Working from home and impact on subjective mood and work performance–a panel study of Norwegian workers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Background The Covid-19 pandemic drastically changed work practices worldwide, with remote work becoming a central feature of daily life. Covid-19 related travel restrictions created quasi-experimental variation that contributed to reducing one important source of voluntary selection into teleworking, allowing examination of how working from home relates to employees' day-to-day mood and work outcomes under externally influenced conditions. Methods We collected data through a seven-wave survey conducted between May and September 2020 about 2,031 employees in Norway. Using within-person fixed-effects models, we compared individuals' reported daily mood and subjective work performance on days working from home with days traveling to the workplace, exploiting temporal and regional variation in Covid-19 related restrictions. Although survey participation was voluntary, the within-person design allows comparisons of daily experiences given different work locations over time for the same individuals. We also examined heterogeneity in associations and conducted robustness analyses excluding individuals who reported that working from home was their own choice. Results Most participants reported both traveling to the workplace and working from home during the observation period. Working from home was associated with small but statistically significant differences in daily mood and subjective work performance within individuals. On average, mood was approximately 3% higher on a seven-point scale on days worked from home. The association with performance was weaker when excluding those who chose to work from home, consistent with partial selection effects. Morning routines, physical activity, emotional stability, and good work–life balance were associated with better mood and performance under home-based work conditions. Conclusion These findings suggest that working from home is related to modest differences in employees' day-to-day affective states and perceived performance in a hybrid and externally influenced context. By leveraging longitudinal within-person comparisons, this study provides evidence on short-term associations between work location, mood, and subjective performance during a period of widespread remote work.