What About the Leader? - Examining the Effects of Remote Work on Leaders' Stress

Abstract: At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reached Europe and forced companies to send their personnel home while somehow keeping their businesses running. This played into the digitalization trend, making remote work the new norm. As homes became offices, it put strain on all levels of society while the line between private life and work blurred. While the demand for mental health services has increased during the pandemic, leaders have been responsible for their subordinates' workplace health. Since crises increase demands on leaders, and leaders' health impacts organizations, this paper examines how leading in a remote work environment during the pandemic has affected leaders' stress. With a qualitative cross-sectional design and an interpretive philosophy, data was collected during the spring of 2022 using semi-structured interviews from a diverse number of sectors. The results display the wide range of stressors and stress relievers facing managers in remote leadership during the two-year period of the pandemic, addressing themes such as communication, work-life balance, responsibility, and support. Findings suggest that the impact of increasing demands on leaders' perceived stress is related to individual factors such as experience, personality, and perceived control realized in practice. Since the boundaries of responsibility and perceived control are socially constructed, they extend as far as the leaders realize their control. Concludingly, the importance of control is underlined as the key to balancing high demands in a work environment characterized by blurred boundaries.