Health circles for teleworkers: selective results on stress, strain and coping styles

Telework is decentralized computer-mediated performance of work activities at a location distant from the employing organization. In order to improve well-being at such remote workplaces, we developed a health circle (HC) con cept for teleworkers. Three KC sessions were conducted with a total of 17 t eleworkers from diverse organizations and branches, The sessions were moder ated by a professional facilitator, while the participants selected the dis cussion issues. Typical issues were technical problems at the home-based co mputer, time management, communication with supervisors, colleagues and cus tomers, and feelings of isolation from the main company. Besides discussing these stress factors, participants developed concrete coping strategies ba sed on the exchange of experiences and additional informational input by ex ternal experts. Process evaluation at the end of each meeting revealed that participants found the exchange of personal experiences and the informatio nal input during the HCs very helpful, as well as the common development of coping strategies. Moreover, a questionnaire 2 months after the last HC se ssion revealed that participants reported significantly more positive chang es in typical stress factors than teleworkers in a control group. The impli cations of these results for preventive and corrective strategies of telewo rk design are discussed.