Teletrabajo y desconexión laboral en tiempos de pandemia, una prevención del riesgo psicosocial – Tecnoestrés

Abstract

The world underwent a significant change with the appearance of COVID-19, not only in health matters, but also at a general level, having to change the usual way of working, thus, many jobs took advantage of the working day through Teleworking, but this affected the occupational performance of employees and their daily activities. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the possibility of work disconnection in the telework modality that university teachers have. The research followed an exploratory, qualitative cross-sectional design, in which the population was 15 teachers who work in the Occupational Therapy career of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí, of which 13 voluntarily accepted to participate. of the study through the application of a focus group and a self-administered questionnaire that guaranteed the anonymity of the participants; The data that were later tabulated using a technological tool (Microsoft Excel). Among the results obtained, it was evidenced that 46% of the participants are always interrupted in their hours of rest by telephone calls; Furthermore, they very frequently receive messages on their mobile device (54% and 46% receive emails outside of work), indicating that technological tools could be considered predisposing factors to generate techno-stress in intervened workers. It is difficult for workers to disconnect outside of their assigned hours or days of rest and that by means of technological tools they remain linked. These tools, which were initially productive in connectivity, have now become a primary stressor by staying connected practically 24/7, affecting the occupational performance of individuals. Despite having national statutes that regulate this activity, little or nothing is done in practice, which could generate a problem at the psychosocial level of the workers.