Occupational stress causes severe health and cost problems. Occupational stress is a crucial risk factor for developing mental health disorders or cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, mental disorders, particularly depression, as well as psychosocial risks, including stress and burnout, have a growing impact on workability and sick leaves. Costs related to mental health disorders and work-related depression in Europe amount to about € 240 billion/year € 620 billion/year (EU-27).

Modern companies are starting to address this urgent topic. They consult working councils, occupational physicians, psychologists, and ergonomic and health-promoting workplace designers. However, the current pandemic has accelerated a paradigm shift in the work environment. We are seeing a drastic increase in employees working remotely. On the one hand, this brings several advantages such as fewer commutes, less traffic and more flexibility for workers. On the other hand, this change also accompanies employees with new challenges in daily life and affects their physical and mental health. Due to ergonomically unideal working spaces, employees might experience, e.g., tension and back problems. Moreover, a lack of temporal/spatial separation of private life and work or parallel childcare, employees might experience, e.g., excessive demands and stress. Finally, employees have fewer movements due to the omission of working routes, resulting in lower physical fitness.

The points mentioned above emphasize the need for supporting solutions considering these new remote-working styles and environments. More precisely, there is a need for solutions that activate, motivate, and guide employees to adapt their remote working routines and avoid health-related consequences.
Thus, this Special Thematic Session (STS) aims to attract an interdisciplinary group of researchers involved in health assisting technologies (assessment, sensing, standards, guidelines, etc.) with beneficial values, especially for the occupational and remote-working setting. The STS invites contributions from the technological, psychological, physiological, ergonomic, and sociological perspectives.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Non-invasive sensing devices for context and biosignal data acquisition
• Advances in behavior change evidence and theory in the remote-working context
• Application of behavioral change theories to develop and evaluate online or offline interventions in the field of remote working environments
• Implementation of individual and multilevel interventions that address remote working environments
• Development of mobile device apps with a focus on the inclusion of behavioral change techniques
• Methods for evaluating processes, user experience, and outcomes
• Translation of basic behavioral research into novel intervention technologies and strategies, e.g., wearables, sensors, and just-in-time methods.
• Machine learning and data mining tools for work stress-related decision making

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Chairs

• 
  Niklas-Aron Hungerländer, Center for Technology Experience – AIT Austrian Institute of Technology Ges.m.b.H
• 
  Dr. Miroslav Sili, Center for Technology Experience – AIT Austrian Institute of Technology Ges.m.b.H
• 
  Dr. Romualdo Ramos, Institute for Outcomes Research – Medical University of Vienna