What Influences the Comfort of Working from Home? A Lesson from the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This research aims to identify factors that affect comfort when working from home for oil and gas industry employees. The result of the research on what has been experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic will offer valuable insights into how organizations should prioritize their employees’ well-being while working from home as some organizations still maintain this mode of work after the pandemic ends. The data were collected by distributing questionnaires to 138 office workers who work from home from the two companies in the oil and gas industry in Jakarta and Balikpapan, Indonesia. The research data were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis with SmartPLS version 3.2.9, to verify good indicators in describing or representing a few factors. Individual factors (Work Relations, Workload, and Physical Health), Psychological factors (Social Interaction, Happiness, and Stress), and Work Environment factors (Indoor Climate, Noise, Lighting, and Layout) affect the comfort of working from home. Individual factors have the most effect on the comfort of working from home for oil and gas industry employees during the Covid-19 pandemic. It means that remote workers value certain benefits for their own like time flexibility that allows a healthy work-life balance, leading to increased productivity and higher quality work.