Working from Home in the New Norm: Prospects and Challenges from Hospitality Management Students’ Perspective

Abstract

The Impact of Covid -19 caused a deep contraction in the global economy with tourism being the most affected. The closure of borders through lockdowns had devastating effects on the sustainability of tourism businesses. Hence loss of employment negatively impacted on people’s livelihood, socio–economic and psychological conditions. The aim of the paper is to investigate the lived experiences of students on the challenges faced as a result of working from home.  A qualitative approach was used where ten students were interviewed using a semi structured interview-guide. A thematic analysis was used to analyse results. The results show that learning from home presented a number of opportunities for students. Some of the emerging issues include the ability for students to learn at their own pace, comprehension of the subject matter through rehearsals, the use of technology in research, and innovative strategies for content retention.  However, Covid -19 presented a number of challenges for students such as anxiety, anger, conflict and overcrowding. Other challenges included shortage of food due to limited resources, poor access to technology, insufficient financial resources to buy data and boredom. The study concludes that new mechanisms need to be developed to ease working from home.