O lado obscuro do home office: dimensões de precariedade no trabalho em casa

Abstract

Working from home has been adopted around the world in recent years, especially with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Considered a modality of telecommuting and flexible work, working from home can provide many advantages to the company, society and the individual, however, research shows that working from home has generated potential negative effects for the worker, which can signal signs of precariousness at work, a multidimensional concept that relates aspects of the context and working conditions, it can also reflect the interface between work and other spheres of life. The general objective of this thesis is to understand how the dimensions of precariousness at work manifest in the working from home from the perspective of the worker. The specific objectives are: i) to define dimensions of precariousness in working from home based on the literature; ii) to investigate the dimension of precariousness “context and working conditions” in working from home; iii) to investigate the dimension of precariousness “work and other spheres of life” in working from home; iv) to propose an analytical model of precariousness in working from home. For achieve these objectives, bibliographic research was carried out in scientific articles indexed in the Scopus database and field research of a qualitative and descriptive nature, with data collected in fifteen semi-structured interviews, analyzed from the content analysis procedures. The results indicate that precariousness in working from home is manifested from elements that indicate work overload due to the flexible routine; inadequate facilities and workplace; communication barriers and support difficulties; lack of face-to-face interaction and difficulty in virtual interactions; problems related to the physical and mental health of workers; interference in work due to domestic activities and child care; and conflict between work and other spheres of life due to the excessive connection of the individual with work. The proposed theoretical model articulates eight elements that can make precarious in working from home, distributed in two main dimensions related to the context and conditions of work and work and other spheres of life. Therefore, the thesis defended is that precariousness in working from home is manifested from a complex dynamic that involves the context and working conditions and the interface between work and other spheres of life, peculiar to each type of work and each type of domestic reality.