Over 1000 employees took part in the 21 monthly survey waves by Zacher and Rudolph. The representative survey provides insights into where Germans worked before and during the pandemic – and how job satisfaction and stress levels have changed between lockdown and relaxation.
Zacher does not know of any other analysis that has considered the effects of the pandemic on the world of work and the well-being of employees over such a long period of time.
The results are available exclusively to the Handelsblatt. These are the five main lessons:
It wasn’t that long ago that many managers saw home work as something for employees who wanted to laze around at home. But what seemed impossible for decades, became a forced reality across the board within days due to Corona. According to the Leipzig long-term study, shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic, Germany’s employees only spent five percent of their working hours in the home office. During both lockdowns, the number rose to over 25 percent.
But not everyone who was allowed to work from home did so: In the first lockdown, 45 percent stated that their employer basically allows home work. This number has now fallen to 38 percent – some companies are apparently forcing a return to the old world of work.
Overall, however, mobile work has expanded: Due to the easing in summer 2020, Germans spent 15 percent of their working hours at home. This year there are already significantly more at over 20 percent. This is also confirmed by surveys by the Handelsblatt: The large German corporations are still reluctant to open their offices.
The satisfaction with the home office has hardly changed over the months, says Zacher. There are differences between the employed: “For single parents and parents with small children, working from home was particularly stressful because of homeschooling.”
Almost 40 percent have their own study. This proportion has hardly increased despite months of working from home. 75 percent have at least a permanent place to work at home – whether on the couch or at the kitchen table.
Finding 2: Work performance – productivity in the home office is decreasing
Are home office workers more productive? There are studies that answer this question one way or the other. Zacher and Rudolph have found: Especially employees whose working conditions have changed significantly – who have switched from the office to the home office, for example – rate their work performance significantly lower. In the first lockdown, it fell on a scale between one and seven on average from 5.9 to 5.6.
These numbers may look like a small change at first. “In fact, on average, such movements are quite significant,” says Zacher. If you look at the progress of individual people, there are significantly more fluctuations: one person is going down steeply due to the pandemic, the other is going uphill – on average, the numbers are somewhat similar. “An average change of 0.1 on the scale is already a statistically significant change, so it cannot be attributed to chance.”
In the case of employees for whom not so much has changed, such as production employees who only had to get used to new hygiene regulations, the perceived work performance also collapsed, but not as much as with their colleagues who switched to the home office.
In the second lockdown, the perceived work performance decreased similarly, albeit in a weaker form. “People are able to adapt relatively quickly to new requirements,” explains Zacher. Noticeable: With the relaxation and the possibly higher office presence, productivity rose again.
Overall, the average work performance of Germany’s employees remains below the pre-Corona level (5.6 instead of 5.9).
According to Zacher, employees who are convinced of their abilities recover much faster from such changes and even recall their previous work performance. Experts refer to the phenomenon as resilience or resilience. “The performance of employees who do not believe in themselves has plummeted,” said Zacher.
Finding 3: Job Satisfaction – Managers were concerned about relegation
With the spread of the virus, the happiness curve of specialists and managers also went down. Job satisfaction fell during both lockdowns and rose again in the summer months of 2020 and 2021.
At the moment, the employees seem to have recovered – the satisfaction level is at the pre-Corona level.
“Time heals the wounds,” says industrial psychologist Zacher. What is true in a professional context can also be observed in private low-ups such as deaths: people usually return to their original level of happiness after a while.
Managers are typically more satisfied than their employees, as the Leipzig long-term study shows. But managers in particular feared their decline during the pandemic, Zacher knows from the surveys. “People with high professional status were worried that they would lose their power because they feared, for example, that they would not be able to lead their team from the home office.”
Many employees were particularly dissatisfied in December 2020 – their happiness level fell on a scale between one and seven on average from five to 4.7. Zacher explains this with the effects of exhaustion, which apparently hit employees harder than their superiors.
Insight 4: Support from the boss – especially in the first lockdown
The changes caused by Corona are particularly challenging for managers: They had to lead their team virtually and solve problems remotely. Many employees who have switched to the home office have the impression that their bosses were there for them, especially during the first lockdown. The perceived support rose on a scale between one and seven on average from 4.1 to 4.5.
Interesting: Those who spent more time in the office were less satisfied with the support from their superiors. Zacher: “Many bosses apparently kept a particularly close eye on their home office workers.”
But after the first restrictions came to an end, care for home workers decreased rapidly: the perceived support dropped to 4.0. This could have something to do with the fact that many managers have concentrated more on their technical than on their managerial tasks, says Zacher.
The type of leadership has an impact on the health of the employees, explains the industrial psychologist. “Employees who were poorly managed tended to get mentally ill more often and were less committed.” Managers are therefore advised to pay more attention to the well-being of their employees again. Their perceived support is currently below the pre-Corona level.
Insight 5: Stress – Extroverts suffered more
Whether switching to the home office or worrying about an infection: The pandemic has stressed Germany’s employees. In the first lockdown, the respondents gave their perception of stress on a scale from one to five with an average of 2.9. In summer 2020 the numbers fell to 2.4, in winter they rose again to 2.7.
Interesting: Employees who would rather describe themselves as extroverts suffered more from the pandemic than their introverted colleagues. “Video conferences are not enough to meet the social needs of extroverted people,” says Zacher. Introverted employees would have had less of a problem with the virtual exchange – they would not have come to the fore in the meeting room.
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