The Impact of the Working Hours on the Work-Life Balance of Remote Workers in Sri Lanka during COVID-19

Abstract

The number of working hours of an employee is linked to his/her health and well-being. Long working hours have been a pressing issue since before the industrial revolution due to their negative impact on health and well-being. During the COVID 19 pandemic, the number of working hours has shown an increasing trend because of remote working. The present study investigated the effect of long working hours on stress and work-life balance in the context of remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Questionnaire based survey was conducted with 103 employees, from different professions, working from home during the pandemic. The results revealed statistically significant weak negative associations between the number of working hours and work-life balance (p < 0.01). Also, the number of working hours showed a significantly weakly positive relationship to the perceived stress (p < 0.01). The study also showed that work-life balance has a statistically significant strong negative correlation with perceived stress (p < 0.01). As such, the study concluded that there is a negative impact of long working hours on work-life balance and stress and thus on employees' health and well-being. Long working hours for employees can benefit the wellness and success of the organization in the short run. However, in the long run, this could impact organizational performance due to the loss of employee productivity