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European Journal of Applied Sciences – Vol. 12, No. 4
Publication Date: August 25, 2024
DOI:10.14738/aivp.124.17315.
Schmitz, T., & Dias, M. (2024). How the Brazilian Workers are Dealing with Return-To-Work Post-Pandemic: An Unchartered
Territory. European Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol - 12(4). 149-163.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
How the Brazilian Workers are Dealing with Return-To-Work
Post-Pandemic: An Unchartered Territory
Thiago Schmitz
Rennes School of Business, France
Murillo Dias
Instituto de Desenvolvimento Educacional – IDE
Fundação Getulio Vargas – FGV, Brazil
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has caused instability and uncertainty in various aspects of life,
including labor relations. This article explores the return-to-work (RTW) scenario
in the Brazilian IT sector, the top ten largest global IT market. The research
focuses on the employee's perspective, addressing a gap in understanding
productivity effects. Through Focus Groups and In-depth Interviews, the study
found a trend of adhesion to three work modalities: face-to-face, hybrid, and
teleworking, contrary to other industries. The findings highlight the need for
further analysis and discussion on RTW post-pandemic.
Keywords: COVID-19, Brazilian IT industry, Return-to-Work (RTW)
INTRODUCTION
In 2020, COVID-19 swept the globe. Uncertainty and instability drastically altered our way of
life. In most instances, overnight social isolation measures imposed by governments
worldwide, such as international border closures, were ineffective in containing the spread of
the coronavirus. The WHO has confirmed 676,609,955 cases and 6,881,955 fatalities in 228
countries, causing economic devastation [1]. On 5 May 2023, the WHO declared the end of the
Public Health Emergency of International Concern regarding COVID-19 [1].
Then, with the withdrawal of the sanitary restrictions and the end of social isolation, workers
gradually returned to their activities, but the world was not the same anymore. The
coronavirus pandemic affected workers' bodies, minds, and souls on an unprecedented scale
for the first time in century XXI. Through focus groups and qualitative in-depth interviews,
this research investigates what happened to workers on their return within the Brazilian IT
sector, the tenth largest market worldwide, in the upcoming paragraphs.
Firstly, Return to Work (RTW) has been intrinsically associated to work after (a) physical
diseases [2]; [3]; [4]; [5]; [6]; (b) musculoskeletal rehabilitation [7]; [8], (c) after COVID-19
[9]; [10]; [11]; [12], and (d) mental diseases [13]. In addition, RTW is also related to face-to- face work [14]; [15]. However, with the pandemic, lockdowns, and social mobility restrictions,
it is unrealistic to assume that RTW means workers returning to face-to-face work, sometimes
called Return to Office [14]; [15].
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European Journal of Applied Sciences (EJAS) Vol. 12, Issue 4, August-2024
Due to the health restrictions imposed by governments around the world, most workers had
to adapt overnight to teleworking, with face-to-face work prohibited until the transmission of
the virus was controlled. Nonetheless, when the number of coronavirus cases decreased,
Return to Work (RTW), for the first time, was not associated with a physical or mental health
condition but with the cessation of a legal restriction imposed for sanitary reasons.
Furthermore, with the improvement of communication technology, some workers preferred
to stay home, others preferred face-to-face work, while others preferred a hybrid work
modality. Therefore, after the pandemics, the three modalities coexist.
Therefore, in this article, we introduce the following typology regarding the Return-to-Work
modality after the pandemic is over: (a) Return to Work - Office (RTW-O), when the
employees return to face-to-face work; (b) Return to Work - Teleworking (RTW-T), when the
employees return to teleworking, and (c) Return to Work - Hybrid (RTW-H), if the employees
are part-time face-to-face, part-time teleworking.
