PRODUCTIVITY IN THE WORK-FROM-HOME:

THROUGH THE LENS OF THE TEACHERS

PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL

2023
Volume: 12
Pages: 361-384
Document ID: 2023PEMJ1068
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8253592
Manuscript Accepted: 2023-16-8
Psych Educ, 2023, 12: 361-384, Document ID:2023 PEMJ1068, doi:10.5281/zenodo.8253592, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

Productivity in the Work-From-Home: Through the Lens of the Teachers

Cirilo E. Alquiza*, Maedel Joy Ventura-Escote
For affiliations and correspondence, see the last page.
Abstract
Being productive in the academe is an essential contribution to the stakeholders. However, challenges and
difficulties in carrying this out had been a struggle among professional teachers during pandemic. Survey on the
productivity of employees prior to the global pandemic found to be effective in the online work from home
setup. Work from home employees can modify the working environment that fit to individual needs, such as
balancing work and family, so that efficiency can be improved as employees can better manage highly
demanding tasks in limited time. However, college teachers’ experiences during work from home had shown
low productivity. Hence, this qualitative phenomenological research study explored the productivity of the
teachers of Davao de Oro State College New Bataan Branch during the online work setup. The purpose of this
study is to explore on teachers’ experiences, challenges, and insights in teaching during the online work from
home setup. There were seven purposively selected college teachers who participated in the conduct of the
study. Findings revealed that teachers were not impressed with the online working setup and that they cited
noticeable decline of the students’ performance and outputs compared to face-to-face setup. The study also
revealed that only few of the college teachers viewed online learning setup as effective in terms of providing
quality output in their duties as teachers, and they had experienced many challenges in achieving the demands of
work which have affected its effectiveness.

Keywords: productivity, work from home, phenomenological research, Philippines

Introduction In the Philippines, according to Robosa et al. (2021),

Work from home (WFH) has long been recognized as
a means of facilitating work-life balance for
employees in various organizations. This practice has
been extensively adopted in Western countries,
particularly by large and established companies,
organizations, and institutions (Felstead & Jewson,
2000). However, with the onset of the COVID-19
pandemic, there has been a global shift towards
implementing WFH arrangements, especially in
organizations and institutions capable of providing
services through online modalities (Arruda, 2020).
While there are already numerous WFH programs in
place worldwide, the significant increase in
organizations adopting this arrangement raises
questions about how it will shape the working
experiences and productivity of teachers.
In South Africa, previous studies conducted in
Gauteng Province have examined the challenges faced
by employees working from home. Matli (2020)
highlighted that although remote working through
online modalities offers positive aspects, there are also
negative aspects and risks associated with this
arrangement. These include work overload, pressures
to fulfill duties, responsibilities, and obligations, as
well as meeting mandates. These factors can place
significant pressures on workers' routines and
lifestyles, and the absence of interpersonal interaction
can have a significant impact on their overall health
and well-being.
in a study conducted at Jesus is Lord Colleges
Foundation, Inc. in Bocaue, Bulacan, one of the
findings highlighted the significant number of teachers
facing challenges related to resource limitations,
student management, and the overwhelming workload,
leading to increased levels of stress and burnout.
Furthermore, a study conducted in the Philippines
examined the impact of the pandemic on education. It
revealed that teachers needed to be psychologically
and skillfully prepared for the abrupt shift in learning
models within the country (Tria, 2020). These studies
shed light on the difficulties teachers face in coping
with the demands and changes brought about by the
pandemic regarding resources, student management,
and overall preparedness.
Similarly, in our locality, the Higher Education
Institution specifically Davao De Oro State College
(DDOSC) which is adopting the remote working using
advancement in technology have had a lot of
adjustments since the COVID-19 outbreak. As
observed, there is a significant need to manage the
adaptation of remote work setting of every employee.
In addition, the difficulty in doing respective roles and
duties really concerns the mental health and general
well-being due to unprecedented overlapping of
schedules.
Likewise, teachers and employees from both local
public and private institution also experienced a
radical increase of workload which burdens their

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Psych Educ, 2023, 12: 361-384, Document ID:2023 PEMJ1068, doi:10.5281/zenodo.8253592, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article
physical and mental aspects. The researcher observed
that there are overlapping schedules that bothers the
prioritization of the employees which result to burnout.
Moreover, researcher heard some sentiments of
employees working from home that they would prefer
to work on face-to-face rather than being stuck in front
of computers over virtual meetings.There have been
researches about remote working or WFH and its
effects in employment. However, there has been rare
engagement as to how this setup redefines the
teachers’ experiences, challenges, insights, and the
productivity in work from home. From this
perspective, there’s a need to investigate to know the
experiences, challenges, insights, and the productivity
in work from home setup of teachers amidst
COVID-19 outbreak.
The purpose of this study was to explore the
experiences, challenges, coping mechanism, and
insights on the productivity during work-from-home
arrangements of teachers contributing to the work
productivity. This would serve as a revelation to both
public and private administrators as to how far the
magnitude of challenges their subordinates have had
gone through. This would also be an important
contribution to the study about work-from-home since
it fills a gap in the productivity, primarily in the
Philippines, where studies about the impact to
productivity are rarely explored.
Research Questions
This study sought to explore the experiences,
challenges, and insights on the productivity during
work from home. Specifically, this study sought to
address the following research questions:
1. What are the experiences of the teacher participants
in the work from home arrangement?
2. What are the challenges encountered by the teacher
participants during the work from home?
3. What are the mechanisms did the participants
utilized in coping the challenges encountered in work
from home?
4. What are the insights of the teacher participants in
the productivity in work from home arrangement?
Literature Review
The literature relevant to this study was focused on
completed studies on work from home, problems, and
challenges of work from home, stress and burnout, and
productivity related.
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
Work from Home. It was a working arrangement in
which the worker fulfils his/her job while staying at
home using information and communications
technology as a means of ensuring work continuity and
employment. It can be temporary or alternative
working arrangement. Several studies have explored
the implications of work-from-home arrangements
within single organizations prior to the pandemic.
The COVID-19 crisis has compelled many companies
and employees to adopt wo rk - fro m - home
arrangements as a crucial measure during the
lockdown period. This unprecedented situation has led
to a significant "forced experiment," where various
sectors, firms, and workers have had to continue their
operations while being physically separated. The
success of remote work depended on having the
required technological, legal, and digital security
infrastructure in place. This situation has had profound
implications for businesses, regardless of whether they
had previously embraced teleworking or not,
highlighting the transformative potential of remote
work for organizations of all types (OECD, 2020).
Extensive research conducted over the past three
decades has focused on analyzing the concept of
working from home and its implications for
organizations. The literature identifies two key aspects
of remote work: employees carry out their work
outside of the traditional workplace, and there exists a
connection between their home and office
environments. This connection is facilitated through
the use of information and communication
technologies, enabling information exchange and
communication with colleagues. Furthermore, the
literature emphasizes the importance of a suitable job
design for effective remote work. It suggests that
working from home is particularly well-suited for
employees engaged in knowledge-based tasks, with
limited face-to-face interactions and a high level of
autonomy (Bailey & Kurland, 2002).
Another study was conducted in a randomized
controlled trial in a Chinese call-center and found
evidence of significant increases in worker
productivity after workers could select into work-
from-home arrangements (Bloom, Liang, Roberts, &
Ying, 2015). Choudhry, Foroughi, and Laron (2020),
however, also found clear benefits in WFH in an
experiment that allowed patent examiners from the
United States Patent and Trademark Office to opt into
work-from-home. Moreover, there are majority of
studies that focuses on analyzing benefits and
drawbacks of working from home (Gajendran and
Harrison 2007) or analyze the influence of working
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from home on work-family balance (Golden, Veiga
and Simsek 2006). In contrast, performance effects of
working from home receive little attention in the
literature.
One notable consequence of working remotely is the
limited social connections experienced by employees,
which can lead to feelings of loneliness. The impact of
COVID-19 has made this loss of social connections
more pronounced for those who are required to work
from home. Research has consistently shown that
high-quality social interactions, including informal
conversations among coworkers, play a crucial role in
promoting mental and physical well-being. Activities
like handshakes, which foster social bonds, have also
been recognized as valuable. However, these social
activities are no longer feasible due to the current
circumstances. As a result, the necessity of working
from home and implementing physical distancing
measures in workplaces are likely to have unintended
consequences, potentially causing harm to individuals'
mental and physical health. Acknowledging these side
effects in the overall assessment of remote work and
workplace adjustments (Brooks et al., 2020; Mogilner
et al., 2018; Schroeder et al., 2019).
Loneliness is not just a result of the loss of social
connections; it is a profoundly distressing emotion that
arises when individuals feel that their intimate and
social needs are not adequately fulfilled. Even prior to
the COVID-19 pandemic, loneliness was already
considered an epidemic. Studies have shown that
workplace loneliness strongly correlates negatively
with employees' affective commitment, affiliative
behaviors, and performance. While virtual
communication platforms lack the richness of face-to-
face interactions, a more concerning aspect of shifting
communications online is the increased likelihood of
misunderstandings due to the absence of nonverbal
cues. These misunderstandings can heighten
employees' concerns about being socially rejected,
which sig n if ic an t ly tr ig g er s f eeling s of
loneliness—recognizing and addressing these potential
negative impacts on employees' well-being and
performance (Cacioppo et al., 2006; Murthy, 2017;
Ozcelik & Barsade, 2018).
In addition to less social interaction, Stress and
Burnout is one emerging concern in every organization
which therefore be taken into consideration. The
COVID-19 pandemic has brought about ambiguity and
uncertainties, compelling organizations to take
measures to safeguard the health and well-being of
their employees. Based on the Job Demands-
Resources (JD-R) theory by Bakker and Demerouti
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
(2017), we can observe that the impact of COVID-19
on job demands and resources varies across and within
industries. Evidence suggests that working conditions
have deteriorated for many employees, particularly
frontline workers in healthcare. These strains have
significantly increased the risk of employees
experiencing job burnout, which is characterized by
chronic feelings of exhaustion and a disengaged
attitude toward work. The pandemic has heightened
the prevalence of this chronic stress syndrome
(Demerouti et al., 2010). Organizations must address
these challenges and prioritize the well-being of their
employees during these challenging times.
