Teleworking as a Strategic Opportunity for Senior Employees: An Empirical Analysis of Its Impact on Job Insecurity and Work–Life Balance

Telework has become a structural feature of post-pandemic work, yet its implications for work-life balance (WLB) remain contested. We propose that qualitative job insecurity (QJI) - the perceived threat to valued job features such as career prospects, learning opportunities, or pay growth - offers a theoretically meaningful pathway linking telework to WLB. Using data from the 2021 European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS), we examine (a) the telework - WLB association across intensity, (b) the association of telework with general QJI and career-prospects QJI, (c) QJI as mediator of the effects of telework effects on WLB, and (d) whether work engagement, job autonomy, social support, and financial security buffer the QJI-WLB link, including among workers aged 50+. Ordered-logit models with interactions and average marginal effects were used for the analysis.