RESEARCH ARTICLE


Use of Digital Technologies in Home Office Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic



Lucio Lage Gonçalves1, *, Antonio Egidio Nardi1, Hugo dos Santos2, Douglas Rodrigues2, Anna Lucia Spear King1
1 Delete Lab. Digital Detox and Conscious Use of Technologies, Institute of Psychiatry IPUB), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Av. Venceslau Bras 71, Botafogo - Rio de Janeiro, 22290 Brazil
2 Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Institute of Statistics, Fluminense Federal University (UFF), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


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Creative Commons License
© 2022 Gonçalves et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Delete Lab. Digital Detox and Conscious Use of Technologies, Institute of Psychiatry IPUB), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Av. Venceslau Bras 71, Botafogo - Rio de Janeiro, 22290 RJ Brazil; E-mail: luciolage@msn.com


Abstract

Background:

Social distancing as a preventive measure to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many people working from home, using online digital resources. Staying at home has led to the adaptation of many work activities to allow continuity of people´s jobs. It can also affect home routines and ways of working, thereby leading to changes in behavior, as the main interest of this study.

Objective:

The study aimed to assess the impact on human behavior of working conditions in home office format due to social distancing.

Methods:

Data collection was done online, using a specific computational tool (Google Forms) for this type of research, using the Home Office Work Scale (HOWS) validated and published in Mental Health and Addiction Research in 2021, with a total sample of 1,056 valid questionnaires. After the data collection, a database was created for statistical analysis of the results.

Results:

More women than men volunteered to answer the questionnaire, although the results were similar between women and men. Home office work has impacts on human behavior and results in changes in routines and adaptations in people´s personal and professional lives.

Conclusion:

Proportionally, more women participated, and there was low participation by young and elderly people. In general, people accepted home office work and the possibility of continuing to work in this format. Changes to routines and restrictive adaptations were necessary. The limitations reported for applying the scale did not compromise the results.

Keywords: Home office, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Pandemic, Human behavior, Social distancing.