In addition, the continuous exposure to COVID-19
news can contribute to rumination, which involves
repetitive and passive fixation on distressing
symptoms and their potential causes and consequences
(Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008). Studies have indicated
that individuals exposed to traumatic events like
Hurricane Katrina exhibited elevated levels of stress
and depression symptoms even a year after the event
(Obradovich et al., 2018), suggesting that mental
health issues can persist long after a crisis.
Furthermore, it remains uncertain to what extent
previous studies on working from home can be
extrapolated to understand the effects of remote work
during emergencies such as those imposed by the
pandemic, which involved school closures, business
disruptions, and other unique challenges. A recent
study examining the experiences of 40 knowledge
workers forced to work from home during COVID-19
revealed some productivity benefits of remote work
but also raised concerns about long-term effectiveness,
creativity, and personal resilience (Birkinshaw, Cohen,
& Stach, 2020). These findings highlight the need for
further research and understanding of the multifaceted
impacts of remote work in emergencies like the
pandemic.
Research suggests that telework has a positive impact
on various aspects of performance. It enables
knowledge sharing, cross-functional cooperation, and
inter-organizational involvement, leading to improved
product development speed and quality (Coenen &
Kok, 2014). Telework is also perceived to increase
productivity, enhance employee retention, strengthen
organizational commitment, and improve overall
organizational performance (Martin & MacDonnell,
2012). Moreover, teleworking has been found to
positively influence both employee and company
performance (Martínez-Sánchez et al., & de-Luis-
Carnicer, 2008). These findings highlight the potential
benefits of telework for enhancing performance
outcomes at both individual and organizational levels.
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Research Article
Experiences in work-from-home. Before COVID-19,
work-from-home was presented as a win-win scenario
for employees and employers. From the employer
perspective, several advantages of offering WFH
included attracting and retaining highly skilled
employees, improving employee
commitment/engagement, and improved matching of
time and workflows (Aboelmaged & Subbaugh, 2012;
Bailey & Kurland, 2002).
However, a study investigating the stress teachers go
through when utilizing technology also depicts the
increase in anxiety teachers are susceptible to now that
the new learning model has shifted to online forms.
The study revealed that many teachers who are not
within the "Millennial" and Gen Z timeframe are more
prone to distress (Al-Fudail & Mellar, 2008).
A work from home analysis done in India showed that
teachers must commit to most new educational
processes, which renders them incapable of
prioritizing their mental health (Pajarianto et al.,
2020). Almost 9 of 10 teachers feel incredibly stressed
and anxious, following the shift caused by the
pandemic. Additionally, the survey report also
revealed that 81% of the educators who were
respondents of the study are putting in more than 14
hours a day to finish their professional responsibilities
(Schaffhauser, 2020).
However, since the outbreak of covid-19, work-from-
home arrangements have seems to be a policy that is
being implemented globally to reduce the spread of
covid-19 and to maintain production and employment
during a period in which workplaces are closed and
travel curtailed (Arruda, 2020; Marinoni et al., 2020).
Under COVID and the associated restrictions on travel
and with social distancing, WFH is no longer regarded
as an exclusive option for a minority of workers, but
an arrangement that must be taken by all those
businesses and workers who do not require a physical
workplace to continue with production and
employment.
Dayaram and Burgess (2021) argue that one of the
most observable changes which has occurred because
of COVID has been the shift of many employees into
work-from-home arrangements across occupations
even where this previously was not an option. Apart
from reducing the exposure to infection and the
associated health-risks, the implementation of work-
from-home during this pandemic has been found to
cause challenges such as delays in service delivery,
providing additional resources and training, and
requiring investment in IT, software, and infrastructure
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
to support work-from-home (Shareena & Shahid,
2020).
Managing teams while working from home has also
been found to be challenging, however, technological
tools such as online meeting platforms such as Zoom
and Teams, have proven to be effective in supporting
project team meetings (Jallow et al., 2020). In India, it
was s found that working from home was stressful for
some employees as the home environment was found
to be uncomfortable, disruptive, and unsuitable for
sustained periods of productive work. (Shareena &
Shahid, 2020). Given these early findings on the
impact of WFH under the conditions of the pandemic,
it is suitable to examine the impact on employee
productivity within the Indonesian HE sectors.
Moreover, Mak and Kozlowski (2019) observed
before the pandemic, “Virtual teams are growing in
number and importance.” Rather than assume
uniformity in virtual team characteristics, though, it is
valuable to recognize that “team virtuality” is a multi-
facted concept and encompasses multiple dimensions
including the geographical distribution of team
members and the relative amounts of (a)synchronous
e-communication (Hoch & Kozlowski, 2014). Indeed,
a nuanced conceptualizing of virtuality – as a
continuous variable, given that teams are not simply
either face-to-face or virtual – has already been
developed (Mak & Kozlowski, 2019) and should prove
helpful for future researchers who work to classify the
myriad forms of virtual teamwork that have been
thrust on workers via COVID-19.
Increased team virtuality because of COVID-19 may
also affect helping and prosocial behavior. While
physical distancing among co-workers may reduce
helping behaviors in the near term, we know that
people should be bolder to request help from others
since people do tend to be more willing to help, and
give better-quality help, than we usually assume
(Flynn & Lake, 2008; Newark, Bohns, & Flynn,
2017), perhaps especially during crises. Normal
impediments to requesting help center on the feeling
that it can be uncomfortable, awkward, and
embarrassing (e.g., Bohns & Flynn, 2010), but “best
practices” in helping can assist help-seekers in
overcoming these psychological barriers by
maintaining personal privacy (Cleavenger & Munyon,
2017), reducing stigmatization (Ben-Porath, 2002),
and instilling hope that things will get better once help
is received (McDermott, et al., 2017).
There are prior studies showing that teams operating
online tend to be more effective at brainstorming than
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face-to-face teams (e.g., DeRosa, Smith, & Hantula,
2007) while research focusing on individual
performance has shown that remotely interacting
teammates appear to miss the creative benefits that can
flow from frequent face-to-face interactions (Allen,
Golden, & Shockley, 2015). The rapid growth in
virtual teams offers an opportunity to examine new
questions as well as develop interventions to help
improve teamwork in virtual settings; and, in that
pursuit, close attention needs to paid to the
multidimensional ways in which virtuality varies
among remote teams (Mak & Kozlowski, 2019).
Virtual Leadership and Management. The role of
leaders to determine organizational outcomes that have
a broad impact on employees at all levels is especially
clear in the crucible of a crisis and certainly vital in
fundamental ways (Antonakis & Day, 2017). With the
COVID-19 crisis requiring millions of employees
across different hierarchical levels to work from home,
it is encouraging to note that leadership can also work
well from a distance (Antonakis & Atwater, 2002).
Research on the effectiveness of leaders during and
after the COVID-19 crisis should examine an array of
activities, including the degree to which remote leaders
are persuasive if they (a) clearly state their values that
will guide institutional actions; (b) understand and
openly discuss the travails and hopes of their
organizations; (c) clearly communicate an ambitious
vision of the direction that the unit will head toward;
and, (d) demonstrate confidence that strategic goals
can be achieved. These skills are referred to as
charisma (Antonakis, et al., 2016; Grabo, Spisak, &
Van Vugt, 2017) and require training and investment.
Indeed, crises can bring about changes in leadership
styles (Stoker, Garretsen, & Soudis, 2019); thus, firms
can expect to be better prepared by ensuring they have
adequately invested in professional development. In
this respect, future research should estimate if and how
organizational commitments to employees’
professional development during the COVID-19 crisis
pay later dividends.
Challenges in work-from-home. As cases of
COVID-19 surge across the world, research has begun
to emerge which considers the implications of school
lockdowns on student learning, engagement, and
achievement. Yet as face-to-face teaching and learning
recommences, it is not only students who will need
help adjusting to ‘the new normal’. While 2020 has
seen a dramatic increase in the workload of teachers,
many of whom have negotiated a continuity of
learning in adverse circumstances, we must remember
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
that long before COVID-19 disrupted schools, teachers
were already at risk of burnout.
Although many countries have now closed schools
around the world, Australia’s federal government has
fought to keep schools open, citing the research based
on inequity (Van Lancker & Parolin, 2020), mental
health (Lee, 2020), and learning losses (Azevedo et al.,
2020) as a greater risk to young people than
COVID-19 itself. Although there is evidence from past
and present pandemics linking decreased rates of viral
transmission to the closure of schools (Markel et al.,
2007), schools have opened, then closed, then opened,
then closed in many parts of Australia, as the novel
coronavirus forces schools into remote teaching and
schooling. The unknown is also disruptive: in
Melbourne, Victoria, students and teachers have now
experienced a semester (or nearly 6 months) of remote
learning, as the state experiences a second wave far
less predictable than the first.
Here, many schools have drawn upon their existing
expertise in online learning methodologies, yet the
emergency nature of remote schooling as a result of
COVID-19 has led to rapid and contrasting approaches
to teaching and learning. "Teachers do not situate well
in blended forms of learning" this is what a study on
online learning states on the problems in the classes.
Teachers are not trained or educated to teach virtually,
so blended learning is not their normative teaching
platform. This confusion causes distress and
frustration across the educating community (Dziuban
et al., 2018). A study surveying the impact of the virus
pandemic on the general population showed that the
most implicated the most affected populace are
educators. More than stress, trauma is also a prevalent
mental disruption brought upon the virus, which is
why careful threading to online classes must be widely
applied (U.T. Research Showcase, 2020).
Thus, the stress causes and manifestation to public
schools' teachers at the secondary education level. This
study proved that one of the primary reasons for
teachers' stress is time and concern for students. Many
educators feel morally responsible for their students'
wellbeing (Nyambongi, 2014).
In many countries, there are now concerns about
learning losses, and who is responsible for ensuring
quality education provision during a pandemic.
Australia is a notable example for examination, as an
education system susceptible to inequity between
schools on the basis of resources (Parker et al., 2018),
but also a system with a long history of remote
learning, and one heavily invested in improving
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teacher quality. indeed, in Australia, the previous
months demonstrate that there are great challenges in
enhancing the quality of remote schooling offered to
students.
Though research is still emerging remote schooling
appears to offer different experiences for students
between schools (Chase & Taylor-Guy, 2020). Equity
of access has been inconsistent across the country
(Masters et al., 2020), with the students most at risk
and being the most vulnerable to learning losses:
Students impacted by neurodiversity or disability, or
otherwise marginalized by gender, race, resources,
parental support, or socioeconomic status. There is
increasing pressure on students and their families and
in turn, there has been additional stress, anxiety, and
overload for those responsible for ensuring continuity
of learning: teachers.
