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The paper discusses the energy efficiency of smart working (SW) as a solution to traditional work-approach issues, with a focus on evaluating benefits for both employers and employees. Remote working, while offering environmental advantages such as reduced commuting and office space use, poses challenges in assessing its true impact. The study presents results from a dynamic analysis on a real residential building, typical of an architectural style diffused in northern Italy, revealing a 15% average increase in energy consumption when all work tasks are performed from home. To address concerns about the environmental impact of SW, the research proposes a method and metrics for evaluation. Four novel indices (SWEET, SEE, SSEE, and 4E) are introduced, providing a structured approach to assess the energy efficiency of SW initiatives. The paper outlines a methodology for data gathering and metric application, aiming to acquire quantitative insights and mitigate disparities arising from a transfer of burdens to employees. This contribution not only signifies a ground-breaking methodology but also addresses an unresolved research question concerning the evaluation of the actual energy efficiency of smart working implementations for both employers and employees. The results underscore the importance of understanding the nuances of SW’s impact on household energy usage and its broader implications for sustainability goals.

Attitude toward smart working reflects feelings of favorableness towards this object; attitudes influence intentions, which in turn guide behaviors. Recent research confirms the positive influence that attitude toward smart working has on expected usage of it. Despite a direct influence, other factors could interact in the context of opportunities for ICT usage for teleworkers; among these factors, work engagement stands out. In turn, work engagement influences the perception of job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Considering that literature suggests that among the antecedents of work engagement are attitudes, the present study analyzes the role of positive attitude towards smart working on work engagement, and consequently on job satisfaction and on life satisfaction, hypothesizing that work engagement could mediate between positive attitude towards smart working and job and life satisfaction. The participants were 342 workers (115 males and 227 females) in private and public organizations, aged 24 to 66 years. The results showed that a positive attitude towards smart working, along with work engagement as a mediator, positively influences job satisfaction and life satisfaction. This means that employers and human resources managers (HRM) can organize training sessions to enhance the positive attitude toward smart working and this can help workers feel more engaged and satisfied.

The Covid pandemic forced companies to use remote work. Even in Italy, where remote work had been scarcely used, its diffusion was fast and wide. We argue that its success resides in the fact that it relies on some important trends already underway. Firstly, the pandemic in Europe hits a high tertiaried society. The intensive use of remote work would not have been possible in a predominantly manufacturing context, where most of the activities require the workers’ presence. Secondly, the digitalization process had been underway for decades, and companies already had the communication technologies essential for managing remote work. Thirdly, the remote work exacerbates the ongoing process of flexibilization of employment relations in terms of spaces/times of work.

During the lockdown, workers and firms faced the challenge of a sudden and prompt reorganization in order to carry on production activities. In this article we focus on changes that have taken place at the level of social interactions. We will deal with how personal and professional relationships, which have been largely mediated by extensive use of platforms for remote interaction, have been changing, and how these transformations have impacted work organization, worker satisfaction, and operational efficiency. These are issues that, in early research, emerged as specifically relevant and complex. In the conclusions, we will try to assess how skills acquired in the remote work of the emergency period can be «systematized» and capitalized on to rethink production in the return to «normalcy» and, on the other hand, what cautions should be considered in the future setup.

Home-base work, namely «smart working» and «telework» in Italian 2020 public debate, is not a new phenomenon in the history of the Italian Republic. Thanks to industrial home workers’ voices, the path of industrial home work in the Fordist period could represent an interesting term of comparison to understand gender relationships in contemporary home-based work, the complex interaction between productive and reproductive labour inside the home, the mental and physical condition of home-based workers, the possible level(s) of exploitation, the lack of socialization and sociability and the potential role of trade unions.

The article proposes a critical reflection on the differences between pre-pandemic remote working and mandatory work-from-home during the Covid-19 pandemic. We used self-report instruments to detect emotional exhaustion, frequency of technology use, and two recovery experiences (mastery and control) 6 months apart in two longitudinal studies. The first study involved 148 technical-administrative employees of the University of Turin in 2019, and the second study involved a sample of 144 workers during the first lockdown in 2020. Although the two studies are not directly comparable, some differences in quality of life emerged that could be useful for the future of remote working.

The normalization of ICT and digital technologies had an unprecedented acceleration during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in Italy, where remote working was used massively for the first time. This article investigates to what extent the rapid and extensive integration of digital technologies in the everyday work practices may have generated an increase in the level of control on employees and whether some of these trends may become structural in the long run. Using quali-quanti material collected in Italy in April 2020-June 2021, the study describes the experience of white-collar workers, with a focus on the role of digital technologies in the transformation of work.

With the Covid-19 pandemic the use of remote working strongly increased and the experimentation of this working arrangement is expected to bring about changes destined to last over time. This article investigates potentialities and limits of remote working by analyzing workers’ experiences (through a survey and in-depth interviews). It explores the autonomy in the management of working time and the strategies adopted to prevent the latter from invading free time. As regards spaces and work instruments, the analysis highlights a misalignment between the perception of «comfort» of some solutions adopted by remote workers, and their adequacy from the point of view of workers’ physical well-being.

Due to the unexpected pandemic crisis, teachers were forced to face the challenges imposed by social distancing. Within a few weeks of the national closure of the schools, Distance Learning (DL) was activated to guarantee school service continuity. The article reconstructs – through qualitative empirical material – how teachers handled DL and how they defined its heterogeneous forms in each school. In this article, it is shown how the sudden translation of school into the digital world took place. We focus on the interplay of teachers’ autonomy and collegiality, trying to throw light on how heterogeneous solutions to the pandemic, based on remote working, emerged within Italian schools.

In the emergency situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government used the regulatory scheme of agile work to ensure the continuation of work activities while safeguarding health protection. However, the tool applied in the emergency phase differs from the one governed by Law No. 81/2017 in very relevant aspects. The essay aims to analyze similarities and differences between the various models of remote work, highlighting in particular, the typical and innovative features of agile work and the differences with smart work in emergency. The article also focuses on the most recent innovations made to address the main issues that have emerged from the experience of the past two years, in view of the gradual return to normality.