INTRODUCTION:

Over the years working from home has developed as a way of working that can be used as a part of an agile working program. Agile working provides the opportunity for the employees to work from home and in addition to this, they also have the option of working from any chosen location. This way of working allows employees to work elsewhere outside of the office environment^[1]. Modern working life adapted the system of work from home. Working from home can be defined as a form of flexible working that allows an employee to work from home for some or all of the working week that may also be used alongside other flexible working arrangements such as part-time working hours. It is also called telecommuting and remote work^[2]. According to CIPD (2016) flexible working has been introduced into organizations as a way for employees and employers to have flexibility within their job roles, therefore, allowing them to suit their personal needs^[3]. Modern technology has made working from home (WFH) possible for many people.

The development of information and communication technology has led directly to the growing importance of WFH as a new form of flexible working for many organizations because of good internet connectivity as well as reasonable price, more user-friendly computers, laptops and other similar gadgets. The individual, organization and societal benefits are known to be obtained if WFH is implemented^[4][5][6][7].

In this 21^st century, the WFH concept is one of the various ways of flexible work arrangement apart of part-time work system and flexible working hours. The quality of working life is affected by working environment, financial reimbursement and job satisfaction. Generally, WFH gives benefits to employees as well as employers. The working from home provides employees with more opportunity to focus on their work tasks. The regular face to face contacts with co-workers significantly reduces, when working away from the school. Decreased control by colleagues or supervisors is an important drawback of work from home. This is true for both the organization and the employee. The work avoidance is the result when someone's work is poorly monitored. Workers still struggle. It is stealing a few minutes to send emails between home schooling sessions. Workers are fighting a cold war with kids^[8].

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the biggest number of employees globally bound to work remotely. The citizens in many countries including India are urged to stay at home and to reduce social contacts to a minimum in the wake of the outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19. This pandemic affected each and every section of the economy. The concept of work from home got more popularity at this point. This pandemic mainly affected educational institutions, which lead to online classes, webinars etc. in order to continue academic activities. Now all the sectors started following the same.

In this study, opinions and challenges experienced by school teachers at home were investigated. As it is seen, work can interfere with family and family can interfere with work. Addressing the family, modern technology, lack of facilities and work-life all together can give important clues about the challenges faced by school teachers.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

The present descriptive, cross sectional survey was conducted at Panipat, Haryana in the month of July, 2020. The sample consisted of fifty government and private school teachers who were working from home during COVID-19. Teachers who were teaching any school level from pre-school to high school were recruited using convenient sampling. Data collection tools were self-structured and consisted of socio-demographic profile, likert scale for opinion assessment and checklist for assessing challenges during work from home in COVID-19. Likert scale had 15 items regarding opinion of respondents and were scored as; strongly agree = 5, agree = 4, not sure = 3, disagree = 2, strongly disagree = 1. Maximum score was 75 and minimum score was 15. Scoring was further divided into; 15-35 for negative opinion, >35-50 for neutral opinion and >50 to 75 for positive opinion. Higher score showed positive opinion regarding work from home during COVID-19. Checklist consisted of 10 items and was to be answered in Yes/ No. Each yes was scored ‘1’ and each no was scored ‘0’. Maximum score was 10 and minimum score was 0. Scoring was further divided into; 0-3.5 for high challenges, >3.5-7 for moderate challenges and >7-10 for low challenges. Higher the score, lesser the number of challenges faced by school teachers during COVID-19. The questionnaires were validated by seven experts in the field of nursing and education. Data were collected using web-based survey. Respondents were mailed the questionnaires and were given a week time to fill them. Queries of the participants were cleared telephonically. Questionnaires complete in all aspects were received by researchers by mail after a week. Informed consent was taken from all subjects telephonically and questionnaires were mailed only after telephonic consent. Data was analysed using SPSS 20.

RESULTS:

a) Socio-demographic profile:

Most of the subjects (60%) were aged between 30-49 years and rest (40%) were below thirty years of age. Majority of the subjects (84%) were females while 16% were males. Majority of the subjects (78%) were married, 20% were unmarried one was divorcee. Most of the subjects (56%) had nuclear family while rest (44%) had joint family. Maximum subjects (84%) had degree as highest qualification, 14% were diploma holders and one was certificate holder. Majority of subjects (90%) were doing private job, four were doing government job and one was self-employed. Regarding class level of teaching, twelve subjects were teaching to pre-school kids, fourteen were teaching kindergarten to 4^th grade, nine were teaching middle school students (5^th – 6^th grade), eleven were teaching junior high school students (7^th -8^th grade) and four were teaching high school students (9^th – 12^th grade). Majority of the subjects (84%) had less than ten years teaching experience, 14% had experience between 11-19 years and one had experience between 20-29 years.

