Exceptional circumstances: Changes in teachers’ work characteristics and well-being during COVID-19 lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic extensively changed the work life for many employees.

Especially teachers faced a workplace turned upside down as they were confronted

with the challenge of sudden remote teaching after extensive school closures. Drawing

on the Job Demands-Resources model (JD-R), we investigated (a) changes in seven

work characteristics (job demands: emotional demands, interpersonal conflict,

workload; job resources: autonomy, social support, feedback, task variety) and three

job-related well-being indicators (fatigue, psychosomatic complaints, job satisfaction),

(b) how changes in work characteristics correlated with well-being, and (c) the impact

of two individual difference factors (caretaking responsibilities, career stage). Data

were collected in two waves (just prior to and a few months into the COVID-19

pandemic) across Germany from 207 teachers with an average work experience of 6

years (range 1 to 36 years). Using Latent Change Score Modeling, we found

significant, small to medium-sized decreases over time for both job demands and

resources as well as fatigue, with variability in the magnitude of changes. Decreases in

job demands correlated with decreases in fatigue and psychosomatic complaints,

whereas decreases in job resources correlated with decreases in job satisfaction.

Teachers with caretaking responsibilities and more experienced teachers were more

vulnerable to the crisis as they experienced a smaller or no decrease in job demands

in concert with diminished job resources. These findings reveal the double-edged

consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for teachers’ work-life.