What Influences the Comfort of Working from Home? A Lesson from the Covid-19 Pandemic

. This research aims to identify factors that affect comfort when working from home for oil and gas industry employees. The result of the research on what has been experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic will offer valuable insights into how organizations should prioritize their employees' well-being while working from home as some organizations still maintain this mode of work after the pandemic ends. The data were collected by distributing questionnaires to 138 office workers who work from home from the two companies in the oil and gas industry in Jakarta and Balikpapan, Indonesia. The research data were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis with SmartPLS version 3.2.9, to verify good indicators in describing or representing a few factors. Individual factors (Work Relations, Workload, and Physical Health), Psychological factors (Social Interaction, Happiness, and Stress), and Work Environment factors (Indoor Climate, Noise, Lighting, and Layout) affect the comfort of working from home. Individual factors have the most effect on the comfort of working from home for oil and gas industry employees during the Covid-19 pandemic. It means that remote workers value certain benefits for their own like time flexibility that allows a healthy work-life balance, leading to increased productivity and higher quality work.


Introduction
The coronavirus disease, commonly called Covid-19, was spreading initially in China at the end of 2019 and throughout the world from early 2020.The World Health Organization (WHO) later designated this event as a pandemic.Experts and epidemiologists agree that physical distancing or isolation is needed to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.Changes occurred in almost all aspects of human life in a short time period.As a result, offices and schools are closed, and activities are carried out virtually.New Normal has turned business casual into casual at home, face-to-face meetings into online meetings, and face-to-face activities at school into virtual courses [1].Employees working at the offices are forced to telework from their respective workers' homes.Working from Home (WFH) was a mandatory rule for most employees.In the oil and gas industry, generally for the smooth operation of the upstream oil and gas industry, activities or work must be carried out in the office every day.With the increasing cases every day caused by Covid-19, workers are directly facing the situation of being moved from office to home with laptops, facing the need to set up an office area at home with what they have, eating at tables and chairs and makeshift tables, the possible absence of an external input device or monitor, and a dual-functional environment, i.e., potentially used by many people (e.g., children for school, adults for work, and dinner for families).This home office may not fit the worker ergonomically, which can result in rapid onset of discomfort in the body, leading to more severe problems in the future [1].Work from home is usually done with a computer as the primary tool.It is a recognized fact that computer use is often associated with static and restrictive postures, repetitive movements, extreme positions of the forearms and wrists, as well as continuous work over long periods; these risks are known to contribute to the development of musculoskeletal problems in the neck region, shoulder, wrist, hand, and waist [2].It can be argued that positive changes in productivity are intrinsically linked to the conditions of security and comfort that organizations provide to their members.This concept can be linked to the development of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), which can help bring innovations to work organizations such as telecommuting, telemarketing, and remote teamwork through communication using computers and mobile devices [3].Covid-19 pandemic is now declared over, but many organizations still implement working from home or hybrid work as of now in 2023 and this might be the future of work for some organizations.The pandemic has brought about a massive shift towards working from home, highlighting the effectiveness of remote work in many organizations.For employees, this means less time spent commuting to the office, resulting in increased productivity and more time for personal wellbeing and family time.Companies can also benefit from reduced expenditure on office space, electricity, and water.This research aims to provide organizations with valuable insights on how to prioritize employee comfort while working from home, thus promoting sustainable business practices and aligning with the current trend of workplace flexibility.

Conceptual model, theoretical background, and hypotheses
This quantitative study aims to analyze the factors that affect work comfort when working from home as has been learned during the Covid-19 pandemic.The factors can be divided into physical, psychological, and environmental factors.

