Copresence and Well-being in the Time of Covid-19: Is a Video Call Enough to be and Work Together?

The confinement in response to the pandemic of COVID-19 has triggered sudden dramatic changes in many people’s lives. In Poland, many workers switched to a home office, the majority for the first time in their lives. Moreover, many people had to stay in a complete quarantine, isolated even from family members. The aim of our study was to observe the role of perceived copresence, the amount of social contacts both of professional and private character, and the housing conditions on mental well-being among Polish workers. We collected 162 responses in an online study. Copresence in private calls was influenced by the percentage of calls being video calls, while copresence in work-related calls was influenced by the total number of hours spent on mediated communication, percentage of calls being video calls, and whether one has to share a room with others. Moreover, we identified three types of mental well-being and their predictors.