why Does Working from Home Vary Across Countries and People?," NBER Working Papers 32374, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Thomas Fackler & Michael Hofmann & Nadzeya Laurentsyeva, 2023. "Defying Gravity: What Drives Productivity in Remote Teams?," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 427, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    20. Zeewan Lee & Poh Lin Tan & Jie-Sheng Tan-Soo, 2025. "Unequal gains from remote work during COVID-19 between spouses: Evidence from longitudinal data in Singapore," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(5), pages 1-31, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rco:dpaper:486. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Viviana Lalli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rationality-and-competition.de .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.