Individual factors (I)
Work relationship.Social support between employees who work in the office and those who work from home with their bosses is also essential because a positive relationship can lead to higher job satisfaction, greater organizational commitment, improved job performance, and fewer people leaving the organization.Willingness and career development [4].This higher level of performance is mainly due to the less distraction and flexibility that some remote employees enjoy when planning work schedules [2].In addition, since most people hire remote employees voluntarily, they tend to prove that this alternative working method is effective.However, some authors suspect that this apparently improved productivity may also be due to longer working hours and higher work intensity, as well as less work distraction [5].
Workload.By working from home, the workload can be more accommodating for the employees.It provides flexibility between working hours and personal life, better quality of life, and work-family balance, which leads to higher productivity, and efficiency [5].
Physical Health.Working from home can be a way to balance professional and family life and can help improve employee well-being [6].Similarly, for absenteeism, employees' absences are shorter (a few hours instead of a full day), and they do not need to travel to and from the office, which is time-consuming.There are also employees who did not take sick leave after they started working remotely, even if they were unwell, to dispel employers' doubts about remote working (maintaining remote working "privileges").Working from home or other types of telework work is associated with greater positive and lower negative impacts on well-being compared to office work [7].
H1: Individual factors influence the comfort of Working from Home.

Psychological factors (P)
Mental health is an individual's ability to adapt to his environment.Therefore, it is important to discuss several variables of psychological factors that support the comfort of working from home including: Social Interaction.Social support can be defined as 'verbal and nonverbal communication between' recipient and provider that reduces uncertainty about a situation, self, other people, or relationship' (Sias, 2009:70) quoted from [4].In the context of working from home, this involves accepting a certain level of isolation in terms of work and co-workers, as well as some uncertainty, given that supervision is administered in different ways.Working from home is not in an office environment where there is a social life and co-workers that are generally work-related.Therefore, social interactions and discussions about work are much less frequent.Working from home can create a fear of being forgotten by those who work in the office.The objective condition of being away from work and colleagues can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation.Strategies to prevent feelings of loneliness or isolation, the former involve remote workers planning to divide time between home and work, rather than working exclusively at home.It is recommended to spend a minimum of 20% working time in the office, calculated weekly, monthly, or otherwise (Armstrong-Stassen, 1998; Danish Confederation of Trade Unions, 1999; Fairweather, 1999) quoted from [2].The third suggestion consists of setting up a network of employees working from home to enable them to discuss, help each other, support, and create a social life among co-workers.This can be achieved through email correspondence, telephone contact, occasional outside activities, etc.These things are expected to form a sense of belonging in the work group, which is important for efficiency and eliminating feelings of isolation.
Happiness.Employees have a greater sense of control over their lives, in general, with better harmony between work and family, and less rushing than when they work in an office.In this case, it causes an increase in happiness, especially affecting male employees [8].In terms of work performance, remote workers do not experience more stress than in the office, because they feel more productive.However, it must still be emphasized the importance of setting specific performance standards and staying informed about the impactful evaluation process.
Stress.Stress is the result or adaptive response to an environment or situation that is considered challenging or threatening to an individual's well-being.There are two types of stress which are positive (eustress) and negative (distress).If there are deviations in behavior, physiology, and psychology, it is called negative pressure.Then there is positive pressure, which can activate and motivate a person to achieve goals, change the environment, and successfully face the challenges of life.Working from home can reduce stress levels [9].Reduce the pressure between getting off work, morning and evening, family, and work.By working from home, employees no longer need to worry about wasting time traveling, traffic jams, and fear of being late for work.There was also a reduction in stress caused by the perception of having control over work (work environment and schedule), as well as personal life [10].Thus, our hypothesis is H2: Psychological factors influence the comfort of Working from Home.

