Challenges of working from home during the COVID‐19 pandemic for women in the UAE

• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Author: Chokri Kooli
• Date: 01 February 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2829

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Challenges of working from home during the COVID-19

pandemic for women in the UAE

Chokri Kooli

1,2

1

Telfer school of Management, University of

Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

2

Research associate professor, The university

of Quebec, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada

Correspondence

Chokri Kooli, Telfer school of Management,

University of Ottawa, 55 Laurier Ave. E,

Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.

Email: ibm4chk@yahoo.fr

This study explored the experiences of working from home among women in the

United Arab Emirates (UAE) during the lockdown. Adopting the interpretative philo-

sophical approach, this study conducts semi-structuredinterviews with sixteen(16) ran-

domly selected women actively employed in different sectors in the UAE economy.

The analysis was carriedout using the thematic analysis to derive the themes and sub-

themes emerging from the coded data. The research finds that most of the challenges

are associated with spillover from work, affecting family time, and invading personal

space. The research concluded that women working remotely faced issues linked to

glitches, malfunctions, and knowledge deficiencies. The third most identified challenge

to working from home was the distractions that come with the conscious attempt to

divide attention between work and family, trying to stop one from interfering with the

other. However, the research observed some notable advantages including workplace

flexibility and control, as well as the opportunity to work from the comfort of the

home. The findings also revealed the mixed feelings to continue working from home

and its impact onthe career progression of women inthe UAE.

KEYWORDS

COVID-19, UAE, women, working from home

1|INTRODUCTION

Coronavirus Disease (COVID) has become the most devastating global

pandemic of the 21st century (Harris & Moss, 2021). Findings show

that the earliest reported case was in November 2019 from a

55-year-old man in Wuhan, China (Sirajudeen et al., 2021). Although

Chinese authorities first communicated the nature of the disease to

the World Health Organization (WHO) by December 31, it was not

enough time to fully grasp the virus's dynamic nature or to clearly dis-

tinguish what it is from what it is not. Within a short time, the virus

began to spread through the community geometrically, then exponen-

tially. By January 13, the WHO confirmed the first COVID case out-

side China, in Thailand. Since then, there have been 27.2 million cases

worldwide, with 18.2 million recovered and 890 thousand recorded

deaths (WHO, 2020a,2020b).

In addition to claiming hundreds of thousands of lives up to

nearly a million lives worldwide, the global pandemic has

wrought devastation in many economies (Moss & Harris, 2020).

Following a ban on international and local travels and business

closures, clamp down on all economic activities within countries

from corporate institutions to manufacturing, education, reli-

gious activities, transportation, construction, and every facet of

the economy.

Like most parts of the world, the wor k-life in the UAE was

immensely affected by the pan demic. Towards ensuring the job

security of workers, the UAE government thrust out policies geared

towards ensuring job security for Emiratis and foreigners. According

to Hogan Lovells (2020), the Ministry of Human Resource s and

Emiratization (MOHRE) iss ued policy directives that mandated

employers to adopt the follow ing measures as a coping strategy dur-

ing the intensity of the pandem ic: remote working arrange ments,

grant paid leave to employees , unpaid grant leave to emplo yees,

temporarily reduce emplo yee salaries, and or permanen tly reduce

employee salaries.

Received: 17 November 2020 Revised: 4 June 2022 Accepted: 15 June 2022

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2829

J Public Affairs. 2023;23:e2829. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of13

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2829