Business Research Methods
Team Assignment
12/30/2021
Impact of Covid-19 on Employees’ Mental Health
Abstract
Background: We are examining the COVID-19’s influence on employee’s mental
health especially psychological distress and depression. The main goal is to identify what
are the major factors during and after the COVID-19. Making recommendation to
mitigate COVID-19’s impact on employees’ mental health will be prime task.
Methods: It includes literature review using a combination of covid-19’s impact in the
workplace. Also this search of article was taken from Google Scholar, Web of Science,
Semantic Scholar.
Results:
Sumbitted Covid-19
To: Prof. Pavitrahas been found to have dangerous flashbacksSumbitted
Dhamija on people’s
Bymental
: Team 10
health in the literature. Safety issues, risk of getting infected, quarantine and social
Ashish Rawat(14)
isolation as well financial losses are all plays a major role as stressors. Furthermore, three
types of variables have been identified: organizational, institutionalSonali
andSharma(52)
individual.
Rohit Jain(41)
Conclusion: It is spreading rapidly and mental health appears to be disregarded in this
Karan
scenario. By studying the lot of studies we found that mental health is Sharma(23)
need of an hour
and it understood us the how people feel alone even after surrounding
SaumjitsoSarkar(45)
many people.
Covid-19 gave us a tiny limelight that along with physical health mental health is very
required.
Keywords: Corornavirus, Mental Health, Stress, Workplace, Depression, Psychological
Distress.
INTRODUCTION
On March 11 2020, The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a
pandemic which means a worldwide disease epidemic that poses a global threat.
Covid-19 is a infectious illness and has a vast mutations that may cause illness ranging
from the common cold to more serious conditions. A novel coronavirus is a new strain
that has never seen before in humans and this time they are passed from animals to
humans. Fever, dry coughs, reduce oxygen level, runny nose etc. are its common
symptoms. Its outbreak has been discovered in Wuhan, China thereafter it spread at a
lighting speed to affect several countries. The virus has reached 202 countries, areas or
territories.
Anxiety related behaviors have seen in the individuals in response to epidemiological
disaster resulting scarcity of hand sanitizers, medical masks and panic among people etc.
This implies that the coronavirus is not just a physical health danger, but also has a
significant impact on people’s mental health. The tragically apparent suicide of a 37-
year-old government worker in Japan, who was in charge of looking for solitary returnees
from Wuhan (China), is the finest illustration of how people badly affected by this mental
trauma ( The Japan Times, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic in China has resulted in
severe psychological difficulties, posing a huge challenge for global’s mental health
facilities ( Li et al., 2020)
Indeed, it appears that during the pandemic people’s mental health difficulties are often
disregarded and the purpose of this research is to assess the primary organizational
initiatives which can indirectly reduce the mental trauma of the employees.
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this research, we found there are two major mental health outcomes which occur
mostly as a result of a pandemic, those are: Psychological distress and serious depression.
Psychological discomfort refers a state of emotional sort of thing wherein a person can’t
take decision with full of it conscious and feel like nothing in his control and loosing
everything slowly. Also, depression is its major outcome as well wherein people feel low
and they can’t do their work effectively and sometimes it leads to suicidal tendencies.
1) Perception of safety, threat of virus: Fear and terror arises during pandemic
because of more fatalities and increasing media coverage connected people
towards more anxiety. Individual are suddenly become extra possessive towards
their health for their own and their family members and Covid-19 indirectly bound
people to help others as they have fear of getting infected. Threat of virus
significantly increases people’s comfort zone as they were unwilling to be a social
one.(Brooks et.al)
2) Infobesity versus the unknown: Individuals are subjected for having a
overloaded information during the pandemic. The unknown dangerous of infection
made them more anxious about their lives and increasing media coverage
regarding this exacerbating the sense and they undoubtedly believe on what they
were seeing, we can say misinformation was spreading quicker than the Covid-19.
Furthermore, media coverage contain large amount of contradictory information
which exacerbate individual’s trust shaken as well create confusion, uncertainty
and increases the stresses level and ability to think. Also lack of knowledge or
illiteracy encourages people to make their own perception which will lead another
type of mis-mentality. In fact, during the epidemic lack of clear explanations
quarantine highlighted as major source of stress. (Depoux et. al)
3) Social Stigma: It is one of the common practices at the time of pandemics. People
developed some sort of stereotyping towards individuals who are associated with
the disease and they start to avoiding them. Stigma mainly aimed against
confirmed patients, survivors and their families and the person who had been
contacted.
This stigma extends to even health care workers as well and they feel detached
from the society and many times they are getting rejected by their neighborhoods
only because it is their duty. This stigma eventually leads to lot of emotional
suffering and sadness. (Bai et al.)