Work environment factors (WE)
The working environment revolves around the material life of employees and can affect their work.Some of the variables of working environment factors discussed in this study are: Indoor climate.Air temperature, humidity and radiant heat are interrelated, so it is difficult to control the conditions of the three variables, as cited in [11].However, the optimal conditions will vary and are affected by the type of work.Improper indoor climate control will affect the comfort and health of workers, thereby increasing workload, accelerating fatigue and subjective complaints, and reducing work efficiency.
Noise.Noise in the form of unwanted sounds or sounds from businesses or activities within a certain time can cause human health problems in the environment [11].The magnitude of the effect on humans will depend on the frequency.The amount of the level that is still included in the tolerance limit on the type of activity carried out and the function/use of space.The criteria are determined based on the presence of disorders involving physiological and psychological problems in humans.Physiological disturbances occur because the body receives sound pressure at a certain frequency and time so it interferes with the function of several existing organs.Psychological disorders occur because of the personal circumstances of a sound receiver since every human being has a different measure for a certain level of loudness.
Lighting.Lighting greatly affects the human ability to be able to see objects clearly, quickly, and without causing errors.Insufficient lighting can cause workers' eyes to tire quickly because the eyes will try to see by opening their eyes wide.This eye fatigue will lead to mental fatigue and further can cause eye damage.To reduce glare, shadows, and blurring caused by the glare of the sun, windows that receive direct sunlight should be closed.Computer workstations should be positioned so that glare from windows and lighting from above is not reflected on the computer screen and a screen protector can be used to protect the screen from reflections either completely or partially, in addition, anti-glare filters can also be installed on the computer screen.Another way that can be used to reduce glare is by reducing the luminance of the light source, keeping the light source away from the line of sight, positioning windows at the same distance from worker activities, creating canopies over windows, using equipment with surfaces that can diffuse light, repositioning the work area and a light source to minimize light reflections.
Layout.Employees should use a closed workspace, specifically reserved for work, and separate from other rooms in the house [2].This allows workers to carry out their duties better and more focused and forms a barrier between work and personal/family life.Each work system contains some or all the components of work, interacting with each other.Ergonomics in both science and technology has always focused on the interaction relationship between operators and work components and is concerned with the influence of interactions on work system performance (Corlett and Clark, 1995) as cited in [11].The layout of the hand tools, and control must be in the optimum range is one of the systemic approaches to determine the dimensions of the workstation.In the system between humans and machines, there are basic elements that are interconnected with each other, including human operators, hardware, software, firmware, and environment (Pulat, 1992) as cited in [11].While the elements (tools, methods, and work environment) are very influential on work performance.To achieve high performance, these elements must be in perfect harmony with the abilities, and limits of human workers (Manuaba, 1992) cited in [11].If the layout of the supporting facilities is not appropriate, it can cause feelings of insecurity and discomfort at work.
H3: Work environment factors influence the comfort of Working from Home.
The conceptual model of this research is shown in Figure 1, and details of variables and indicators can be found in Figure 2.

Research instrument development
The idea of this research begins with the Covid-19 pandemic, where working remotely from home was carried out as a necessity.The author's curiosity about the comfort factors of working from home for oil and gas industry employees includes individual factors, psychological factors, and work environment factors.

Data Collection and sample
This study seeks to find the factors that influence the comfort of working from home in oil and gas companies, including individual factors (work relations, workload, and physical health), psychological factors (social interactions, happiness, and stress), and work environment factors (indoor temperature, noise, lighting, and layout).
Primary data for this research are obtained from employees of two oil and gas companies in Indonesia (in the cities of Balikpapan and Jakarta) by sending online questionnaires using google forms.Around 200 employees worked remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the researcher got a total of 138 respondents who had participated and completed the questionnaire.For this study, a questionnaire with a Likert scale was developed where the respondents used a score of 5 = strongly agree, score 4 = agree, score 3 = neutral, score 2 = disagree, score 1 = strongly disagree.See Table 1 for the demographic profiles of the respondents.

Data analysis and result
In this research PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling) was used to analyze the proposed model.PLS-SEM has become the quality of investigating causal relationships between underlying structures in business and management research.PLS-SEM is very attractive to researchers because it allows them to estimate complex models with many structures, index variables, and structural paths without imposing distribution assumptions on the data or supporting many assumptions.In this study, SmartPLS 3.2.9 was used as the main tool for data analysis.The following section lists detailed information on measurement model analysis and structural model analysis.

