Understanding the challenges of working from home during Covid-19 pandemic and ways of coping: the perspectives of Malay employees
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). It has led many countries, including Malaysia, to implement Restricted Movement Order (RMO) that aimed for individuals to practice social distancing by staying at home and enforcing employees...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Institut Sosial Malaysia
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/96048/7/96048_Understanding%20the%20challenges%20of%20working%20from%20home.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/96048/ https://ijsps.ism.gov.my/index.php/IJSPS/article/view/202/173 |
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| Summary: | The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). It has led many countries, including Malaysia, to implement Restricted Movement Order (RMO) that aimed for individuals to practice social distancing by staying at home and enforcing employees to work from home (WFH). The implementation of WFH is one of the intelligible efforts that could protect many people from the deadly virus. However, many individuals have complained about their struggles to adjust to the new working environment. Hence, a qualitative study was
conducted to explore employees’ experiences as they WFH during the
pandemic, particularly in terms of its challenges and coping strategies. A
purposive sampling technique was used to recruit the participants, which
consisted of five full-time employees from various sectors undergoing WFH.
Semi-structured interviews were used as the technique of data collection.
Based on the thematic analysis, several themes were discovered to help
better understand the challenges faced by the participants and their coping
strategies to overcome the difficulties. The themes of challenges discovered
were household interruption, limited facilities, communication barriers,
adjusting to a new norm, and mental health. At the same time, the themes
for the coping strategies were acceptance, communication, social support,
employee benefits, and religious beliefs. The findings manifested that the
participants in the study were still struggling and probably needed more
time to adapt to the new norm of working arrangement. |
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