b) Assessment of opinion regarding work from home

Table 1: Opinion of school teachers regarding work from home during COVID-19 n=50

S.No.	Statements	Opinions f (%)
S.No.	Statements	Strongly agree	Agree	Not sure	Disagree	Strongly disagree
1	I have established a good work routine	16(32)	25(50)	4(8)	5(10)	-
2	I am taking regular breaks from work	4(8)	23(46)	6(12)	13(26	4(8)
3	I’m able to maintain a healthy work/life balance while working from home	5(10)	26(52)	12(24)	7(14)	-
4	I feel like I am being more productive	8(16)	23(46)	11(22)	7(14)	1(2)
5	I have created a suitable work place	4(8)	22(44)	14(28)	6(12)	4(8)
6	I am involved in regular school meetings	17(34)	29(58)	2(4)	2(4)	-
7	I am able to contribute in meetings	12(24)	27(54)	5(10)	6(12)	-
8	I am still able to have social interactions with colleague	10(20)	23(46)	5(10)	11(22)	1(2)
9	I feel like I am trusted to work from home	5(10)	22(44)	14(28)	9(18)	-
10	I believe my organization is being supportive	14(28)	28(56)	3(6)	2(4)	3(6)
11.	Your school was prepared to begin virtual teaching before the pandemic	3(6)	21(42)	11(22)	9(18)	6(12)
12.	I felt prepared to virtual teach when our school closed due to pandemic	4(8)	23(46)	12(24)	10(20)	1(2)
13.	I believe my students are enjoying their pandemic learning experience	4(8)	19(38)	15(30)	7(14)	5(10)
14.	I am enjoying this pandemic teaching experience	9(18)	21(42)	5(10)	10(20)	5(10)
15	I am gaining confidence as virtual/pandemic teacher	11(22)	29(58)	5(10)	4(8)	1(2)

Table 1 shows that majority of the subjects (82%) agreed that they had established a good work routine and more than half (54%) agreed that they were taking regular breaks from work. Most of the subjects (62%) agreed that they were able to maintain a healthy work/life balance while working from home and more than half (52%) agreed that they felt they were being more productive. More than half (52%) agreed that they had created a suitable workplace. Majority (92%) agreed that they were involved in regular school meetings and majority (78%) agreed that they were able to contribute in the meetings. Most of the subjects (66%) agreed that they still had social interactions with the colleagues. More than half (54%) agreed that they were trusted to work from home. Less than half (48%) agreed that their school was prepared to begin virtual teaching before the pandemic. More than half (54%) felt prepared to virtual teach during pandemic. Only 46% agreed that their students were enjoying the pandemic learning experience. Most of the subjects (60%) agreed that they were enjoying the pandemic teaching experience. Majority (80%) of the subjects agreed that they were gaining confidence as virtual pandemic teacher.

Table 2: Scoring of opinion among school teachers regarding work from home n=50

Opinion	Score	f (%)
Positive Opinion	>50-75	35(70)
Neutral Opinion	>35-50	15(30)
Negative Opinion	15-35	0
	Mean ± SD
Total opinion score	53.86 ± 6.97

Table 2 shows that mean opinion score was 53.86 ± 6.97 which falls in the category of positive opinion. It means, overall, the subjects had a positive opinion regarding work from home. Regarding individual scoring, majority of the subjects (70%) had a positive opinion regarding work from home while 30% had a neutral opinion regarding work from home. None of the subjects had a negative opinion regarding work from home.

c) Assessment of challenges regarding work from home

Table 3: Assessment of challenges regarding work from home n=50

S.no.	Statements	Opinions F(%)
S.no.	Statements	Yes	No
1	Phone with reliable phone connection	48(96)	2(4)
2	Suitable internet connection	28(56)	22(44)
3	PC/Laptop	28(56)	22(44)
4	Web cam (built in or a separate camera)	20(40)	30(60)
5	Audio equipment (built in or a separate microphone and speaker)	34(68)	16(32)
6	Desk	20(40)	30(60)
7	Office Chair	14(28)	36(72)
8	Are you using any new software?	29(58)	21(42)
9	Do you have any data security concerns relating to work from home?	26(52)	24(48)
10	School administrator has provided me with the tools I need to be successful	18(36)	32(64)

Table 3 shows that majority of the subjects (96%) had phone with reliable phone connection. More than half (56%) had suitable internet connection as well as a PC or Laptop. Only forty percent had a webcam, either inbuilt or separate. Most of the subjects (68%) had audio equipment (built in or separate microphone and speaker). Only 40% had desk to work and 28% had office chair. More than half (58%) were using a new software and 52% had data security concerns relating to work from home. Almost one-third (36%) had the required tools provided by school administrator.

