The effects of teleworking on public hospital work organisation

Résumé 0

This study presents the results of a survey conducted in a French public hospital with the purpose of highlighting the impact of teleworking and the COVID-19 crisis on work activity, its content and its organisation. To address our study, we conducted semi-structured retrospective interviews with 30 non-medical sector employees. The questions focused on the way work activity was performed over two periods: when mandatory, forced teleworking was introduced during the health crisis; when hybrid, long-term teleworking took effect post-crisis. The analysis of this data underlines significant changes in work content and organisation that were pursued after the initial mandatory teleworking period, along with others that did not recur. Digitalisation of work intensified and new distinctions between teleworkable and non-teleworkable tasks were brought to light. During the initial mandatory teleworking phase, players reorganised their tasks and became significantly more autonomous whereas, during the second phase, teleworkers experienced a return to more traditional monitoring and control of their activity. These trends underscore the importance of appropriate development in management and of formal support for hospital employees to ensure that teleworking practices are effective and viable for the organisation and the employees.