Calitatea Vieții

Research Note: Job Satisfaction and Working From Home in Romania, Before and During COVID-19

Dana Ioana Țălnar-Naghi — 2021-07-22

Based on ICTs development, telework is a rapidly changing phenomenon (Eurofound, 2017) and has provoked many debates on how it influences people's lives (Allen, Golden and Shockley, 2015; Golden, 2009), allowing people to work from anywhere and anytime via laptops, tablets, and smartphones (Maitland and Thomson, 2014). The Covid-19 outbreak accelerated social change and led to a forced entry of entire segments of the workforce into telework. The change was steep in particular for countries with a lower pre-pandemic incidence of working from home, such as Romania. Using longitudinal data from an original series of surveys (Voicu et al. 2020) carried out in 2018 and during the Spring 2020 lockdown in Romania, the paper aims to explore the job satisfaction of those working-from-home in relation to work-life boundaries, before and during the quarantine period. Findings are useful for a deeper understanding of how new work arrangements influence tele-workers' perceptions of their quality of life. Results indicate that while before the pandemic, the job satisfaction of those working from home was increasing with the age of the respondent (the younger being more satisfied with working from home), that trend changed during quarantine, and job satisfaction increased significantly for people over 40. Additionally, working more hours before the pandemic is associated with lower job satisfaction scores during COVID-19 quarantine.

Pandemia Covid-19 și creșterea riscurilor sociale pentru persoanele în vârstă

Olga Gagauz — 2021-07-22

The paper focuses on assessing the situation of older persons in the Republic of Moldova, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The social diagnosis of the structural, institutional, community and intergenerational openness to the needs of this category of population highlights the pandemic challenges it faces. The methodology of the study is based on the results of the qualitative study conducted in August−September 2020 and April−May 2021 with the older people, local public administration and social workers. Through empirically reasoned findings, the paper updates the main difficulties encountered in the context of the pandemic and the depth of the social impact on the older people at community level. In addition to the direct risk to physical health, the exclusion and discrimination of the older people increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased risk of violence and neglect, and cases of stigma at community level. The individual/family resources of the older people, especially in the case of COVID-19 infection and treatment, have played an important role in overcoming the crisis. The consequences of COVID-19 are associated with a worsening of the health of the elderly and an increase in the need for medical services. “Ageist” attitudes also occurred in the post-quarantine period, undermining the rights of older people to quality services. Thus, the need for continuous monitoring of the situation and combating "ageist" attitudes in the post-pandemic period is emphasized.

Living Conditions in Rural Areas in Romania From 1990 to 2020

Iulian Stănescu — 2021-07-22

The paper looks into the main trends of living conditions in rural areas in Romania from 1990 to 2020. The first part of the paper deals with housing. It features issues and indicators concerning housing supply, the breakdown of the housing stock by building material, overcrowding, vulnerable groups, and housing cost overburden. The second part focuses on access to public utilities: water, sanitation, natural gas, electricity and the Internet. The third part looks into the policy and financing concerning living conditions in rural areas. We use national time series, objective data from census and statistical surveys for observing long term trends. Cross-sectional, objective data from European statistical surveys is used for international comparisons. According to the main findings, living conditions in rural areas in Romania experienced a marked improvement over the thirty year period, especially in terms of reduced housing overcrowding, increased access to water, sanitation, and the Internet. However, this statement requires nuances and caveats. Despite the progress made, the gap compared to Western Europe persists. The suburbanisation of rural areas and the variance between and within communes in terms of dwellings’ access to water, sanitation, and natural gas are two trends that point to the increased heterogeneity of rural communities in Romania. Looking forward, there are sustainability and affordability risks concerning the expansion of public utilities in rural areas.

Two Facets of Returnees’ Entrepreneurship in Romania: Juxtaposing Business Owners and Self-Employed Return Migrants Within a Multi-Method Research Framework

Alin Croitoru — 2021-08-02

This paper contributes to the growing literature on the diversity of return migration by analysing the different types of small-scale entrepreneurship among returnees. Data from an original survey conducted among Romanian returnees and in-depth interviews with returnees in entrepreneurship are combined to reveal distinct profiles of returnee entrepreneurs and to illustrate their specific ways of thinking about entrepreneurship and migration. Currently, Romania is one of the most fertile settings to research intra-European return migration due to its important flows of temporary international migrants. The paper highlights that there are major differences between business owners and self-employed returnees in terms of entrepreneurship. Returnees who are business owners are those who benefited significantly more from migration than non-entrepreneur returnees—in terms of economic savings, human capital accumulation, and enhancement of their stocks of social capital; while returnees in self-employment reveal no significant differences for these migration outcomes compared to non-entrepreneur returnees. The distinction between the two groups of entrepreneurs has certain implications for origin states’ policies oriented towards stimulating return migration through programmes oriented towards returnees’ entrepreneurship.