With the latest research into COVID-19 shifting the
narrative that only the elderly and infirm are at risk,
concerns as to the transmission of the virus in children
have become tangible. While funerals and weddings
remain restricted, classrooms of 30 students often stay
open. Although research as to the spread amongst
children and within schools is limited, teachers have a
right to experience fear and anxiety, and to feel
undervalued in their profession (Asbury & Kim,
2020). Teachers are arguably at greater risk of
infection than other frontline workers due to a lack of
protective equipment, a lack of testing amongst
asymptomatic children, and often inadequate hygiene
measures in the most disadvantaged schools. There is
also the added challenge of differentiating between
generally unwell students, and COVID positive
children, who may present with different symptoms to
what we are seeing in adults.
Broadly identified challenges with e-learning are
accessibility, affordability, flexibility, learning
pedagogy, life-long learning and educational policy
(Murgatrotd, 2020).However, there is not a consistent
empirical relation between fexible working and work–
family confict, and even less when gender is taken into
account. Many studies show that working from home
actually leads to more work–family confict (Golden et
al. 2006; Duxbury et al. 1994; Allen et al. 2013).
Control over when to work in addition to working
from home is also only partly related to less work–
family conflict (Michel et al. 2011).
Still, there are studies that provide evidence that
flexible working relieves work-to-family confict (e.g.,
Allen et al. 2013; Kelly et al. 2014; Michel et al. 2011)
especially during the transition into parenthood
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
(Erickson et al. 2010). Ten Brummelhuis and Van der
Lippe (2010) reported that employees’ family situation
matters, and that working from home and flexible
work schedules were only effective in relieving work–
family conflict for singles and not for employees with
a partner and/or children. Demerouti et al. (2014)
argue in their overview study on the impact of new
ways of working, including working from home and
flexible schedules, that these mixed findings for work–
family balance and conflict are not surprising. Due to
the fact that the permeability of boundaries between
work and nonwork domains increases when workers
work flexibly, as physical boundaries between the two
environments are eliminated. Instead of facilitating
balance, flexible working can thus also lead to
increased multitasking and boundary blurring
(Schieman & Young 2010; Glavin & Schieman 2012).
Coping Mechanism of teachers. Teachers’ personal
and professional lives have now been fully integrated
in response to COVID-19 and the emergency
transition to virtual learning. Educators have a marked
influence on the lives of students, but for teachers, the
education profession is also one of the most stressful
professions within which to work (De Nobile, 2017;
Gonzalez et al., 2008).
Teacher wellbeing contributes to work satisfaction and
productivity, and most importantly, demonstrates a
positive influence on the levels of the student
wellbeing and academic achievement (Spilt et al.,
2011). Research also indicates that improving school
performance has a positive impact on school wellbeing
and improving teacher wellbeing also improves
student outcomes (Briner & Dewberry, 2007).
Moreover, educators often rate their wellbeing as
lower than other comparative social professions
(Grenville-Cleave & Boniwell, 2012), and attrition
rates of professionals are an ongoing issue: In fact,
stress and overall wellbeing are often cited as key
reasons educators choose to stay or leave the
profession (Naghieh et al., 2015). In an attempt to
combat the stress facing teachers, schools across
Australia (and abroad) have embraced wellbeing
initiatives to support both staff and students (Acton &
Glasgow, 2015). While schools in Australia focus
heavily on supporting the wellbeing of students,
initiatives that address and support staff wellbeing are
more nascent.
Wellbeing interventions now exist at early career (Le
Cornu, 2009; Spilt et al., 2011) and established teacher
levels (Soini et al., 2010). Face-to-face as well as
online professional development approaches that aim
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to foster resilience and autonomy, coaching in learning
communities, and emotional regulation development
can also support educator wellbeing levels. However,
many current wellbeing approaches are either
tokenistic, reactive, or designed for organizations that
are not schools. In fact many ‘wellbeing’ approaches
ignore the complexities of school culture and fail to
offer responsive mechanisms that support the unique
needs of staff in education contexts today.
This crisis offers many opportunities for the
d ev elo p m en t of r esp e ctf u l and re lev an t
communications between teachers and families
(Emerson et al., 2012) that can facilitate ongoing
relationship building beyond face-toface meetings
(Hohfeld et al., 2010). Importantly, cultivating such
relationships create opportunities for shared bonds
between student families and teachers, sharing the load
of enhancing student outcomes.
Although educators face enormous challenges in their
roles, responding to teacher wellbeing can be helped
by exploring mechanisms that can support teachers at
an individual and collective level. Individual health
and wellbeing is intricately tied to the health of our
communities and our interactions with others (Turkle,
2017), and it is likely that our connectedness has been
lost in a haze of social distancing, track and trace
protocols, and prohibited relationships.
Indeed, it is not only individual efforts on wellbeing
that matters, but also access to community resources,
and participation in a shared experience that is crucial
for supporting school staff and students. Day and Qing
(2009) argue that stress from the role is exacerbated by
the fact that “many teachers work in environments that
are hostile to their wellbeing’’, and certainly,
maintaining wellbeing when potentially exposed to
COVID-19 adds further stress to the daily role of
teachers. Many teachers have been expected to
transition their classes to fully online formats with
only a week’s notice, under the promise that this form
of emergency schooling will not last forever. But such
reactive activities that focus on the now, and not the
future, are not conducive to mental health or wellness.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a rapid movement
to remote schooling (Ferdig et al., 2020), and in the
current context, it is crucial to recognize the enormous
pressure facing teachers. The stress compounds an
already weary profession, as the uncertainty of
expectations grows. Teacher wellbeing matters, as
teachers who experience motivation and anxiety are
also less effective in supporting student wellbeing, and
student outcomes. Although the teaching profession
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already faces unique challenges and pressures from
students, families, and a constantly changing system,
the COVID-19 pandemic will likely lead to further
anxiety and weariness within the profession. This is
not only an Australian issue, but an issue that extends
to all countries impacted by COVID-19. Just as we
must ensure that students who leave school during a
pandemic return, so must we support our educators to
learn, reflect, and improve their practice because of
school closures and remote schooling. There are many
possibilities to do things differently, and to create a
system that supports, rather than stifles, educators.
One of strategies for overcoming telework challenges
is prepare the physical/home environment, which
included setting up an environment that is conducive
to working, such as a dedicated workspace, sometimes
with physical boundaries (e.g., a room with a door)
(Greer & Payne, 2014). Teleworkers manage the
balance between their home and working lives by
establishing temporal and physical boundaries
(Mustafa & Gold, 2013).
Teachers are obliged to develop creative initiatives
that assist to overcome the limitations of virtual
teaching. Teachers are actively collaborating with one
another at a local level to improve online teaching
methods. There are incomparable opportunities for
cooperation, creative solutions and willingness to learn
from others and try new tools as educators, parents and
students share similar experiences (Doucet et al.,
2020).
There are incomparable opportunities for cooperation,
creative solutions and willingness to learn from others
and try new tools as educators, parents and students
share similar experiences (Doucet et al., 2020).
Productivity in WFH. The existing papers pioneered
by Dingel and Neiman (2020) use characteristics of
jobs to provide predictions on home-working
productivities across occupations and industries.
Dingel and Neiman (2020) do this by constructing a
measure of feasibility to work from home across
industries and occupations using data from O*NET.
According to a study-based report, teachers in the new
normal would have to employ new practices and forms
of management both professionally and emotionally to
adapt to the virus outbreak changes fully. The report
provided a structured timeline for response
management, such as guidance, utilizing technology,
and forming digital re-creational activities (Wyman,
2020).
The impacts of working from home across sectors and
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socioeconomic groups implies that inequality is
strongly affected by enforced home working in the
pandemic. Income inequality has also been increasing
since the 1980s both in the U.S (Heathcote et al.,
2010), and in the UK (Blundell &Etheridge, 2010).
Alon et al. (2020) study the potentially different
impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on the employment of
men and women given the gender differences in
occupation and childcare. They predicted that
women’s employment would suffer disproportionately.
Adams-Prassl et al. (2020a) document that female
workers report a lower ability to work from home, and
Adams-Prassl et al. (2020a) document that women are
more likely to lose their jobs in the UK and in the US
(though not in Germany, around early April 2020).
They also find worse outcomes for lower earners.
According to Rivai (Dinar Ari Setyowati: 2016),
performance is a function of motivation and ability. To
accomplish a task, a person should have a certain
degree and level of ability skill.
Performance is a real behavior that is shown by
everyone as a work achievement produced by
personnel in keeping with their role inside the
company. Robert Bacal (Anggun Fitri Mentari: 2016),
described the performance as a level of contribution
given by employees to the purpose of his work or unit
of work and company or organization because of his
conduct and application of his skills, abilities, and
knowledge.
An employee's overall performance is a primary
supply of reaching the organization's goals. The
overall performance of personnel on distinct jobs in
near coordination is wanted for the fulfilment of the
unit. Employees must recognize what they want to do
to carry out their processes successfully. Any
enterprise can make progress most uncomplicated if its
employees perform in a better way.
Awada et al. (2021) The findings highlight key factors
for employers and employees to consider for
improving the work-from-home experience, overall
perception of productivity level among workers did
not change relative to their in-office productivity
before the pandemic. Female, older, and high-income
workers were likely to report increased productivity.
Productivity was positively influenced by better
mental and physical health statuses, having a teenager,
increased communication with coworkers and having a
dedicated room for work. Number of hours spent at a
workstation increased by approximately 1.5 hours
during a typical work-from-home day. Longer hours
were reported by individuals who had school age
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children, owned an office desk or an adjustable chair,
and had adjusted their work hours.
Galanti et al. (2021) Individual- and work-related
aspects both hinder and facilitate WFH during the
COVID-19 outbreak. Employees’ family work conflict
and social isolation were negatively related, while self-
leadership and autonomy were positively related, to
work-from-home productivity and work-from-home
engagement. Family-work conflict and social isolation
were negatively related to work-from-home stress,
which was not affected by autonomy and self-
leadership.
A survey of IBM employees showed that 87% of
employees felt that their productivity had increased
with work-from-home arrangements (Verbruggen &
Kurland, 2002). WFH employees can modify the work
environment according to individual needs, such as
balancing work and family, so that efficiency can be
improved as employees can better manage time
constraints and workflow requirements (Bailey &
Kurland, 2002).
