Project

The aim of this project is to provide experimental evidence on how home-based work affects professional careers of male and female workers. We will explore how the working from home affects men and women’s promotion prospects, access to training and salary increase, and how home-based workers are perceived by employers in terms of their work commitment and competence, all in comparison to on-site workers. The study will be conducted in the late/post-pandemic context of two countries –Poland and the UK–that aresimilar in women’s involvement in childcare and paid work but differ in the prevalence of home-based work. We will conduct online vignette surveys. Our goal is to survey 500-1000 managers with supervisory responsibilities working in the business sector. The participants will be randomly assigned a set of workers’ profiles (vignettes) with manipulated information on workers’ gender, parenthood status, mode of working (home-vs. office-based work). The project will provide up-to-date evidence on the consequences of home-based work for workers’ careers in the late/post-pandemic era. By focusing on gender perspective, providing comparative evidence for two countries, and identifying the causal effect of home-based work via the experimental design, the proposed project will contribute immensely to the existing research on the consequences of this mode of working on employment careers.