Table 4: Scoring of challenges among school teachers regarding work from home n=50

Challenges	Score	F (%)
High Challenges	0-3.5	9 (18)
Moderate Challenges	>3.5-7	29 (58)
Low Challenges	>7-10	12 (24)
	Mean ± SD
Total challenges score	5.30 ± 1.741

Table 4 shows that the mean score of challenges was 5.30 ± 1.741, which falls in the category of moderate challenges. It depicts that overall subjects considered work from home during COVID-19 a moderately challenging job. Regarding individual scores, a few (18%) subjects considered work from home a highly challenging job, most of the subjects (58%) considered work from home a moderately challenging job and less than one-fourth (24%) considered work from home a low challenging job.

DISCUSSION:

Present study highlighted different opinions and challenges experienced by school teachers on work from home during COVID-19 Pandemic. In a research paper by Bélanger 1999; Bailey and Kurland 2002, working from home is characterized by two main aspects. First, employees work outside the common workplace. Second, a connection between home and office exists. Information exchange and communication with colleagues is possible through the use of information and communication technologies^[9][10]. Gajendran and Harrison, 2007 show that a majority of the studies focus on analyzing benefits and drawbacks of working from home or analyze the influence of working from home on work-family balance^[11]. According to Churchard, 2015 mobile working is presented as a positive way of working for many organizations, however, there is a sense of uncertainty around whether working from home presents any negativity for employees^[12]. This may include the fact that working from home may provide a sense of loneliness that they would not experience while working in the office by Mullins, 2010^[13]. In the other study by Go, (2016) stated the focus on major failures and dark side of work from home, the cultural differences faced during webinars by the employees. Work from home creates a big gap in communication between superior and the subordinates^[14]. A study conducted by James, 2016 also concludes that working from home involves many challenges with the biggest challenge being that it can be extremely hard to retain the motivation to work as it is a struggle to retain the ability to be self-disciplined and self-driven to complete work tasks when working remotely with little support from co-located work colleagues or management^[15]. Richardson and Writer, (2017) opined that work from home is the result of modern technology, which resulted in the increased credibility i.e. increase usage of internet for web conferencing, voice mail, fax which makes work easier and simpler. The positive side of work from home is that the employees according to their convenience can start their work. Further, they added that the negative impact such as delay in work and no submission of work on time will be there^[16].

In the present study, researchers came across various opinions that respondents working from home will be willing to work if they are having encouraging environment and indispensable support from the organization to work from home. Understanding the needs of employees provides employers with a possibility to help their employees set up a supportive, thoughtful and composed work environment, which may result in more number of workers showing increased enthusiasm to work from home and thereby having higher job satisfaction and coherence.

Teachers had little time to process the abrupt changes affecting their professional and personal lives. Professionally, they had to transform face-to-face classes into forms involving online delivery and assessment; ‘learning on-the-fly’ using novel technologies, finding new ways to support and inspire students’ learning, while operating remotely from their homes. This involved multiple challenges for teachers, students, and school administrators, in terms of grappling with new technology, support, leadership, the pragmatics of achieving this with everyone in their own ‘bubbles’, and more.

The present study had few limitations as it was limited to a single district. Studies can be conducted in various districts, private and government schools in rural as well as urban areas. Due to COVID- 19, employees of all the sectors are introduced to the concept of work from home for the first time, hence, comparative study of opinions and challenges of employees towards work from home of different sectors can be studied. This paper estimates the opinions and challenges of school teachers to work from home. During COVID-19, WFH concept is an option for school teachers. Working from home is experienced by employees as a benefit and a symbol of appreciation and trust if it is voluntary.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

None.

ETHICAL CLEARANCE:

Obtained.

REFERENCES:

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14. Go, R. The 7 deadly disadvantages of working from home [Internet]. 2016[cited 2019 may 30]. Retrieved from Hubstaff. Available from: http://blog.hubstaff.com/disadvantages-of-working-from-home/

15. James S. How to work from home effectively [Internet]. 2016 [Accessed 2017 may 21]. Available from: https://www. youtube.com/ watch?v=bAEvruLE1Ss

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Received on 04.08.2020 Modified on 29.08.2020

Asian J. Nursing Education and Research. 2020; 10(4):532-536.

DOI: 10.5958/2349-2996.2020.00115.9