Several considerations are supportive to the positive
expectations regarding the work family conflict effects
of distance work, others are however emphasizing
opposite consequences. On the one hand it is argued
that an increased control over timing and place of
work gives autonomy and helps to tailor daily
schedules more efficiently. (Chung & van der Lippe,
2018)
Theoretical Lens
This study was anchored to the theory of Eva
Demerouti & Arnold Bakker (2006), the Job
Demands-Resources model (JD-R). They published
the results of a long-term study in The Journal of
Managerial Psychology. The JD-R model is a well-
established theoretical model in the field of
occupational health psychology, which suggests that
work conditions, categorized into job demands and job
resources, affect employees’ wellbeing and
performance. Job demands refer to the physical,
psychological, or socio-organizational aspects of the
work whose energy-depleting process induces people
to experience energy loss and fatigue, leading to stress,
burnout, and health impairment.
The increasing trend of remote work during the
pandemic has led to a need for understanding the
individual and work-related consequences associated
with this practice. The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R)
model provides valuable insights in this regard.
According to the model, remote work presents certain
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job demands, such as the challenge of balancing
personal and work commitments, the reduced social
context and increased perception of social isolation,
and the difficulty of setting up a suitable home
workstation. These job demands are evident across
different educational levels, including teachers who
have had to work remotely while juggling their
professional and personal responsibilities.
Working from home has introduced additional
challenges caused by the presence of partners and
children engaged in their own work and school
activities. The disruptions in child-care and education
services during the pandemic, along with the added
responsibility of household chores, have significantly
impacted remote workers. This situation has led to
greater family-work conflict, particularly during these
unprecedented times. Therefore, it becomes crucial to
investigate the role of work-related personal resources,
as they can be trained and developed unlike innate
personal traits.
Considering the insights from Eva Demerouti and
Arnold Bakker's JD-R model, there is a clear need to
examine the experiences, challenges, and productivity
outcomes associated with working from home. This
investigation would provide valuable information to
better understand and address the implications of
remote work.
Methodology
Research Design
This study was a qualitative study employing a
phenomenological approach because it sought to
explore the experiences, challenges, insights of the
College teachers in the work from home scheme. This
research study utilized phenomenology as the research
design. Phenomenology is an approach to
qualitative research that focuses on the commonality
of a lived experience within a particular group
(Creswell, 2007). It deeply explores the experiences
from the perspective of the individual, the
preconceived notions about human reactions to
circumstances. It describes the individual's subjective
experiences to gain insight into their motivations and
actions in lieu of the experiences, challenges, and
insights of college teachers.
Research Locale
The study was conducted at the Municipality of New
Bataan in the Davao de Oro State College New Bataan
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Branch. Davao de Oro State College is the sole public
tertiary institution situated in Cabinuangan, New
Bataan.Davao de Oro State College (DDOSC),
formerly known as Compostela Valley State College
(CVSC), has its roots in 2001 when the Congressman,
during his initial term as the representative of the First
District of Compostela Valley, introduced a bill
proposing the creation of the college. In July 2010, the
Congresswoman, who succeeded her father in the
Fifteenth Congress, championed the bill's approval,
resulting in the establishment of CVSC as the
youngest state-funded higher education institution in
the Philippines.
Role of the Researcher
Since the study employed phenomenology, the role of
the researcher in this phenomenology study is to
primarily explore the experiences, challenges, insights,
and the productivity of the college teachers in the work
from home scheme. The researcher employed the
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) since
its aim is to explore in detail how the participants are
making sense of their personal and social world. It
aims to give definite assessments of personal lived
experiences. It delivers a record of lived experiences.
In addition, Smith et al. (2015) reiterated that IPA is
concerned with the detailed examination of human
lived experience. And it aims to conduct this
examination in a way which as far as possible enables
that experience to be expressed in its own terms, rather
than according to predefined category systems
In particular, the researcher decided on the research
questions that will be answered through interviews.
The researcher then designed the study and determined
the interviewees and what type of interview will net
the most useful information to answer research
questions. Before conducting the interview the
researcher sought the consent of the participants
through consent forms. Then the researcher conducted
the interview following the protocols and guidelines in
conducting the interview. After the interview, the
researcher then transcribed the answers of the
participants. The transcribed data was analyzed.
Finally, the researcher continued to reporting the
study.
Gathering in-depth interview involves asking
participants to divulge personal and private details
about themselves. Creswell (2012) stated that
“gathering data for qualitative project, a researcher
seeks an in-depth description of a phenomenon. The
researcher considers what types of information to
collect from several sources available to the
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(qualitative) research. After the data from the in-depth
interview is obtained. The researcher will now proceed
with the data coding process. Data coding process.
Moreover, the researcher used proper codes for the
collected data. Coding is one of the best ways to
compress a huge amount of information collected.
Coding of qualitative data simply means categorizing
and assigning properties and patterns to the collected
data.
Research Participants
The participants of this research were selected
purposively regardless their age, gender, and field of
specialization. The sample preference of this study was
based on the personal judgment and discretion of the
researcher, based on homogeneity that exists among
the participants’ sample pool, specifically the faculty
under teacher education department. The participants
were 7 fulltime instructors with a minimum of 2 years
teaching experience in Davao De Oro State College.
The researcher considererd the demographic profile of
the participants. This is to ensure the credibility of the
data collected from fulltime instructors from various
views coming from different ages, gender, and length
of service in teaching inside the institution as well as
their field of specialization. This implies that the
instructors or teachers who are just part-timers are
excluded in the selection of research participants and
are not eligible to give information or be part of the
respondents for they lack few of the said criteria
though it does mean to discredit their professionalism
in the field of teaching profession.
The participants were requested to sign a consent form
and agreed to the
condition stipulated that they were voluntarily
participating one-on-one interview through google
meet and were willing to impart their knowledge as
needed in the study. As part of the consent, the
researcher included the respondents' right to withdraw
and record their points of view. The participants also
were given an orientation about the study and were
asked to participate through an In-Depth Interview
(IDI) as means of data collection. It is important to
emphasize that the discussion was about personal
views and experiences and therefore there are no right
or wrong answers (Dornyei, 2007).
Data Procedures
According to Creswell (2013), this phenomenological
research study involved primary in-depth interviews
with up to 10 individuals to capture the meaning of the
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phenomenon for those who have experienced it.
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was
emp loyed as the m etho d o lo g y to prov id e
comprehensive assessments of personal lived
experiences and a detailed account of each case before
generalizing to broader issues and claims (Smith &
Osborn, 2015). IPA is beneficial for exploring
complex, ambiguous, and emotionally charged themes.
Semi-structured research questions formed the basis
for data collection, with interviews limited to one
participant per session and lasting a maximum of one
hour. The interview location was chosen based on the
participant's convenience. The researcher followed
guidelines for data collection, seeking permission from
the College president and Branch director. Participants
were asked to sign a consent form and were provided
with information about the study. Prior to the
interviews, participants were allowed to seek
clarification, raise concerns, or address any unclear
questions that may arise.
Due to the pandemic restrictions, face-to-face
interviews were not possible. The researcher adhered
to minimum health and safety protocols and conducted
the interviews online using the Google Meet
application, which allowed for recording the entire
interview. The collected data were transcribed and
analyzed. To ensure participant anonymity,
pseudonyms were used in the analysis and reporting
process.Thematic analysis was employed to analyze
the interview transcripts. Thorough transcription and
analysis of the online semi-structured interviews were
conducted to make sense of the gathered data. The
transcripts included verbatim accounts of each
participant to maintain the accuracy of the data
collection. The collected data were transcribed,
analyzed, and subjected to thematic analysis.
Data Analysis
To interpret the results, the researcher needs to
describe personal experiences with the phenomenon
under study. The researcher must keep his/her
interjections about his/her personal experiences into
the ‘lived experience’ stories of the research
participants. Moreover, the researcher will have a list
of significant statements as a basis to understand the
phenomenon. The data gathered were categorized into
units of information or themes and undergo textural
description of the participant’s experiences. In a
qualitative research analysis, the interview transcript
should be transcribed verbatim into a hard copy and
then analyzed by utilizing the color-coded (or any
other practical methods) and categorization for
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analyzes. Smith et al. (2009) argued that IPA research
approach has the ability to explore, in a deep way, the
‘lived experiences’ of research participants and help to
understand the phenomenological significance of this
experience and how it impacts the participant (as cited
in Alase, 2016). The last step of the structured
phenomenological traditional method of analysis is the
long paragraph; the researcher must write a mini
statement that tells the audience (readers) “what” the
research participants have experienced and “how” they
experienced the phenomenon in a contextual format.
Ethical consideration
As part of the research process, the researcher ensured
the research ethical compliance from Davao de Oro
State College Research Ethics Committee (DDOSC
REC). Since the study involves well-honed
professional teachers who possessed moral and ethical
characteristics, the researcher guarantees the safety
and confidentiality of those involved in the study by
providing a letter of consent. As part of the consent,
the researcher included the respondents' right to
withdraw and record their points of view. Apart from
it, the respondents are given the authority to assess the
benefits and risks of the study. The focus of the study
and methods to be employed, statements surrounding
confidentiality, and a signature of both the researcher
and participants.
Selected participants are not coerced and are given the
free will to participate in the study and the researcher
did not put them in a maleficence situation and in any
health risk factors. Hence, they were told about the
study's goals as well as they were assured that
dispositions will not be jeopardize nor the institution
where the research is conducted as a result of their
willingness to participate in the conduct of the study.
All collected information from the participants were
used exclusively for the research study and for the
purpose it may serve to the academic community
specifically in the teacher enhancement programs of
which participants themselves can benefit on. No other
sensitive information be divulge by any means to
ensure integrity of the participants’ disposition as a
dignified professionals
Furthermore, the study has no touch of financial or
other personal considerations. The researcher will
assure to perform the study objectively and to prevent
or mitigate bias or self-deception during the
investigation or gathering of data about the problem
inside the very familiar school community where the
study is conducted.
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Another ethical issue about anonymity will also be the
researcher's obligation. Upholding to
anonymity means that the researcher will strictly abide
to the rights of the participants even if the researcher
has knowledge about their personal data. Researcher
will keep participants’ information hidden to ensure
and to uphold the confidentially of their identity in the
study.
Moreover, in phenomenological analysis, the method
for obtaining information usually includes
conversational methods, with the unstructured
interview being described as a valuable approach when
gathering data on sensitive topics (Fielding & Thomas,
2001). Potential participants will instruct that the
interview will record to gather data truthfully.