4) Financial loss and job insecurity: Starting with closer of schools and business
and reducing working hours creates insecurity for the job among employees which
indirectly affects their performance. Going with the concern of organizations
which were no longer functioned at their prior capacity and the majority of them
will close, resulting in significant reduction in employment. Due to this
circumstance the country’s economy shrank very badly.( Zhou et al.,2020)
5) Quarantine and Confinement: Individual who have been infected with this
infection are separated from rest of the community through quarantine. Because of
this most of the govt. put lockdown in their country so they can curb the spread
which indirectly stopped peoples from being social and they have been confined in
their home which leads to these mental complications.
Suggestions and recommendations
Following are some suggestions and recommendations based on short and long term
organizational goals:
● Communication and transparency: There should be a communication
strategy, which communicate with their employees clearly. Supervisor can connect
with the employees constantly whether they are physical present or not. Employers
should also give assurance and can take suggestions for the future of his company
which will minimise employee’s stress and encourage positive attitude.
Communication plays critical role in order to reduce stress. In this context a
communication strategy should be prepared to give clear information to the
employees includes detailed information regarding Covid-19, how their
organization in these times, possible actions that can be taken in extreme cases etc.
(Karasek)
● Prevention of stigma: This can be minimised by get people aware about recent
happening and giving timely Covid-19 information. Furthermore, workplace can
run an campaign to reduce stigma and by advertising this on multiple platforms.
For example, establishing a zero tolerance policy , preventing stigma and
improving workplace and wellness.
● Training: Give training regarding mental illness like how we have to prepare and
make decision in these tough time will be essential. Educating staff of essential
behaviour and giving general education on Covid-19 can help in many ways like:
Reducing stigma, stress buster etc. There should be an instructor who knows how
to handle situation effectively and provide assistance to their staff as well.
● Plan of Back to Normal: Employers should develop a Covid-19 work plan for
return to work. This sort of work plan will minimise the employees’ stress and the
mental problems. This one arises hope in employees and set the future goals of the
company as well. (Durand et al.)
● Social Support: Social support worked as a protective factor against mental health
concerns. To prevent from Covid-19 mental health consequences, it is necessary to
provide social support to the people so they don’t feel alone and separated from
the society. Also managers should create an positive and supportive environment
for their employees to reduce the impact of quarantine and social isolation.
(Grrer&Payne)
Organizational Factors
Occupational role, occupational safety and health management, and teleworking are all examples
of organisational elements.
Occupational role: The environmental changes and level of exposure varies due to the
pandemic and position of employees creating a problem for them. As a result the
employees’ mental health is expected to differ. In this context, in addition to the work
overload for health workers and high risk of getting infected as they are in regular touch
with the general population, making their task more difficult.
Occupational safety and health management: It is the responsibility of the
employers to protect their employee and providing them the free of risk environment.
Covid-19 created a difficult situation for organisations around the world, managers
should collaborate closely with human resource and health institutions to design a safety
and health strategy so the danger of risk can be minimised. They should make the policy
based on the recommendations of health authorities.
Individual Factors: Studies have shown that women’s are more prone than the men
during this period as we they are dealing with more psychological distress like stress,
depression etc. Specially, pregnant women and those with having small children are more
anxious about being infected so their other household members are bound to go outside
and they are also facing similar situation as well. Furthermore older person are more
vulnerable to mental health problem and owing to the high death rate among them.
Insights of this research:
Covid-19 is a very fast infectious disease spread in numerous regions around the world
and impacted the countries’ economy. In terms of knowledge, resources, capabilities, not
all businesses are ready to deal with this kind of pandemic. So, the measure should be
taken by the managers and human resource professionals and they must devise some
innovation strategies so operations can be run effectively while providing safety to their
employees.
It also includes details on the primary moderating elements that might either lessen or
exacerbate the COVID-19's influence on employees' mental health. The
recommendations are assisting managers and human resource practitioners to develope an
full proof plan for the period during and after COVID-19, maintaining efficient and rapid
continuous communication with their employees, including managers, and maintaining
partnerships between managers, human resource practitioners, health officials, and
government officials.
CONCLUSION
Coronavirus’ novelty as well its disastrous effect on employees’ mental health need this
sort of analysis. The primary purpose of this study to let you understand the condition of
an working employee and give the required knowledge.
This is a well-structured article based on findings and studying the mental condition of
employees. This evaluation can help us to construct a model and can be a starting to just
start to think about our mental health. This research has been done while pandemic was
going on and maybe it needs more investigation in the future.
Moreover, this is just the starting point and future research may explore other stress
factors as well that are not explored in this paper, like the physical health of individual,
marital status, vulnerability of health care workers and also other mental outcomes.
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