Abstract
The pandemic many negative effects on individuals and organizations, and many studies have shown that the pandemic negatively affects work attitudes. However, few previous studies have comprehensively considered shifts in work attitudes by combining extensive, comprehensive, and accurate data on real employees with complex policy data. We used INDEED, one of the world’s largest online recruitment platforms, to survey data on Fortune 500 employees’ perceptions and reviews of their organizations on INDEED before and after the pandemic was declared in March 2020. Year-to-year difference-in-differences analysis shows that job satisfaction rises after the pandemic outbreak when controlling for seasonality and company fixed effects, and these findings are robust. Combined with data on distance-restricted policies from the Government Response Tracker, our series of mediation analyses suggest that Workplaces Closing and Close public transport explains why job satisfaction rises. Additional analyses of segmented companies and segmented employees testify even more strongly that working from home is a driver of rising employee satisfaction after a pandemic outbreak. Our findings provide new insights in job satisfaction during major disruptions and changes.