Results and Discussion
The structured themes and the emerging were made as
bases in the in-depth discussion of the findings in this
study. As each theme was linked to related literature
and studies, substantial discussion was made in order
to find their alignment with the theme.
Experiences in work from home. The emerging
themes in this structured theme were much downsides
with online classes, difficult and challenging, able to
balance time with work and family, difficulty
separating personal matters with work, able to have
own phase of time and challenging due to the
transition. These were the experiences cited by the
research participants.
The findings revealed that there are much downsides
with online classes compared to the conventional face
to face classes where teacher can interact directly to
their students without the intervention of technological
factors. Teacher participants see the importance of
having the informal assessment in having class
discussion. This way they can have an assurance as to
how attentive their students are in lesson that they are
discussing, and they somehow assess the effectivity of
their prepared materials for the topic.
Difficult and challenging in terms balancing the time
intended for the academic and non-academic tasks of
the teacher is also highlighted. Teacher always has
additional function and duties which includes reports
and other tasks to accomplish. The difficulty in
balancing the time between the core functions and
additional functions much made harder in the online
work from home setup.
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Moving beyond the dimension of job responsibilities,
teachers were also able to balance time with work and
family. They can balance the time for work and the
time for family efficiently which in turn make them
feel that they have accomplished more because they
can have their own time without being distracted.
But that emerging theme is not true to all because the
difficulty of separating personal matters with work
was clear to another teacher informant. The challenge
to set borders between personal tasks and institutional
demands was hard to achieve. It is an essential factor
in order to stay focus in doing tasks while working
from home of which other teacher had hard time
dealing with.
Meanwhile, other informant able to have their own
phase of time to their d esig n ated task or
responsibilities while working at home. The teacher
capitalizes the freedom to choose what time to work
and what time to accomplish the tasks. This means
more flexibility in doing or prioritizing the demands in
work.
Due to the unexpected shift of working arrangement,
informant also reveals that it’s challenging due to the
transition. Nobody had prepared the new setup to
come up and nobody had expected it to be that urgent.
The transition from conventional working setup into
the new setup brought a lot of challenges to the
teachers.
The data show that there are a lot of challenges faced
by teachers in working from home. Almost 90% of
surveyed teachers feel tremendously stressed and
anxious, following the shift from face to face into
WFH caused by the pandemic. Additionally, the
survey report also revealed that 81% of the teachers
who took part in the study were rendering more than
14 hours working a day to accomplish their
professional responsibilities (Schaffhauser, 2020).
In addition, a study had showed that many teachers
who are not used to the advancement of technology
and not computer literate for instance are more prone
to distress (Al-Fudail & Mellar, 2008). Teacher had to
go through a lot when utilizing these technologies
nowadays specially that learning models had shited to
virtual world.
Furthermore, the challenge of managing group while
working from home has also been found challenging
(Jallow et al., 2020). This however was addressed, and
teachers were utilizing online technology platforms to
support learning continuity plan.
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Ways in which Home Arrangement Shape
Productivity as Teacher. The emerging themes in this
structured theme were learning to manage time, being
creative in, asking questions, tend to procrastinate,
problem with time management, and learning to be
flexible.
Findings revealed that as the new working setup
emerged, teachers were learning to manage time. This
means that time management in this setup was far
different from what they were used to. Teachers even
associated their time management skills to their
productivity. This means that as they adapt to the
working setup, they were able perform their core
functions effectively.
In the teaching and learning aspect, being creative in
asking questions means everything in the educative
process. Teacher informant put premium consideration
on this aspect to be productive in spite of some barriers
in the delivery of instruction.
On the other hand, other informant tends to
procrastinate. The teacher found a hard time focusing
to the tasks and other professional obligations because
some intervening conditions like home environment,
distractions with other household routines and even
past time with parents.
In addition, problem with time management in terms
of the overlapping schedules and demand for work
reshapes productivity. A teacher informant even
compared her productivity while working face to face
as being productive than that with work from home.
There were abrupt submissions, meetings and even
some consultations that contributed to the hectic
schedules for teachers.
Apart from that, teachers are learning to be flexible in
order to be more productive. The work from home
setting shaped their ability to push their limits and
creates something to fit with the needs of their
students.
The findings revealed that performing duties as
teachers were found challenges and were bounded by
limitations. It was found by the study of Shareena &
Shahid (2020) that working from home was stressful
for some employees. The working environment in
home was found to be uncomfortable, disturbing, and
unsuitable professional job which productivity is the
greatest goal of professionals.
Furthermore, the struggle to connect with co-worker
for collaborrative work is another issue. Flynn & Lake,
2008; Newark, Bohns, & Flynn, (2017) states that
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‘while physical distancing among co-workers may
reduce helping behaviors in the near term, we know
that people should be bolder to request help from
others since people do tend to be more willing to help,
and give better-quality help, than we usually assume
especially during crises. This one of the reasons why
teachers in the work from home setup are struggling to
manage their time in coping with the demands of work
as teachers due to the uncollaborative setup thar they
were in.
Advantages and Disadvantages being observed in
Work from Home. The advantages observed by the
informants were; able to do multitasking, more
freedom to do other things, not demanding for formal
attire, less pressure in conducting classes, and working
on your own pace. Meanwhile, the disadvantages were
problem connecting with students, poor internet
connectivity, hampered by some technical issues, work
from home more demanding, being distracted with
household chores, affecting quality of instruction.
Dwelling on the advantages, teachers were able to do
multitasking because they do not have physical contact
with their students therefore, they allocated much time
doing non-teaching duties simultaneously. This
implies also that teacher have more freedom to other
things for they can adjust their time of working. They
have their work whenever they want without being
bothered by the common distractions of having work
in actual office. Further, teachers had a time to relax
and take a break of which they had a full control of the
time.
In different perspective, teacher also pointed the
advantage of working without requiring formal attire.
The informant cited this as very convenient since she
was able to do the job in her comfortable clothes. In
connection to this, teacher noted that there were less
pressure in conducting class. This is a clear indication
that teaching in the virtual setup holds less stress in
handling classes. They can just see their students on
the screen as if they are having good time while taking
their class. This was one of the offshoots of the virtual
learning as well.
Moreover, teachers were also able to work with their
pace. This is very advantageous to teacher who loves
to do their work in evening or in dawn time. Teacher
informant even capitalized this advantage and takes
this as an avenue to dedicate more time in preparation
of instructional materials.
For the disadvantage, on the other hand, teachers had a
problem connecting with students. This is not only
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limited to the technical aspect but also in the academic
aspect. Teacher did not have strong assurance that
their students really captured the lessons being
discussed. They similar experience in this part due to
the fact that teaching and learning process dependently
relies to the availability of technological resources.
In addition, both teacher and students were affected by
poor internet connectivity and hampered by some
technical issues. These emerging themes were very
evident in the virtual setup since it’s beyond
controllable to note that the geographical locations
also matters in the internet connectivity.
Findings revealed that teachers find work from home
more demanding. There was evident case that teachers
were bombarded by the abrupt and short notice to
submit or to attend webinars and meetings. Even
beyond working hours, teachers were still receiving
messages in their group chats relative to their work
and designation in the school. They somehow feel that
they lack proper and enough rest in the work from
home setup.
Furthermore, informant revealed that one major
disadvantage is that WFH affecting quality of
instruction. To teachers, there was a clear difference
as to the delivery of instruction and that there was
another emerging trend to consider in order for them to
provide quality instructions. In addition, teachers were
being distracted with household chores. Informant
cited that as they were working from their respected
home, the need to focus to teaching duties was hard to
maintain because they feel so comfortable and the
feeling that they don’t want to work arises.
The data had showed that this supports to the findings
of Mak & Kozlowski (2019), that ‘the rapid growth in
virtual teams offers an opportunity to examine new
questions as well as develop interventions to help
improve teamwork in virtual settings; and, in that
pursuit, close attention needs to paid to the
multidimensional ways in which virtuality varies
among remote teams’.
On the other hand, notable revelation of the teacher
that focuses on the negative implication in the quality
of instruction during the work from home affirms the
findings of inequity in education (Van Lancker &
Parolin, 2020), mental health (Lee, 2020) and learning
losses (Azevedo et al., 2020) as a greater risk to young
people.
Difficulties Encountered during Work from Home.
The emerging themes were, poor internet connection,
too many distractions at home, too many tasks to
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accomplish, budget for internet connection, and
preparation of learning materials.
Poor Internet Connection. The results showed that
informants have experienced poor internet connection.
It is quite devastating for them to connect to their
students and to their superiors for their reports. Some
teachers cited that there are only few students who
could connect to their online class platform. Another
problem mentioned was the inconvenience of the
connecting to Wi-Fi vendo machines just to have their
class.
In addition, Budget for Internet Connection emerged.
This theme was observed due to the necessity of
continuing the educative processes in the new setting.
Teachers find it as a primary solution for them to
continue working without additional burden of having
the inconvenience of going to other places to have
stable internet connection.
Moreover, informant revealed that they have too many
distractions at home. Teachers get distracted by their
household responsibilities and cannot fully separate
the p ro fessio n al duties to their p erson al
responsibilities. The need to priority the family needs
is not new for the informant because that’s their
upbringing.
Furthermore, informant cited that there were too many
tasks to accomplish. Teachers were bombarded with
the heavy load of tasks that requires more time to
accomplish. Even in the virtual setup, the informants
really feel the magnitude of the tasks being assigned to
them. Informants even feel that they were more
productive in the conventional face to face working
setup wherein they leave the work and continue doing
them in the other day.
Another major difficulty of teacher was Preparation of
Learning Materials. This was observed by the
informant due to the highly demanding work setup that
working hours extends beyond working time.
Reconceptualization’s of the usual instructional
materials were also taken into consideration just to fit
with the existing mode of delivery.
The findings revealed that, "Teachers do not situate
well in blended forms of learning" this is what a study
on online blended learning states on the problems in
handling classes. Teachers are not trained or educated
to teach virtually, so blended learning is not their
normative teaching platform. This confusion causes
distress and frustration across the educating
community (Dziuban et al., 2018).
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
It’s a clear indication that the impacts of pandemic
showed that most affected populace were educators.
The findings of U.T. Research Showcase (2020)
further elaborates that careful shift to online classes
must be applied to diminish prevalent mental
disruption like trauma and stress due to the difficulty
in pushing the educative processes through.
Most Challenging Part while Working from Home.
This structured theme elicited six emerging themes;
management of time, class attendance of students, time
consuming, keeping the enthusiasm to do work from
home, doing multitasking and internet connectivity.
