Furloughs, Teleworking and Other Work Situations during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Impact on Mental Well-Being

Escudero-Castillo, Israel; Mato-Díaz, Fco. Javier; Rodriguez-Alvarez, Ana

doi:10.3390/ijerph18062898

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Furloughs, Teleworking and Other Work Situations during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Impact on Mental Well-Being

Israel Escudero-Castillo

^1,*

Fco. Javier Mato-Díaz

and

Ana Rodriguez-Alvarez

Department of Applied Economics, University of Oviedo, 33007 Oviedo, Spain

Department of Economics, University of Oviedo, 33007 Oviedo, Spain

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: Paul B. Tchounwou

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(6), 2898; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18062898

Received: 12 February 2021 / Revised: 3 March 2021 / Accepted: 8 March 2021 / Published: 12 March 2021

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Abstract

As a consequence of the Spring 2020 lockdown that occurred in Spain due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people lost their jobs or had to be furloughed. The objective of this study is to analyse the influence of the latter changes in labour market status on psychological well-being. For this purpose, an ad-hoc questionnaire featuring socio-demographic and mental health criteria was created. Granted that the pandemic can be viewed as an exogenous shock, the bias caused by the bidirectional problems between the work situation and mental well-being can be tackled. Results indicate that the lockdown exerted a greater negative effect on the self-perceived well-being of unemployed and furloughed persons than on those in employment. Moreover, among those in continuous employment, teleworkers experienced a lesser degree of self-perceived well-being post lockdown as compared to those people remaining in the same work location throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Finally, the lockdown provoked worse effects on the self-perceived well-being of women as compared to men, a result that appears to be related to gender differences in household production. In conclusion, these results could be especially relevant given that the evolution of the pandemic is having ongoing effects on employment and, therefore, on the mental health of workers. View Full-Text

Keywords: precarious employment; health outcomes; work-family issues

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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MDPI and ACS Style

Escudero-Castillo, I.; Mato-Díaz, F.J.; Rodriguez-Alvarez, A. Furloughs, Teleworking and Other Work Situations during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Impact on Mental Well-Being. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 2898. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18062898

AMA Style

Escudero-Castillo I, Mato-Díaz FJ, Rodriguez-Alvarez A. Furloughs, Teleworking and Other Work Situations during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Impact on Mental Well-Being. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18(6):2898. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18062898

Chicago/Turabian Style

Escudero-Castillo, Israel, Fco. Javier Mato-Díaz, and Ana Rodriguez-Alvarez. 2021. "Furloughs, Teleworking and Other Work Situations during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Impact on Mental Well-Being" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 6: 2898. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18062898

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Furloughs, Teleworking and Other Work Situations during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Impact on Mental Well-Being

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