HITTING THE BREAKS WHILE WORKING FROM HOME. CHANGES IN TAKING-BREAKS BEHAVIOURS DURING PANDEMIC LOCKDOWNS

During the 2020 spring lockdown, here was an increase in working from home incidence. For many it was a premiere, others have had previous experience with the phenomena, but all needed to manage post/during pandemic work recovery and micro-breaks. The latter were particularly important, as typical communication points that increase permeability of work-life boundaries. We inspect changes in taking within-day work-breaks while working from home, by comparing web surveys collected in 2018 and during 2020 lockdowns in Romania. We argue that frequency of taking breaks was dependent on work-related constraints including total working time, and life-related agents, such as the presence of children. The findings indicate moderating effects of number of children, time spent working, and education. The main changes refer to the type of breaks, not their frequency.