Teleworking and Emotional Experience and Wellbeing: The Case in the Turkish Financial Services Industry During COVID-19

Abstract

Since the worldwide increase in COVID-19 cases, teleworking in the Turkish Financial Services Industry has become increasingly popular. Wellbeing of working outside traditional workplace settings, is still in its infancy and as far as we understand, has not yet been addressed in the Turkish Financial Industry. We administered a survey using the telephone, e-mail and other social media asking employees in the financial sector in Turkey currently working under these new conditions to provide us with specific responses which take as our data. 438 valid responses were received and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling on Lisrel. We tested the relationship between teleworking, Covid-19 fear, emotional experience, and affective well-being. As a result of the study we found a significant relationship (i) between Covid-19 fear and individual differences and (ii) between individual differences and affective wellbeing. The findings will allow financial institutions managers to re-evaluate working conditions during the pandemic period, while guiding legislators to produce policies. JEL Codes - D53; I31; D91

Keywords

• telework
• wellbeing
• remote working
• covid-19
• public and private entities
• turkish financial services industry