The findings showed that management of time had put
teachers in challenge. There were distractions in home
that cannot be easily evaded. The time that supposed to
dedicated for recording and checking of students’
outputs were affected by the temptation of taking a rest
or browsing their social media platforms. This in turn
redefines how teachers see their productivity in
working. The challenge tested the ability of the
teachers to cope the current landscape of teaching
learning process and made them realized the
importance of time management in WFH.
Another challenge emerged in the WFH cited by the
teachers was the Class Attendance of Students. This
was really difficult for the teachers primarily because
the geographical location of the students was not
favorable for online setup. Informant further said that
sometimes there were only 4 to 7 students who were
able to connect to their class. This challenge even
elicits more problems in the teaching learning process
like other students cannot fully capture the gist of the
lesson.
In connection, the tasks of a teacher were more Time
Consuming. As students unable to connect to their
scheduled online class, there were delays in their
submissions of requirements. This even means to
extend targets of discussing lessons or topics. This was
a big challenge to face since in WFH, teachers need to
be a little bit lenient to their students in terms of
deadlines and submissions.
In the other perspective, keeping the enthusiasm to do
work from home was also a big challenge to the
teacher. The factors pertaining to the good internet
connection and working at the comfort zone affects the
teachers enthusiasm of working out their duties in
delivering quality instruction.
In addition, doing multitasking is prevalent challenge
in WFH. This challenge navigates how teacher manage
everything just to be productive in terms of their core
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functions, instructions, and as well as in terms of
support functions. Apart from that challenge also is the
indisputable challenge in terms of internet
Connectivity. This emerging theme really matters for
the teachers. Teachers find it hard to connect with the
students. Though this is something that is beyond the
scope of the teachers but still the implication of being
not able to reach the students affects the integrity of
the teaching learning process. There were unfavorable
outcomes as this was persistent in the class setup of
which teacher cannot force students due to the fact that
they living in the far-flung areas.
Data had showed that according Aboelmaged,
Mohamed, & Subbaugh (2012) the critical factors
influencing the productivity of online work from home
setup are the role of individual and organizational
factors. Their study identified key determinants that
emerged in perceiving the productivity in working
from home - Job security, job satisfaction, flexibility in
work, commitment to organizational operations and
support from m anagem en t. According to
Valmohammadi, (2012) for successful implementation
of the online setup, the government should provide and
improve necessary IT infrastructures including high
speed internet and provide necessary training for both
administrators and employees.
Furthermore, telework organizational support namely
the use of technology, support related to the use of
technology and variables other than technology
(Baker, Avery, & Crawford, 2006). The use of
technology consists of having sufficient IT support,
which refers to assistance with technology- related
problems and questions from the telecommuting
employee and appropriate telecommuting technology.
Support related to the use of technology consists of
training for telecommuting employees, which involves
instruction in technology use, for managers,
coworkers, and household members, and the provision
of financial support for online expenses.
Ways Used in Facing Challenges while Working at
Home. The emerging in this structured themes were;
Need for Self-discipline, Ask Students to Comply
Assessments, Come up with a Planner, Proper Time
Management, Make the Necessary Adjustments, Build
a Foundation for Strategies and Approaches
Findings had showed that in overcoming the
challenges while working from home, informants
suggested that there was a need for self-discipline.
This helped the teachers a lot in overcoming and
surpassing the challenges they had encountered while
working from home. Teachers even expounded that
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
through prayer, its indeed achievable.
In the classroom perspective, teachers had Ask
Students to Comply Assessments. This sounds bare
minimum in terms of the duties and responsibilities of
the teachers, but they had to remind the students in
their submission for them to be graded accordingly.
Regardless of the preferred ways of answering the
module, teacher assured that students will be given
ample time to comply. This way, the teacher and
students were able to face the challenges in achieving
common goal in the teaching and learning aspect.
Another elicited theme was to come up with a planner.
Informant made a planner so that she will not be
distracted by other things like. The teacher cited this
way to minimize the use of social media platforms
because that is one of the things that distracts her the
most.
In connection, Proper Time Management was also one
major way to face challenges in work from home.
Findings revealed that immediate compliance of the
designated tasks from the superiors makes the teacher
allocate the times to other duties efficiently. The
teacher can extend time in preparing for class
discussion as well as in the preparation of the
upcoming virtual class to have good class size.
Furthermore, informants make the necessary
adjustments in order to cope with the challenges.
Informant revealed that they have to face it because I
don’t have a choice and they need to find solution for
the challenges. Like for example if they have internet
connection issue and they can’t afford to get or to have
fiber connection at their home, they exerted effort go
to their colleagues’ house just to do the things that they
have to do. In addition to that, if the informant had
struggles of working from home because they feel that
they were just in their comfort zone, exerted effort to
adjust and with their colleagues made them feel that
they really working.
On the other hand, teacher cited that there was need to
build a foundation for strategies and approaches.
Foundation was one the most important thing to
consider as a teacher because they do not know what
will happen in the future. There may be a lot of
challenges that may come in their way, and they must
be prepared. They have to prepare in terms of
foundation, when it comes to strategies and teaching
approaches especially when it comes to techniques in
providing quality instruction to students.
According to (Nakrošienė, Bučiūnienė, & Goštautaitė,
2019) a conducive work environment enables and
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motivate employees to work and will have an impact
on employee morale and performance. One of the most
important work from home factors impacting online
work outcomes is suitability of the working place at
home.
In addition, work environment provides security and
allows employees to work optimally, it can influence
the emotions of the employee. Employees who are
working at home shows that they want a quality work
environment at home similar to a conventional office,
such as having privacy, quality lighting, and adequate
equipment (Ng & Ng, 2010).
Furthermore, Ng (2016) states that the physical
workplace characteristics for mobile knowledge
workers include amount of space, layout, ambient
conditions and internet and WiFi connectivity. This
has strong connection as to how teacher feel while
they are working in an online work from home setup.
Ways Used in Handling Difficulties Encountered
during Work from Home. This structured theme
elicited seven emerging themes; do listing of tasks,
students asked to choose preferred modality, find time
to unwind, find time to do tasks, getting support from
family, identify the problem and the corresponding
solution, and by being diligent.
Findings had showed that, to do listing of tasks,
teachers were able to handle their difficulties properly.
By doing such, teachers were able to track all the tasks
both in teaching and non-teaching tasks. This way they
manage to finish the tasks on time. In connection,
teachers revealed that they really find time to do their
tasks. If the tasks were handed to them, they will do it
right away so that the task will not file up. Considering
also that some required tasks were abrupt, and
deadlines were also stiff.
Meanwhile, students asked to choose preferred
modality. This emerging was so democratic and so
lenient. It’s a positive side of the WFH setup because
both teachers and students were bounded by the
limitations and difficulties in online setup. If the
students failed to be present in class, teachers gave him
chance by requiring equivalent tasks.
Teacher informants also puts premium concerns to
find time to unwind. This was mentioned by the
research participants in relation to the stress in doing
online tasks. With all the challenges, it was great
advantage that mental health could also be taken care
of. Moreover, teachers were also getting support from
their family in facing the most challenging difficulties
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
of being teachers in WFH setup. This was a great help
for the teachers specially that they cannot directly
connect to their superiors whenever they have
questions. The encouragement they got from their
support system moves them to stay positive even the
difficult situation.
Another way in dealing the difficulties that emerged
was to identify the problem and the corresponding
solution. Informant was able to handle the difficulties
that they had encounter during work from home by
defining the problems or struggles and find the perfect
solution which is attainable to their end. This way
pertains to their diligence to their duties. By having
patience and by knowing perseverance and also
diligence to work over cognitive intelligence, teachers
managed to go through the hurdles in WFH. Informant
even cited that believes in the tenet; ‘diligence over
cognitive intelligence’. Being cognitively able or
intelligent without diligence, one you cannot survive if
there are many challenges that will come out.
Data had showed that online work from home or
distance work is a form of flexible working
arrangement and entails employee’s control over
where they work and potentially also provides some
control over when they work (van der Lippe &
Lippényi, 2018). It is often offered by the organization
with the intention to promote work-life balance and
reduce work-family conflicts and thus improve
employees’ wellbeing (Delanoeije & Verbruggen,
2019).
In addition, another way in overcoming online work
from home challenges is to prepare the physical/home
environment, which include the setting up an
environment that is conducive to working, such as a
dedicated workspace, sometimes with physical
boundaries (e.g., a room with a door) (Greer & Payne,
2014). Mustafa & Gold, (2013) states that ‘employees
manage to balance between their home and working
lives by establishing temporal and physical
boundaries.
Furthermore, several considerations are supportive to
the positive expectations regarding the work family
conflict effects of distance work, others are however
emphasizing opposite consequences. On the one hand
it is argued that an increased control over timing and
place of work gives autonomy and helps to tailor daily
schedules more efficiently Chung & van der Lippe
(2018).
Ways in Dealing with Most Challenging Part of
Being a Teacher. The emerging themes were; develop
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a positive mindset, give students more time to comply,
adjust classes with students, do advance planning, look
for stable internet connection, and by being flexible. In
dealing with most challenging part of being a teacher,
research participants developed a positive mindset.
They highlighted this mindset because for them, they
managed to surpass the difficulties by taking self-
discipline.
In the teaching related duties, informant gave students
more time to comply. For teachers it was also
important to extend patience and give encouragement
to students, teachers should not get angry or irritated
with students in terms of late submissions. Further, in
the case or INP remarks, students were given 1 year to
comply the necessary requirements for them to pass
the subject. This also means that teachers would adjust
classes with students. This way of dealing the
difficulties because of to the reality that both teachers
and students had same problem of internet connection.
The teachers had to consult the students in terms of the
time convenience in having their online classes.
Another way was do advance planning. Informants
plans ahead of time of what they were going to do
which in turn get them motivated. The knowledge or
wisdom in planning that they acquired from other
people including their students, intrinsically motivated
them to do the things that they should do as a teacher.
Teachers also look for stable internet connection. This
was very apparent in addressing difficulties in the
work from home. Informant will find a place with
stable internet connection so that there were no
hindrances once they will conduct classes. This was
also necessary for them to be connected to their
colleagues in times of collaborative work like
accreditations, webinars and more.
The findings also showed that by being flexible,
teachers were able to address significant challenges.
Informant cited that flexibility is the key in the
teaching career. He further expounded and said that
‘you cannot easily address whatever challenges that
may prevail in the future without being flexible’.
