Sociology’s Scott Schieman receives support from Toronto COVID-19 Action Fund

May 5, 2020 by Alexa Zulak - A&S News

In response to the threat posed by the current pandemic, the University of Toronto has set up the $8.4-million Toronto COVID-19 Action Fund to support high impact projects by researchers from U of T and its hospital partners.  
 
After a fast-tracked 30-day peer-review process, 31 projects – including two led by Faculty of Arts & Science researchers — were chosen from across the University based on their potential to make an impact within a year.  

Scott Schieman, chair of the Department of Sociology in the Faculty of Arts & Science, is among the researchers receiving support from the fund. He spoke with Arts & Science about the project.


Your project will examine the impact that COVID-19 has on the quality of work and economic life in Canada. Can you tell us about it?

We’re interested in understanding the quality of work and economic life in Canada. We conducted the first nationally representative survey of Canadian workers back in September 2019, not anticipating a worldwide pandemic. Once COVID-19 struck, we decided to follow individuals over time as they experienced the abrupt social and economic changes associated with the pandemic. We conducted another survey in March 2020 and again in April. 

Our plan is to trace shorter-term experiences throughout the course of the pandemic — and we expect to turn this into a longer-term study to understand the consequences of COVID-19 on Canadians' work, economic life and health over the next five years.

Why is it important to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the quality of work and economic life?

We've already seen major shifts in employment and work arrangements due to the pandemic. These sudden and widespread changes in society are likely to have major short- and longer-term effects on many aspects of Canadians' quality of life and health. Being in the field and collecting data from before the pandemic, at the onset, during and after it passes, will allow us to understand how these economic and employment transformations have affected Canadians. 

We can also examine how different groups in society experience these effects — we suspect that some might experience more negative consequences than others. And we're interested in how people adjust, adapt and cope.

You mentioned that you’ve already conducted two surveys since the COVID-19 pandemic struck. What have you found so far?

Before the pandemic broke, one topic we were focused on was the quality of the work-home interface and how it affected feelings of conflict, tension and well-being. That was during relatively "normal" times. Now, that has all shifted. We're in the early phases of trying to understand how the interface has changed and how it might shift once the pandemic passes, social distancing requirements have eased, and people go back to working away from home (while also recognizing that many Canadians were not working from home). 

We've also seen the effects of job insecurity on distress or powerlessness jump quite a bit — especially for those in more vulnerable conditions. And, we’ve even seen job qualities like autonomy and schedule control seemingly lose a bit of their beneficial effects for people. 

For example, in September, people with job autonomy had better mental health on average. By March, that benefit seems to have weakened considerably. We suspect it might be because, with so many shifting to remote work, job autonomy became ladened with greater responsibility or perhaps more ambiguity about the work role. It will be interesting to see what becomes of particular aspects of the work-home interface — and the boundaries between work and non-work spheres — once COVID-19 passes. Last September, we saw some evidence that people who were blurring work-family roles seemed to experience a “status boost,” but by mid-March that status boost evaporated. We will be watching to see if things go back to what they were before, or if the work-home interface is forever reconfigured for many people and employers.

Can you tell us about the value of the Toronto COVID-19 Action Fund and its impact on your research?

The support from the Toronto COVID-19 Action Fund will enable us to conduct a large national survey of approximately 4,000 Canadians and allow for future follow-ups, as well as in-depth interviews with study participants. The overall project itself provides unique opportunities for early-career scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students to engage in research and provide discoveries to help people and policy makers understand the factors that matter — and understand the kinds of issues we need to address to help maintain or improve the quality of work and economic life for Canadians in the near term and in aftermath of COVID-19.