It is reasonable to suppose that workers would prefer to return massively to face-to-face
work after COVID-19, primarily because they were tired of social isolation and desperate for
physical contact with coworkers. On the contrary, returning to work did not follow the
expected course. Therefore, in this article, we explored the uncharted territory of Return-to- Work (RTW) in the Brazilian IT segment, given its relevance to the global economy, primarily
because (a) Brazil is the top ten global IT market; (b) Brazil is the first IT market in Latin
America with almost the double of the size of the second market which is Mexico (c) the
availability of data; (d) because the disruptiveness of IT industry due to easy access to
technology, and finally, (e) personal motivation. Therefore, the challenges and nuances of
unknown RTW in the Brazilian IT sector are explored here through qualitative methods.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
RTW is usually studied after medical conditions, such as (a) stroke [16]; [17]), (b) injured
workers [6], (b) after mental disorders [18]; (c) after occupational therapy [19]; (d) after the
treatment of coronary heart disease [20]; (e) after musculoskeletal disorders (Schultz, et al.,
2007); (f) after depression [21] to name a few recent studies. In addition, a handful of studies
have examined RTW through the employer’s perspective [22]; [23].
After the pandemic, this concept it is still used to speak about RTW now also addressing
people who had COVID-19 complications [9]; [10]; [11]; [12], and the general term used to
return to the office face-to-face, but in Brazilian IT industry the return to work opened new
options, where we detail the findings regarding RTW collected from Focus Groups (FG) and
Interviews (I) with qualified professionals from the sector.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
This study incorporated multiple methodologies, including focus groups and in-depth
interviews, to examine the influence factors of teleworking on the Return-to-Work (RTW) in
the Brazilian IT industry before, during, and after the pandemic.
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Schmitz, T., & Dias, M. (2024). How the Brazilian Workers are Dealing with Return-To-Work Post-Pandemic: An Unchartered Territory. European
Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol - 12(4). 149-163.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.124.17315
Sampling
This article used three different types of sampling: (i) purposive sampling, (ii) criterion
sampling, and (iii) snowball sampling. These were the best for the research because they met
the study's goals, setting standards used throughout the data collection and taking advantage
of opportunities as they came up. The snowball sampling technique is often used when the
population of interest is unknown and uncommon, making choosing people for inclusion as
research samples challenging. A purposeful sampling strategy was chosen because the data
quality to comprehend the nuances of the analyzed phenomenon using a questionnaire.
The following criteria were used to select participants and interviewees: (a) Brazilians, as we
are studying Brazil scenario; (b) Workers, as an active market professional; (c) from the IT
sector, including service providers, software, and hardware industries, as we are focusing in
IT industry; (d) a minimum of three years of professional experience, as we considered the
minimum to fit the timeframe studied (period of pandemic and post-pandemic). The snowball
sampling strategy was chosen because participants could assist in locating additional
participants/interviewees. It was instrumental in the Focus Group, where, for instance, one
participant (P#12) brought two additional participants (P#1 and P#2) to the session.
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
Focus Group 1 and 2 findings and analysis
As a result, after following a rigorous three-phase, iterative coding process, the open, axial,
and selective codes were grouped into categories and subcategories, revealing three emerging
themes in Focus Group 1, such as (i) control; (ii) performance, and (iii) affected relationships
and Focus Group 2 revealed four emerging themes after careful content analysis: (i) Control in
Teleworking, which is also revealed in FG1; and three new subjects ordered in sequence as
(iv) Feelings post-pandemic; (v) Bad market practices; (vi) and Teleworking common issues.
Table 1 shows the emerging themes from Focus Group 1 and 2. In this next section, we
analyze the findings from Focus Groups 1 and 2 together.
Table 1: Emerging Themes from FG1 and FG2
Finally, to ensure validity through the convergence of attributable to the consolidation of data
from multiple sources, we triangulated data by a researcher, following [24] and [25]. As a
result, two independent coding processes validated the themes before the convergence of
analysis consolidated them.
Focus Group 1 and 2 Cluster Analysis
Cluster analysis was conducted to avoid elite bias [26]. First, the Focus Group participants
were grouped according to their management positions. Then, each theme's relevance level
was attributed to all participants, aiming at finding different perspectives regarding the