Data had revealed that this pandemic crisis offers
many opportunities that build a bond that strengthens
relationship between teachers and families (Emerson et
al., 2012) which can facilitate enduring relationship
building beyond face-to-face meetings (Hohfeld et al.,
2010). In addition, cultivating such relationships create
opportunities for shared bonds between student
families and teachers, sharing the burden of enhancing
student outcomes.
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
Although it is evidently showed that educators had
faces enormous trials in their roles, responding to
teacher wellbeing can be helped by exploring
mechanisms that can support teachers at an individual
and collective level. Turkle (2017) cited that
’individual health and wellbeing is complexly tied to
the health of our communities and our interactions
with others, and it is likely that our connectedness has
been lost in a haze of social distancing, track and trace
protocols, and prohibited relationships.
Approach, Technique or Strategy Utilized to
Challenges in Work from Home. Informants elicited
seven emerging theme for this structured theme; no
perfect strategy or technique, need for emotional
intelligence, need to be proactive, proper time
management, work in isolation, call students’ names at
random, and practice student and learning-centered
approach. The informant directly said that ‘no perfect
strategy or technique to utilized in WFH’. For him,
what really matters was discipline. Once teachers have
self-discipline, everything goes well in terms of
teaching and in terms of other task like support
function or other non-teaching related tasks.
Another response was the need for emotional
intelligence. Teachers were convincing and motivating
their students that the situation will pass, and
everything will be normal again. The mindset to
survive encouraged their students to still comply with
the requirements. Informant also cited the need to be
proactive especially in doing the duties of teachers.
They have a backup planning in this approach.
Whenever one technique fails, there were still a
contingency in performing the duties and
responsibilities.
In addition, proper time management also emerged.
Findings showed that in completing the tasks, it was a
must to have that proper time management. Teachers
explained that was their key in overcoming the
difficulties of being bombarded by the responsibilities
of being a teacher. They had arranged everything to
balance their time for designations and teaching loads.
Moreover, teacher also tend to work in isolation. This
was somehow unique technique being utilized. But for
the teacher, this is necessary. They had to be free from
distractions that could hamper the completion of their
duties. Even in their social media life, they tend to
limit their contact only with the messenger application
and choose to temporarily remove non-relevant apps
for work like youtube, facebook, and more. This way
the teacher feel that she had more time to focus to the
updates from their superiors.
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In the classroom setting, informant regularly call
students’ names at random to keep the class discussion
credible. Informant had observed that the class setting
really differ in terms of students’ attentiveness and
concentration. That’s the reason for the teacher in
sharing her style of having the online class. Moreover,
other teacher also cited that he chooses to practice
student and learning-centered approach. The teacher
further shared that in order to practice student centered
approach, he decided to exert efforts of letting his
students study on their own phase by providing video
lectures which will be the basis for the assessments
afterwards. This way, learning-centered approach also
was achieved through assessing the outputs of his
students.
Data had showed and it is in line with the research of
Nakrošienė et al. (2019) that the most important factor
affecting the outcome of remote work is the suitability
of the workplace at home. One strategy according to
(Greer and Payne 2014) to overcome the challenges of
working from home is to prepare a physical
environment at home to be conducive so employees
can work comfortably, such as having a dedicated
workspace.
One solution cited by Doucet et al., (2020) is that there
are remarkable opportunities for employees during
online work from home setup for cooperation, creative
solutions, and willingness to learn from others’
experiences and best practices. They could also try
new tools as educators in which parents and students
can share similar great experience.
Description of Productivity in Work from Home.
This structured theme elicited seven emerging themes;
not quite impressive, not productive based on students’
performance, midway productive, more enthusiastic in
work from home, very productive in worm from home,
more productive compared to face to face, and finding
strategies effective and efficient.
The findings had showed that informant’s feel that
they are not quite impressive. Teachers were hampered
by the difficulties or working in their home. There are
common problems in terms of providing personal
means to have personal device of internet connection.
Where compared to usual office setup, teachers can
freely connect to the provided internet connection and
provide the best possible class discussion. This was the
reason why to some teachers they cited that they were
not productive based on students’ performance.
Teachers encountered recurring problems of students’
procrastination in their academic requirements. The
informant was even not sure if their students were
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
actually listening or not to the ongoing online class.
In connection, findings had showed that informant
scaled their productivity level as Midway Productive.
The regular duties of students’ consultation, checking
of students’ outputs and addressing students’ concerns
were still their but as to the efficiency of doing those
duties were hindered by a lot of distractions while they
are in the WFH setup.
Meanwhile, teacher also fined themselves More
Enthusiastic in Work from Home. Beside the fact that
they were being bombarded with the loads of work to
accomplished, they are still able to manage their duties
and fulfilled their roles in both teaching and non-
teaching related tasks. Teachers during the WFH were
able to work beyond working hours which results to
much accomplishment. That reason also made the
conclusion of other informant in the other emerging
theme; Very Productive in Worm from Home.
Informants said that they can work even 12 midnight
in completing the tasks given to them by their
supervisor. This was a great accomplishment for them
that they can capitalize the time they have and dedicate
more to their duties.
In addition, findings showed that teachers were
somehow more productive compared to face to face.
Beside the reality that the WFH had a lot of
distraction, Informant highlighted that the need to
work in physical setup conditions the mind to work.
Furthermore, despite of the challenges informant had
encountered when he was working from home, he was
still able to find strategies effective and efficient.
Informant was still able to showcase his teaching
strategy effectively, and efficiently applied those to
provide quality instructions to his students.
The findings had showed that teachers were greatly
divided as how they would define their productivity in
online work from home setup. Some responses were in
conformance with the claims of Coenen & Kok (2014)
‘that telework has a positive effect on new
performance through enabling knowledge sharing,
cross-functional cooperation and inter-organizational
involvement, telework improves the speed and quality
of product development.’
In addition, ‘online work setup is perceived to increase
productivity, secure retention, strengthen
organizational commitment, and improve performance
within the organization (Martin & MacDonnell, 2012).
Further, online work from home setup positively
affects employee performance and company
performance (Martínez-Sánchez, Pérez-Pérez, José
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Vela-Jiménez, & de-Luis-Carnicer, 2008).
Ways in which Work from Home Arrangement
Redefine Productivity. The emerging in this
structured themes were; being productive means
attainment of goals, do redirection and self-analysis, to
consider a strategy to catch students’ attention,
workloads affect productivity, proper time
management all time management, and productivity
requires flexibility.
It was evident to some informant that, being
productive means attainment of goals. But beside to
that fact, they had contradicting sentiments as to how
the work from home redefined their productivity. One
informant said that the WFH setup pushed her to the
limits that made her do more things than what she had
done during the face to face. While on the other hand,
another teacher mentioned that she did not accomplish
the target task in that day. This made her concluded
that in WFH she is not productive.
Another theme was do redirection and self-analysis.
The informant deliberately cited his experience in
WFH as not so impressive, and it redefined his
productivity. This was the reason why he highlighted
the importance of having a self-analysis and
redirection of the things because it’s far different.
Moreover, the difficulty to have suitable activities in
modular setting and To Consider a Strategy to Catch
Students’ Attention makes teacher feel that it’s a
drawback in WFH compared to Face to face. This had
made hard for the informant to fully expect that the
students could comply. This made her said that it
really redefined her productivity as teacher.
Furthermore, for the informant, Workloads Affect
Productivity. Teacher cannot complete intended
outputs on time because they had a lot of working load
that needs to be accomplished. To add up to the
burden, students’ outputs also affect the completion of
the teachers’ reports because students cannot finish the
tasks on time as well. In times of submitting report of
grades for example had been a challenge to informant
because there were lacking submissions of students
that had delayed the recording of scores. These reasons
made the other informant to cite the emerging theme;
proper time management all time management.
Teacher informant directly said the importance of the
time management in order to stay productive in the
work from home.
Findings had showed that productivity requires
flexibility. This was the realization of the informant to
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
be able to cope with the current situation in the world
of education. Because of flexibility, teachers were able
to overcome different challenges that had prevail in the
certain time.
This study proved that one of the primary reasons for
teachers' struggle is time they spent to catch students'
attention and concern for students’ performance in this
very challenging setup on online blended learning. A
lot of teachers feel morally responsible for their
students' wellbeing (Nyambongi, 2014).
In addition, Murgatrotd (2020) identifies accessibility,
affordability, flexibility, learning pedagogy, life-long
learning and educational policy as major challenges
with e-learning. Teachers in this setup are obliged to
develop creative initiatives that assist to overcome the
limitations that has been set forth by the virtual
teaching. Teachers should be actively collaborating
with one another at a local level to improve online
teaching methods and delivery (Doucet et al., 2020).
Most Striking Major Strength of Work from Home
Arrangement. The emerging themes were, finding
time with family, more time to do other tasks, create
own, time and phase of work, doing multitasking. The
teacher informants mentioned how important it was to
find time with family. The feeling of security besides
the test time were clear because of the moral support
of their family. They also feel that they are responsible
member of the family since they can regularly check if
the other member were fine or in good health.
In addition, teacher informants also appreciates that
they had more time to do other tasks. The convenience
in doing their work in home makes them feel that they
were productive than when they were working in
conventional setup. They even cited that they could
extend their work even in nighttime and accomplish
them even before the deadline. In connection, teacher
also dedicated the time that they had used for personal
preparation into preparation of their lessons and other
instructional materials.
In connection, teacher informant had the privilege to
create own time and phase of work. If that teacher feel
that she is not in the condition to do the tasks, she will
take a rest and just had the work done in night. Unlike
in the face-to-face setup, they are really obliged to
work based on the arranged workload in a day.
Doing Multitasking on the other hand is prevalent.
Teachers used their time wisely in the completing
tasks simultaneously. There were paper works done by
informants while doing another task as well. This
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helps him to be productive in the nonteaching tasks
that contribute to the continuity of school operations
regardless of the restrictions.
Data revealed that work from home or distance work is
a form of flexible working arrangement and entails
employee’s full control over where they work and
potentially also provides some control over when they
are going work (van der Lippe & Lippényi, 2018). It is
often offered by the organization with the intention to
promote work-life balance and reduce work-family
conflicts and thus improve employees’ wellbeing
Delanoeije & Verbruggen, 2019).
Moreover, employees WFH employees can modify the
work environment according to individual needs, such
as balancing work and family, so that efficiency can be
improved as employees can better manage time
constraints and workflow requirements (Bailey &
Kurland, 2002).
