The WoW study is investigating how people’s work and employment has changed because of COVID-19, whether this has affected their wellbeing and feelings about work, and what might be helping people to cope with the current uncertainties.

We know that peoples’ experiences of working during the COVID-19 have been very different: those who have remain employed may be experiencing challenges of working from home or facing additional demands as key workers; those who have been ‘furloughed’ by their employer may be facing concerns about their job re-starting; those on zero hours contracts or who have been made redundant due to COVID-19 are likely to be facing financial difficulties; and the self-employed may be in a similar situation due to the inability to work due to lockdown restrictions. This study aims to understand how these different experiences have affected people’s wellbeing, their feelings about their work and their future employment, and whether certain sources of support or resilience help to protect people from some of the possible negative experiences.  

People who take part in the study will be asked to complete a survey asking about recent changes to how they work, their health and well-being, and how they feel about the support they are getting from their employer as well as their family and friends. We will ask people who complete our survey to do so again at later dates, so we can see how things might change for them over time. The survey takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete the first time but is shorter when completed later.

We will also interview people to find out more details about their experience of working or being furloughed during the COVID-19 outbreak. Again, we will ask if we can repeat the interviews a few months later to see how things have changed for people.

The findings will help us to develop recommendations and guidance for individuals, employers and policy makers on how to support the well-being and resilience of the workforce. We will share the findings through reports, policy briefings, webinars and podcasts.

To take part in the Online Survey, follow this link: https://nottingham.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/wowstudy

To find out more about the interviews, or to take part in an interview, email the study team:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Follow us on Twitter: @WoWStudyUK