MANDATORY TELEWORKING AND MENTAL HEALTH: NARRATIVES FROM PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS

This study discusses the topic of mandatory teleworking in relation to mental health and, as an objective, aims to analyze the influence of mandatory teleworking on the mental health of technical-administrative employees at a public educational institution, during the pandemic. The theoretical-methodological contribution of work psychosociology was adopted, privileging their experiences and narratives as a case study with a qualitative approach, exploratory and descriptive in nature, through content analysis. The results demonstrated that participants understand mental health based on the positive perception of the well-being construct in its multidimensions, sharing mostly negative influences (58%), followed by ambiguous, negative and positive influences (28%) and, finally, positive influences (14%). Therefore, the damage to the mental health of teleworkers during the pandemic is evident. The contribution of the research to the current debate on mental health and teleworking stands out, given the complexity and reduced focus on the topic within the scope of the implementation of public policies.