Being Insecure and Overload Among University Lecturers: The Effects of Technostress on Their Working Life and Work-Family Balance

The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered deep crises at various levels, especially in “Education and Training” sector. The pandemic pointed out some vulnerabilities in universities but it enhanced their resiliency: in a short time, most of them were able to replace face-to-face experiences with online alternatives. Furthermore, the pandemic has succeeded in bringing educational activities back to the center of attention, intensifying reflections on the quality of the delivery of the educational offer, the potential of distance learning to strengthen that offer, and the role of universities as active players in the territory. The pandemic required stakeholders (including lecturers) to redesign teaching activities using distance learning methods, even if they were not prepared to do so. In addition to the difficulties of accepting and using information technologies, lecturers faced the challenge of planning and designing new forms of teaching that would ensure students’ attendance and guarantee high levels of learning Increasing attention has been paid to different forms of technological stress and their repercussions on students’ and their families’ well-being. Less attention has been paid to how technostress affects lecturers’ quality of working life and work-family balance. This proposal reflects on the experience of the University of Milan Bicocca (Italy), discussing the outcomes of a survey administered to university lecturers using the CAWI methodology The questionnaire was administered to 1,205 lecturers who taught during the first semester of AY 2020/21. A total of 955 questionnaires were collected, of which 481 were fully completed .The survey collected information on subjective perceptions of the experience of distance teaching and self-reported behavioral indicators Data were analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), focusing on the impact of two main dimensions of technostress (techno-overload and techno-insecurity) on lecturers’ work-family balance in light of their perception of digital availability, gender, parenthood and relationship status.