(in German)

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many office workers have got the option of working hybrid, i.e. alternating between working at home and in the office. As a result, cooperation with colleagues is increasingly being shifted to the virtual world. This may change not only the content of cooperation, but also the social relationships between employees. On the basis of the BAuA working time survey 2019 and 2021, we investigate whether there is a relation between the proportion of working from home and the assessment of collegial cooperation. Here we distinguish between formal, content-related collaboration and informal, personal collaboration. The results show that office workers rate both formal and informal cooperation worse as the proportion of work from home increases. However, formal collaboration in particular is rated better in 2021 than in 2019; experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to learning effects in virtual collaboration.

Please download the article "The office as social space - Cooperation in hybrid worlds of work" (in German only).