The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant and enduring shifts in various aspects of life, including increased flexibility in work arrangements. In a longitudinal study, spanning 24 months with six measurement points from April 2020 to April 2022, we explore changes in well-being, productivity, social contacts, and needs of software engineers during this time. Our findings indicate systematic changes in various variables. For example, well-being and quality of social contacts increased while emotional loneliness decreased as lockdown measures were relaxed. Conversely, people’s boredom and productivity remained stable. Furthermore, a preliminary investigation into the future of work at the end of the pandemic revealed a consensus among developers for a preference of hybrid work arrangements. We also discovered that prior job changes and low job satisfaction were consistently linked to intentions to change jobs if current work conditions do not meet developers’ needs. This highlights the need for software organizations to adapt to various work arrangements to remain competitive employers. Building upon our findings and the existing literature, we introduce the Integrated Job Demands-Resources and Self-Determination (IJARS) Model as a comprehensive framework to explain the well-being and productivity of software engineers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 大流行给生活的各个方面带来了重大而持久的变化，包括工作安排灵活性的增加。在一项为期 24 个月、从 2020 年 4 月到 2022 年 4 月有六个测量点的纵向研究中，我们探索了这段时间内软件工程师的福祉、生产力、社交联系和需求的变化。我们的研究结果表明各种变量的系统性变化。例如，随着封锁措施的放松，社会交往的幸福感和质量提高了，而情感孤独感则减少了。相反，人们的无聊感和生产力保持稳定。此外，对大流行结束后工作未来的初步调查显示，开发商对混合工作安排的偏好达成了共识。我们还发现，如果当前的工作条件不能满足开发人员的需求，则先前的工作变动和低工作满意度始终与更换工作的意图相关。这凸显了软件组织需要适应各种工作安排，以保持雇主的竞争力。基于我们的研究结果和现有文献，我们引入了综合工作需求-资源和自我决定 (IJARS) 模型，作为解释 COVID-19 大流行期间软件工程师的福祉和生产力的综合框架。