How do young employees perceive stress and job engagement while working from home? Evidence from a telecom operator during COVID-19
Abstract
Purpose: The study examines the extent to which job demands and resources are related to job stress and engagement among young employees exposed to remote work. The study draws on the job demands–resources (JD-R) model, adapted to working from home during the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses data from a survey among young employees (35 years and younger) in a large, telecommunications company in Norway (N = 303), conducted in May 2021. Linear regression analysis was employed. Findings: The results show that the difficulty of work tasks is positively related to stress while time spent working from home, managing work–life balance and receiving support from leaders are negatively related to stress. Furthermore, overtime, support from leaders and colleagues and managing work–life balance are positively related to job engagement. Having a dedicated workspace at home is not related to either job stress or engagement and no gender differences exist. Originality/value: The study theoretically contributes to the literature by showing that the nature of work plays out differently for the well-being of employees working from home. In terms of practical implications, the study suggests that adjusting the level of difficulty of work tasks and providing support can alleviate stress among young employees. Providing the option to work from home may reduce stress among these young employees, however working from home may face limitations regarding enhancing job engagement.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Leader support is negatively related to stress.
“Leader support is negatively related to stress w”
From Leadership and technostress: A systematic literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Olsen et al. (2023)
Cites
The job demands-resources model of burnout.
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499 · Cited by 13,643 · see citing works
Consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: A review and agenda for future research.
Allen, T. D., Herst, D. E. L., Bruck, C. S., & Sutton, M. (2000) · Journal of Occupational Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/1076-8998.5.2.278 · Cited by 2,767 · see citing works
Gajendran, R. S., & Harrison, D. A. (2007) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1524 · Cited by 2,616 · see citing works
Using the job demands-resources model to predict burnout and performance
Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Verbeke, W. (2004) · Human Resource Management · doi:10.1002/hrm.20004 · Cited by 2,565 · see citing works
Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment *
Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J., & Ying, Z. J. (2015) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1093/qje/qju032 · Cited by 1,991 · see citing works
Felstead, A., & Henseke, G. (2017) · New Technology Work and Employment · doi:10.1111/ntwe.12097 · Cited by 915 · see citing works
Galanti, T., Guidetti, G., Mazzei, E., Zappalà, S., & Toscano, F. (2021) · Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine · doi:10.1097/jom.0000000000002236 · Cited by 826 · see citing works
Systematically reviewing remote e-workers’ well-being at work: a multidimensional approach
Charalampous, M., Grant, C. A., Tramontano, C., & Michailidis, E. (2019) · European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1080/1359432x.2018.1541886 · Cited by 743 · see citing works
Working from home: Characteristics and outcomes of telework.
Nakrošienė, A., Bučiūnienė, I., & Goštautaitė, B. (2019) · International Journal of Manpower · doi:10.1108/ijm-07-2017-0172 · Cited by 547 · see citing works
Impact of telework on exhaustion and job engagement: a job demands and job resources model
Sardeshmukh, S. R., Sharma, D., & Golden, T. D. (2012) · New Technology Work and Employment · doi:10.1111/j.1468-005x.2012.00284.x · Cited by 545 · see citing works
Is telework effective for organizations?
Martin, B. H., & Mesler, R. M. (2012) · Management Research Review · doi:10.1108/01409171211238820 · Cited by 371 · see citing works
Hybrid workspace: re-spatialisations of work, organisation and management
Halford, S. (2005) · New Technology Work and Employment · doi:10.1111/j.1468-005x.2005.00141.x · Cited by 364 · see citing works
Leonardi, P. M. (2020) · Journal of Management Studies · doi:10.1111/joms.12648 · Cited by 325 · see citing works
Greenhaus, J. H., Ziegert, J. C., & Allen, T. D. (2011) · Journal of Vocational Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2011.10.008 · Cited by 321 · see citing works
Eddleston, K. A., & Mulki, J. P. (2015) · Group & Organization Management · doi:10.1177/1059601115619548 · Cited by 290 · see citing works
New Technology, Work and Employment in the era of COVID‐19: reflecting on legacies of research
Hodder, A. (2020) · New Technology Work and Employment · doi:10.1111/ntwe.12173 · Cited by 233 · see citing works
Ingusci, E., Signore, F., Giancaspro, M. L., Manuti, A., Molino, M., Russo, V., Zito, M., & Cortese, C. G. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.655148 · Cited by 221 · see citing works
COVID’s mental-health toll: how scientists are tracking a surge in depression
Abbott, A. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-021-00175-z · Cited by 177 · see citing works
Wöhrmann, A. M., & Ebner, C. (2021) · New Technology Work and Employment · doi:10.1111/ntwe.12208 · Cited by 158 · see citing works
HRM and the COVID‐19 pandemic: How can we stop making a bad situation worse?
Butterick, M., & Charlwood, A. (2021) · Human Resource Management Journal · doi:10.1111/1748-8583.12344 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
Employee isolation and telecommuter organizational commitment
Wang, W., Albert, L. J., & Sun, Q. (2020) · Employee Relations · doi:10.1108/er-06-2019-0246 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
The role of leisure crafting for emotional exhaustion in telework during the COVID-19 pandemic
Abdel Hadi, S., Bakker, A. B., & Häusser, J. A. (2021) · Anxiety, Stress, & Coping · doi:10.1080/10615806.2021.1903447 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Rapp, D. J., Hughey, J. M., & Kreiner, G. E. (2021) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/apl0000951 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Going forward: remote working in the post-COVID-19 era
Adekoya, O. D., Adisa, T. A., & Aiyenitaju, O. (2022) · Employee Relations · doi:10.1108/er-04-2021-0161 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Bjärntoft, S., Hallman, D., Mathiassen, S. E., Larsson, J., & Jahncke, H. (2020) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph17041418 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Charalampous, M., Grant, C. A., & Tramontano, C. (2021) · Employee Relations · doi:10.1108/er-02-2021-0058 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Why are teleworkers stressed? An empirical analysis of the causes of telework-enabled stress
Weinert, C., Maier, C., & Laumer, S. (2015) · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Fueling Work Engagement: The Role of Sleep, Health, and Overtime
Schleupner, R., & Kühnel, J. (2021) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.592850 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Rožman, M., & Tominc, P. (2021) · Employee Relations · doi:10.1108/er-10-2020-0469 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Kundu, S. C., Tuteja, P., & Chahar, P. (2022) · Employee Relations · doi:10.1108/er-03-2021-0090 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Leadership and technostress: A systematic literature review
Rademaker, T., Klingenberg, I., & Süß, S. (2025) · Management Review Quarterly · doi:10.1007/s11301-023-00385-x · Cited by 59 · see citing works
- Authors
- Olsen, K. M., Hildrum, J., Kummen, K., & Leirdal, C.
- Affiliations
- Norwegian School of Economics (NO)
- Telenor (Norway) (NO)
- Venue
- Employee Relations: The International Journal
- Publisher
- Emerald
- Published
- 2023-02-10
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 762-775
- ISSN
- 0142-5455 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4319780874
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 8
- FWCI
- 9.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Employee Relations (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Work-Family Balance Challenges
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
- Keywords
- working from home, remote work, occupational stress, work engagement, young workers, job demands-resources model, work-life balance, leader support, coworker support, overtime, task difficulty, gender differences, COVID-19 pandemic, telecommunications industry
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
