Job Satisfaction in a Situation of Working from Home

The conduct of this study is due to the relevance of the topic under study. So, at the moment there is an active development of the remote work format both in Russia and around the world. Considering the ambiguity of assessments of the impact of the remote work format on remote workers, as well as the limited number of Russian studies on this topic, it seemed significant to study in the Russian sample how this phenomenon affects the job satisfaction of individuals. In particular, a comparison was made of the job satisfaction of individuals working and not working remotely, as well as a comparison of the job satisfaction of remote workers of different professional groups. In addition, an attempt was made to identify the factors influencing job satisfaction of individuals working from home. The study was carried out on the data of the Russian Monitoring of the Socio-Economic Situation and Health of the Population of the Russian Federation (RLMS-HSE). Data from 15-28 waves were used (from 2006 to 2019, respectively). In the course of this study, a socio-demographic portrait of a typical remote worker was compiled and its differences from a traditional worker were identified. It was possible to trace how the job satisfaction of remote and non-remote individuals changed over time, from 2006 to 2019. Job satisfaction for remote workers was found to be higher than job satisfaction for traditional workers. At the same time, a heterogeneity was noticed in the structure of satisfaction with the work of remote employees of different professional groups, which suggests that this format of work is most likely not suitable for all groups. Finally, a number of factors were obtained that affect the job satisfaction of remote employees, both on satisfaction in general and on satisfaction with various aspects (career growth, wages, work-life balance). These factors were divided into specific, that is, significant only for remote workers and universal, that is, significant for both remote and non-remote workers. This study was rather of an overview nature and requires further study, at least on a larger sample. It seems interesting in future work to study a more specific group of remote workers (for example, who work from home most of the time or remote workers in only one industry), as well as analyze and identify additional factors that could affect the satisfaction of remote workers.