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DOI :10.26650/B/SS46.2020.006.07   IUP :10.26650/B/SS46.2020.006.07    Full Text (PDF)

Working During a Pandemic: Economic Concerns, Digitalization, And Productivity

Veysel Bozkurt

This paper aims to examine people’s economic anxieties due to pandemic unpreparedness, recent digitization of work, and its effects on the perceptions of productivity of individuals working online. Although a pandemic threatens all individuals regardless of social class differences, not everyone is affected equally by this outbreak. A pandemic affects the poor, unemployed, low-educated, and women differently from those belonging to other class. During this situation, women and disadvantaged groups face more severe challenges than other social class. A total of 5338 people answered the questionnaire. Although majority of the respondents belonged to the middle and upper-middle-income group, approximately 40 percent are concerned about meeting their basic needs in the near future. Employees’ job compatibility with the digitization process has adversely declined economic concerns. Data show that a significant part of society has experienced increased anxiousness and depression.



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