Sustainable Remote Work Practices: Examining Engagement, Technological Demands, and Work–Family Conflict

The widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work has profoundly reshaped organizational processes, offering greater flexibility and autonomy while simultaneously introducing new psychosocial challenges. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, the present study examined the relationship between employees’ perceived disadvantages of remote work and work engagement, considering the parallel indirect associations involving technology-related demands and work–family conflict. Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey involving 3762 hybrid workers employed by an Italian IT company. Primary analyses were conducted on 3028 participants with complete observed data on the four focal constructs. Participants completed an adapted measure of he Remote Working Benefits and Disadvantages Scale, together with the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-3), the Emerging Technology-related Stressors Scale, and the Work–Family Conflict Scale. Greater perceived disadvantages were associated with higher technology-related demands and work–family conflict, both of which were in turn associated with lower work engagement. The standardized indirect associations were β = −0.086 through technology-related demands and β = −0.044 through work–family conflict, while the remaining direct association was small (β = −0.058). The overall model explained 8.3% of the variance in work engagement, indicating modest explanatory power. These findings support an appraisal-based interpretation of remote and hybrid work, suggesting that employees’ subjective evaluations of their work arrangements may represent one relevant correlate of engagement. The study underscores the importance of implementing sustainable remote work practices that minimize perceived disadvantages, support effective boundary management, and reduce technology-related demands to foster employee engagement and well-being.