Measurement Model Analysis
The outer model shows how the manifest or observed variable represents the latent variable to be measured.In conducting the analysis, this model specifies the relationship between latent variables and their indicators.The validity test is a measure of whether each question presented in the form of a questionnaire can represent the variable under study.The validity measurement was done by using Convergent validity and Discriminant validity.
For Convergent validity, we reviewed the loading factors of all indicators to the research variables and removed several indicators which have loading factors <0.7.In Table 2, we can find all indicators that ave been respecified with the loading factor >0.7.
The results in Table 3 and Table 4 show that the three variables used in this Comfort Factors study include Individual Factors, Psychological factors, and Work environment factors in each question representing each variable having an Internal Consistency Reliability 0.6 and Composite Reliability CR > 0.7), Indicator Reliability (>=0.7),Convergent Validity (Average variance extracted (AVE) > 0.5) and Discriminant Validity (Fornell-Lacker's Criterion) were assessed, hence the questions are representing each variable meets the requirements.Furthermore, the reliability measurement shows the accuracy of the consistency of respondents' answers in the variables used.AVE value greater than > 0.5.shows convergent validity.It can be seen in Table 3. that the diagonal elements (the square root of AVE) for each construct are more than its highest correlation with other constructs that show discriminant validity among the constructs.

Structural Model Analysis
The inner model can be evaluated by looking at the rsquare, path coefficient, T-statistic (bootstrapping), predictive relevance, and model fit.Coefficient of Determination (R2) The coefficient of Determination (R2) is calculated to evaluate the predictive power of the model.Figure 2 shows the results of the structural model analysis, the endogenous construct, namely IM (70.4%).
Thus, the proposed model has a high level of predictive power to explain the three factors that play a role in supporting the convenience of working from home.

Hypothesis testing
Path coefficient evaluation is used to show how strong is the effect or influence of the independent (exogenous) variable on the dependent (endogenous) variable.Meanwhile, to determine whether a hypothesis is accepted or rejected, observations are made on the significance value between the constructs, t-statistics, and p-values.For hypothesis testing, the bootstrapping procedure was used with 5000 bootstrap subsamples.Path coefficients with the relevant t and p values have been considered for the evaluation of results.Table 5 lists the results of the hypotheses testing.

Predictive relevance (Q2)
To know the predictive relevance of the structural model, Q2 is estimated.It helps in understanding whether an endogenous variable is predicted correctly by its indicators in the reflective model.To obtain the value of Q2, we used the blindfolding procedure for an omission distance of 7. Values of Q2 for all endogenous variables CWFH (0.583) are above the threshold value zero which shows the predictive relevance of the model [12].
It can be explained that the biggest influence is shown on the influence of the Individual Factors (work relationship, workload, and physical health variables) on the comfort of working at home with a value of 6.264.Then the second biggest influence is the influence of Psychological Factors (social interactions, happiness, and stress variables) on the comfort of working at home with a value of 2.491.The third significant influence is the influence of the Work Environment Factors (indoor temperature, lighting, and layout variables) on the comfort of working at home with a value of 2.438.Based on this description, it can be concluded that the variables in this model have positive path coefficient values.This is because the greater the value of the path coefficients, the stronger the influence or relationship between these variables.

Discussion
This study shows that the predictive relevance value of the Individual, Psychological, and Work Environment Factors as the success factors in the implementation of work comfort is 0.583 as shown in Table 6.The positive value indicates that the observation result is in a suitable category, For the model, the NFI value is 0.747 which indicates 74.7% of the research model fit.The result of hypothesis testing for this study is shown in Table 8.

The Influence of Individual Factors on the Comfort of Working from Home
One of the results that can be concluded from this study is that Individual Factors influence the comfort of Working from Home.In this case, the statement is strengthened by proving the t statistical value 6.264 > t table 1.96 or pvalue 0.000 <0.05.This illustrates that the data sample of independent latent variables (work relations, workload, and physical health) successfully proves the relationship with the dependent latent variable (the comfort of working from home).Or in other words, Individual Factors have a significant effect on the comfort of working from home with a positive relationship.When employees work from home, there are several things that are different from the situation when they work from the office.One of them is communication, both with co-workers and with supervisors, where possible disruptions are experienced when working from home.Another thing is related to workload, employees usually have time to work only in the office, but after doing their work from home, employees have flexibility between work time and personal life.This flexibility is also felt to be able to make employees complete their work more efficiently.doing work from home can also support a work-life balance, so it can also reduce employee absenteeism to increase productivity and work quality.Therefore, in this study, the Individual Factor variable has a large t-statistics value.This is also supported by the previous study [5] that 95% of research results in an improved quality of life.Fewer distractions and flexibility in work are also felt by employees who work remotely when planning work schedules [2].

