Remote working and heavy work investment across employee fulfillment-crafting profiles

PurposeThis study aims to examine how the relationship between remote work intensity and heavy work investment varies across employee profiles defined by job crafting behaviors and work-related basic need satisfaction. By integrating self-determination theory and job crafting, we provide a nuanced understanding of how remote work shapes both work engagement and workaholism.Design/methodology/approachUsing latent profile analysis on a sample of 727 employees, we identified distinct fulfillment-crafting profiles based on job crafting strategies and psychological need satisfaction. We then analyzed how remote work intensity relates to work engagement and workaholism across these profiles.FindingsThree profiles emerged: satisfied proactive, challenged optimizers and dissatisfied reactive. The relationship between remote work intensity and heavy work investment varied across these profiles. For satisfied proactive employees, higher remote work intensity was linked to lower work engagement, suggesting that these employees may rely on in-person work environments for motivation. Challenged optimizers showed a more complex pattern: cognitive workaholism initially declined with increasing remote work intensity but then increased once it exceeded a certain threshold, while behavioral workaholism was linearly negatively associated with remote work intensity. Dissatisfied reactive employees exhibited a curvilinear relationship between remote work intensity and cognitive workaholism, initially increasing with remote work intensity before declining, whereas behavioral workaholism steadily increased with higher remote work intensity, indicating potential maladaptive coping mechanisms.Originality/valueThis study extends remote work and job crafting research by highlighting how individual differences in proactive job redesign and need satisfaction shape remote work experiences. Our findings underscore the need for tailored organizational strategies that enhance need satisfaction and promote job crafting behaviors to mitigate risks associated with heavy work investment in remote settings.