The effect of remote working on performance and motivation in employee perception on autonomy and work-life balance in the COVID-19 period- a qualitative study on married women working in the private sector in Ankara

The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between remote working for married women working in the private sector during the COVID-19 epidemic and the their perception of performance and motivation in terms of work-life balance and autonomy level. After the COVID-19 epidemic emerged in 2019 and was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in a short time, closures and social distance etc. measures were taken worldwide to reduce the effects of the epidemic. Due to these measures taken, significant changes have taken place in terms of organizational structure and working life in workplaces. One of these changes has been that many organizations have forced the remote working model into practice. Although this model was partially implemented before, it has become much more common in a sense with the pandemic, and the remote working model has almost completely turned into a working from home model. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the remote working model and the employee's perception of performance and motivation in terms of work-life balance and autonomy. For that, it is important to determine to what extent those who apply the compulsory remote working model during the global epidemic period could adapt to the home as a new working place. In this respect, married women who worked remotely because of COVID-19 were chosen as the sample group in this research so as to to find out the aforementioned relationship outputs. In order to reach more reliable information, qualitative research method was used and women working in different sectors were selected through snowball sampling. After interviews were conducted, codes, categories and themes were reached by reviewing the audio recordings and interview notes. With the study it was intended to focus on the circumstances experienced by the participants during the period and how they affect their performance and motivation perceptions are examined in depth. As a result of the findings obtained through the interviews conducted within the scope of the research, it has been observed that remote working has a different effect from person to person on the perception of performance and motivation of women who work remotely, depending on work-life balance and autonomy.