From 996 to 007: Challenges of Working from Home During the Epidemic in China

Abstract: During the COVID-19 epidemic in China, millions of workers in tech companies had to start working from home (WFH). The change was sudden, unexpected and companies were not ready for it. Additionally, it was also the first time that WFH was experienced on such a large scale. We used the opportunity to describe the effect of WFH at scale for a sustained period of time. As the lockdown was easing, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 participants from China working in tech companies. While at first, WFH was reported as a pleasant experience with advantages, e.g. flexible schedule, more time with family, over time, this evolved into a rather negative experience where workers start working all day, every day and feel a higher workload despite the actual workload being reduced. We discuss these results and how they could apply for other extreme circumstances and to help improve WFH in general.