Conclusion
Implications for Practice
Based on the findings, the following implications for
practice are offered.
On Experiences in Work from Home. As noted in the
findings of the study, primary experiences during work
from home were; much downsides with online classes,
difficult and challenging, able to balance time with
work and family, difficulty separating personal matters
with work, able to have own phase of time and
challenging due to the transition. Among the cited
experiences, it appears that teachers were not ready for
the abrupt shift of teaching and working setup.
This caused a lot of negative experiences and difficulty
in adopting the new setup. But what’s the good thing
about WFH is that teachers were able to know the
weaknesses of the working setup and the weaknesses
that they observed from handling their students.
Teachers would begin on it and use it as starting point
to innovate and adopt to the changes and be able to
hone their skills even in the midst of difficulties and
limitations. For this reason, it is high time that both
students and teachers work cooperatively to employ a
win-win strategy to progress beyond their current
situation.
On ways in which home arrangement shape
productivity as teacher. As noted in findings of this
study, teachers were greatly affected by their time
Alquiza & Ventura – Escote
management. In addition, it was also cited by the
informants that they were grasping to adjust and to be
flexible in the working setup. The feeling of
procrastination and problem with managing time adds
up to the determinant factors in shaping the word
productivity.
From the elicited responses, teachers should firmly
stand resiliently to overcome the limitations and
challenges. This way, they will be able to meet
standards in handling classes and even give
satisfactory outputs of their other duties and
responsibilities. Another conclusion that can be
derived from this is that teachers should combine
several ways to solved emerging problems in work
from home.
On advantages and disadvantages being observed in
work from home. The results implied that teachers
were committed to do their work and managed to fit
their time and workflows. Hence, work from home
helped teachers and offers a great opportunity to
develop interventions in the classroom setup by taking
advantage of freedom to do more things.
However, the results showed some of its disadvantages
such as poor internet connectivity, problem connecting
with students, work from home more demanding,
hampered by some technical issues, affecting quality
of instruction, and being distracted with household
chores. We must remember that long before
COVID-19 disrupted schools, teachers were already at
risk of burnout due to the demanding duties. Teachers
must identify the difficulties or weaknesses of the
working setup. Then the identified difficulties will be
used as their bases on how they could help themselves
and their students.
On the Difficulties Encountered during Work from
Home. Among the difficulties encountered were, poor
internet connection, too many distractions at home, too
many tasks to accomplish, budget for internet
connection, and preparation of learning materials.
Compared to the other difficulties cited, poor internet
connection is the most common. Hence, it is a
prevalent reason that the disruptive impact to the
exchange of communication with colleagues and with
students is clear. It is incumbent upon the teachers to
closely work double time to cope with the cited
challenge.
This implies that teachers should find more time to
stay connected the students and colleagues in the
institution to stay updated to the different tasks that
may abruptly disseminated. If it’s really impossible to
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be connected within respective residence, they could
exert extra effort to go to areas where they can connect
to internet for them to do the job that they ought to do.
On the most challenging part while working from
home. Dealing with the challenges while working from
home was not that easy, it is coupled with problems.
Findings had shown that teachers were having a hard
time dividing their time in work efficiently. This had
made them feel that they were not productive in doing
their duties and responsibilities as teachers. Teachers
cited that the problem with overlapping schedules
made it more difficult.
This implies that the workload coupled with the
personal responsibilities of teachers while working in
their home needs to be balance for them to be
productive. This is highly needed for them since
informants also mentioned that the feeling of keeping
enthusiasm in work is hard for them in this setup of
work and teachers cannot do multitasking of work
since the limitations set forth by the intermittent
internet connectivity is also another major challenge
for them.
On Ways Used in Facing Challenges while Working at
Home. There were varied responses as to how
teachers had faced their challenges in work from
home. Among of those were; need for self-discipline,
ask students to comply with assessments, come up
with a planner, proper time management, make the
necessary adjustments, build a foundation for
strategies and approaches.
Based on the responses, teachers were more thinking
on how they could face the challenges based on their
own means and capabilities and puts premium
consideration on what is beneficial to students. The
need to have a proper time management suggests
teachers that they need to have a full control of time in
carrying out their duties. This means that teachers
must display their capacity to adapt to the changing
landscape of educative process and then everything
else would follow.
Through this, teachers would be driven by the need to
carry out their duties to guide students even in adverse
situations and in turn, students will be the first to gain
from their exerted efforts.
Ways Used in Handling Difficulties Encountered
during Work from Home. Findings had showed that
giving much consideration to students’ preferences
was a prevalent scenario in the online setup. This is
due to the fact that the limitations of internet
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connectivity had given so much disruption of
instructional processes. In the other side, it’s an
avenue for teacher to be more resourceful with their
time. This means that while teachers identified this as
a major difficulty, they can think of other ways in
delivering their lessons that would not jeopardize the
learning of the students.
Teachers could also have their own priority checklist.
This would help them in keeping track of their
accomplishments both in teaching and designation
duties. It is very important for them in order to identify
prevailing problems and corresponding solutions.
These way teachers can mitigate risks of learning loss
or noncompliance to required tasks and even about the
mandated duties.
On Ways in Dealing with Most Challenging Part of
Being a Teacher .Among the ways in dealing with the
most challenging part as teachers that has strong
impact to learning were, give students more time to
comply, do advance planning, and adjust classes with
students. Both teacher and students should agree as to
how they would complete the lessons. This has an
implication that handling classes rely and depends on
the availability of internet connection.
Institution on this aspect could also take part. By
providing essential materials for learning continuity
and by having a centralized platform which is more
advantageous to teachers and students would be a great
help. The use of other media which is not dependent to
internet in delivering instructions could also be another
option for learning continuity.
On Approach, Technique or Strategy Utilized to
Challenges in Work from Home
The results implied that there is no perfect strategy or
technique that can be use to solve the challenges. But a
teacher highlighted the word proactive. This means
that amidst challenges, anyone can surprise or
overcome anything if they have the ability to set
preparing as to how they will face prevailing
problems.
This is very necessary in times of pandemic where
uncertainties always lie ahead. The teacher could
prepare as to how they will manage their tasks both in
handling classes up to submitting reports or supporting
other school endeavors. Coupled with proper time
management, teacher can focus or can give appropriate
approach could help in delivering inclusive education
in most challenging time.
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On Description Of Productivity In Work From Home.
As noted in the findings of the study, primary
description for teachers about productivity during
work from home were; not quite impressive, not
productive based on students’ performance, midway
productive, more enthusiastic in work from home, very
productive in worm from home, more productive
compared to face to face, and finding strategies
effective and efficient. Among the cited descriptions,
some teachers mentioned that their productivity in the
online work from home setup were not that impressive
or not notable. This implies that personal experiences
of the teachers suggest that there were barriers for
attaining their goal. This means that the struggling side
of teachers emanates more than that of the good side of
it.
For instance, one teacher cited that he is not quite
impressed with the setup. The reason for that
impression relates to the availability of internet
connection. This suggests that by providing support in
terms of internet connectivity, in any means, may
alleviate the burden of the teacher. The institution
should take the problem seriously to achieve
educational continuity. Taking into consideration that
core functions of teachers would be achieved during
the working setup is dependent to the means of
connecting with colleagues and superiors.
On the Ways in which Work from Home Arrangement
Redefine Productivity. In this structured theme
informants cited six key point that for them, redefines
their productivity in work. But the most striking
response was focused on the extensive of workloads in
which the teacher really exclaimed she had a hard time
dealing with. This implies, that the workload handed
by the institution during this time was overwhelming
to the part of the teacher.
School administrators in part should reconsider their
designated tasks to the teachers to uphold efficiency to
work. They have to be sensitive to the capacity of their
subordinates in executing the tasks and give
consideration as well to other emerging factors that
had caused inevitable problems to employees.
On the Most Striking Major Strength of Work from
Home Arrangement. As noted in the findings of the
study, primary experiences during work from home
were; finding time with family, more time to do other
tasks, create own time and phase of work, doing
multitasking. Among the responses, it would a great
help that the strengthening moral aspects of teachers
will be given premium priority. The need to cope with
the negative impact of abrupt isolation not only in
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working setup but also in the socialization would give
advantageous results.
This implies that while in home, it would be good for
employees to have time for their families and not
being bombarded with tasks which goes beyond limits.
The time that employees could spend with their love
ones will help them to do things with ease.
Implications for Future Research
In as much as the study was limited to the responses of
the instructors in Davao de Oro State College-New
Bataan Branch, New Bataan, Davao de Oro, the
following implications for future research are
considered:
First, future research may be conducted by selecting
other group of instructors coming from the same
branch. Second, another research of the same focus
may be conducted to another branch to investigate the
same phenomenon on understanding productivity.
Third, change of research participants to students to
explore the insights or understanding of the students
about online setup to find out whether the insights of
teachers and students match.
Fourth, this study was done in a public college
institution. Further research could be done to
investigate the same phenomenon among private
college institution. Finally; the findings of the study
are viewed from the lens of the selected college
instructor research informants. The research could be
conducted to explore the curriculum, as well as the
school implementation of program, by highlighting the
teacher's evaluation pertaining to effectiveness of the
online setup.
Concluding Remarks
With teachers’ productivity in working from home as
the main focus of the investigation, the understanding
of the experiences, the challenges encountered,
mechanisms utilize in coping with the challenges, and
insights of the teachers in the work from home setup
was highlighted. The understanding of the productivity
among the teachers, drawn from their experiences and
insights, could reinforce the means of developing an
approach that will stand the test of time.
Difficulties of teachers in the online work from home
setup are common during the pandemic (Schaffhauser,
2020). This challenge in working among teachers can
have negative consequences both to the delivery of the
instruction and even to the continuity of institutional
operations. To refrain from the negative effect, it
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would be a great help that any understanding about
service delivery, providing additional resources and
trainings, and requiring investment in IT and available
software to support WFH wherein equal education for
all must be realized.
When dealing with the challenges, it is critical for
teachers to know and appreciate that this setup is a
win-win solution to continue the educative processes
and institutional goals and objectives. Teachers should
make sure that they will capitalize on this arrangement
by showing commitment to work and showcase their
creativity as major pillar for learning that fosters
resiliency.
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Affiliations and Corresponding Information
Cirilo E. Alquiza, MAED
Schools Division of Davao De Oro
Department of Education - Philippines
Maedel Joy Ventura-Escote, PhD
Assumption College of Nabunturan - Philippines

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