The influence of psychological factors on the comfort of working from home
Another result that can be expressed in this study is that Psychological Factors influence the comfort of Working from Home, with the t statistical value of 2.491> t table 1.96 or p-value 0.013 <0.05.So, the second hypothesis in this study is accepted.From the results of these data, it can be explained that the sample data of independent latent variables (happiness, social interaction, and stress) succeeded in proving the relationship with the dependent latent variable (the comfort of working from home).Or in other words, Psychological Factors have a significant effect on the comfort of Working from Home with a positive relationship.Employees who worked from home during the Covid-19 pandemic experienced social impacts in their work life.Confidence when doing work also affects the psychology of employees who work from home.Women are happier when they or their partners work from home, a previous study [13] reported higher levels of happiness when the household activities are shared, this may indicate that workers who work from home can contribute extra to household activities by relieving the burden on their partners and increasing their well-being.Another impact regarding indicators of happiness or well-being, especially in the context of Covid19 pandemic, is that employees who work from home mostly agree that they feel safer working at home [5].Equipping employees with adequate technological skills reduces problems arising from working from home, which reduces the stress of the employees [14]

The influence of work environment factors on the comfort of working from home
The result shows that Work Environment Factors influence the comfort of working from home with the t statistic value of 2.438 <t table 1.96 or p-value 0.015< 0.05.It can be concluded that the factors of the work environment (Indoor Climate, Lighting, and Layout) have a significant influence on the comfort of working from home.So, the third hypothesis in this study is accepted.Employees who work from home need a good environment to do their job.The temperature and air circulation in the room, the intensity of light and lamps that support good lighting, as well as adequate work facilities and infrastructure, are factors that play an important role in supporting the comfort of working from home [9].

Conclusion
The main purpose of this study is to examine what factors influence the comfort of working from home for employees of the oil and gas industry in Indonesia.A survey-based method was adopted, and to achieve the research objectives, this study used the SmartPLS 3.2.9software for statistical analysis.The findings show that Individual Factors (work relations, workload, and physical health), Psychological Factors (social interaction, happiness, and stress), and Work Environment Factors (indoor climate, noise, lighting, and layout) are factors that affect the comfort of working from home.Individual Factors, which are related to a person's attitude toward their work, have the most significant influence on the comfort of working from home.This indicates that employees who work from home, also expect positive things that benefit the employees themselves.For example, with the time flexibility provided by the company so that employees can manage their work time and personal time, and enjoy a work-life balance to achieve productivity and work quality.Working from home also reduces the number of employee absenteeism, so productivity and quality of work can also increase.Psychological Factors are also proven to influence the comfort of working from home.Companies need to put more focus on the employee's mental health by introducing mental health benefits, for example, by providing employee assistance programs or organizing mental health awareness activities to reduce the possibilities of depression or burnout.Work Environment Factors also influence the comfort of working from home.It is recommended to ensure that employees are able to work in a room that has good air circulation and lighting.Aside from using sunlight as natural lighting, can also add work lights that can be adjusted according to needs.The use of ergonomic desks and chairs is also very helpful in reducing fatigue during sitting for long hours at work.
The research findings provide valuable insights for organizations that intend to offer their employees the option to work remotely, either fully or in a hybrid model, and ensure a comfortable work-from-home experience.It is worth noting that this study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic and focused on oil and gas industry employees.Further research is required to capture the post-pandemic scenario and include other industry sectors.

Table 2 .
Loading factor of each indicator after respecified.

Table 3 .
Results of Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and AVE analysis.

Table 7 .
R-square from the proposed model.