  The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant and enduring shifts in various
aspects of life, including increased flexibility in work arrangements. In a
longitudinal study, spanning 24 months with six measurement points from April
2020 to April 2022, we explore changes in well-being, productivity, social
contacts, and needs of software engineers during this time. Our findings
indicate systematic changes in various variables. For example, well-being and
quality of social contacts increased while emotional loneliness decreased as
lockdown measures were relaxed. Conversely, people's boredom and productivity,
remained stable. Furthermore, a preliminary investigation into the future of
work at the end of the pandemic revealed a consensus among developers for a
preference of hybrid work arrangements. We also discovered that prior job
changes and low job satisfaction were consistently linked to intentions to
change jobs if current work conditions do not meet developers' needs. This
highlights the need for software organizations to adapt to various work
arrangements to remain competitive employers. Building upon our findings and
the existing literature, we introduce the Integrated Job Demands-Resources and
Self-Determination (IJARS) Model as a comprehensive framework to explain the
well-being and productivity of software engineers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
