Work After Lockdown, 2020-2021

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This dataset consists of primary data from a mixed method longitudinal project: (1) Qualitative data: interviews in 4 case study organisations across three waves. Some transcripts are retracted where interviewees have not provided their permission for anonymised archiving. In wave 1, a combination of leaders, managers and employees without line management responsibiliy are interviewed in each of the 4 organisations. In wave 2, leaders are interviewed in each of the 4 case study organisations. In wave 3, a combination of leaders, managers and employees without line management responsibiliy are interviewed in each of the 4 organisations. Some new interviews are conducted with people have joined organisations over the course of the pandemic. (2) Quantitative data: employee surveys across PST and PAD sectors We conducted two surveys in Wave One. The first went to subjects working in Local Government and the second to subjects working in the legal profession. At the end of each questionnaire respondents were asked to indicate their willingness to participate in a follow-up (Wave Two) survey to capture data on their views, circumstances and preferences several months later. Over 300 respondents from the Local Government population indicated that they would be willing to complete a Wave Two questionnaire, but the overall response from the Wave One survey of subjects working in the legal profession was poor and only a very few from this already small group opted into the Wave Two survey. As a result, the team decided to: • Conduct a Wave Two follow up survey, as planned, among Local Authority respondents; • Discontinue plans for follow up survey among respondents working in the legal profession; • Conduct a second, cross-sectional, survey using the same questionnaire as the Wave Two survey targeted at respondents in both public administration and professional services roles. This represented a pragmatic compromise and that it has meant that our Wave One and Wave Two survey data from local government employees was the only explicitly longitudinal element to our survey work, but it enabled us to conduct useful cross-sectional analysis and to make meaningful comparisons between occupational and demographic subgroups.

This research is designed to support economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, providing timely, actionable insight and recommendations about Working from Home (WfH), and the implications of crisis-driven adaptations for longer-term organisational practice and policy. This project engages with three research questions: (1) how the pandemic has influenced different sectors in the UK; (2) the longer-term implications of WfH; and (3) which new behaviours and working practices will remain and which should be encouraged? A mixed-methods approach is used, consisting of online surveys, organisational case studies, and secondary analysis of national datasets. The research explores both employer actions, practices and strategic decision-making, and employee experiences and outcomes of WfH during lockdown and its aftermath. Focusing on Professional Services and Public Administration, the longitudinal perspective contours and contextualises the recovery process in these sectors, selected for their contrasting business models, frontline pandemic responses, and levels of WfH prior to the crisis-driven mass migration of white-collar workers into roles performed entirely from home.