Lavoro agile e rischio psicosociale: indagine sulla percezione dei lavoratori su vantaggi e svantaggi dello smart-working correlati allo stress da lavoro ed individuazione di misure correttive.

In 2020, the health emergency forced home most of the Italian population by introducing remote work as a containment measure, different from the “smart working”, a working mode governed by the Law of 22 May 2017 n.81 which is increasingly adopted. The purpose of the work is to assess the possible psychosocial complications born out of the compulsory and sudden transition to smart working. With the support of the Directorate of Health Professions and a research group of the Italian Association of Psychology, a survey was carried out and involved the employees of ASL (about 3000 of which 137 "smart workers"). A questionnaire was sent for e-mail ("Work and feel safe at work during and after phase 2"); a part of the questionnaire, addressed only to agile workers, estimate the positive or negative feedback of smart working through items focused on potential advantages and disadvantages. About 400 respondents, including 68 "smart workers", replied to the questionnaire. The analysis of the questionnaires showed that the perception of the workers was mainly optimistic and directed towards the adoption, even in the future, of smart working. Limited situations were considered critical by workers, such as the lack of a direct relationship with work colleagues and therefore the sense of isolation from the business context. Among the limiting factors of the study it must be considered that the smart working practiced during the pandemic doesn’t coincide with the mode governed by law, but rather is a hybrid between telework and "home working". The analysis shows that there aren’t psychosocial concerns, but the risk should not be underestimated. Promoting the adoption of co-working could be the solution to confront the perception of isolation from the working environment. Moreover, is also important to integrate, in the guidelines for assessing the risk of stress work related, the factors closely related to the working environment in smart working.