Work from home and employee well-being: a double-edged sword.

Background: With the advancement of globalization and technology, remote work has gradually become a feasible and popular work model, particularly with the rapid adoption of working from home driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. This shift not only provides employees with greater flexibility and convenience, potentially enhancing their well-being, but also brings challenges such as blurred boundaries between work and family, and increased social isolation, which can lead to a decline in well-being. Therefore, exploring the dual-edged impact of working from home on employee well-being can help organizations design and implement better policies, enabling employees to balance work and family while improving overall well-being.

Methods: Using the Job Demands-Resources model, this research develops a moderated dual-mediation model to examine the effects of working from home on employee well-being. Data were collected through an anonymous online survey, resulting in a total of 343 valid responses.

Results: Our findings reveal that the direct effect of working from home on employee well-being is not statistically significant, however, its influence is multifaceted. Specifically, working from home can negatively impact well-being by exacerbating family-work conflict, while simultaneously promoting well-being by enhancing job engagement. Furthermore, an individual's confidence in managing work and family responsibilities, referred to as "work-family balance self-efficacy," moderates the relationship between working from home and family-work conflict.

Conclusions: The research findings contribute to advancing theoretical understanding of remote employee management and positive organizational behavior in the digital era. They offer valuable insights for organizations to optimize the management of working from home and support the innovation of human resource management practices in enterprises.