Why are teleworkers stressed? : An empirical analysis of the causes of telework-enabled stress

Despite the wide dissemination and acceptance of teleworking, there are negative effects for employees. Literature shows that these negative effects of telework lead to undesired outcomes for teleworkers such as telework-exhaustion. The present research, however, goes one step further by identifying three significant telework-characteristics and hypothesizing the relationship between telework-characteristics and telework-enabled stressors. By doing so, one can understand the reason why telework-enabled stressors are perceived and identify the source of these stressors, which can then be counteracted to maintain the advantages of teleworking. Therefore, this research investigates the influence of the following telework-characteristics - information undersupply, autonomy, and isolation - on telework-enabled stressors and accordingly on telework-exhaustion and on the intention to continue teleworking. Results of an analysis on 310 teleworkers show that telework-characteristics influence telework-enabled stressors and accordingly increase the extent of telework-exhaustion and decrease the intention to continue teleworking.