COVID-19 and Employee Psychological Distress: Building Mental Resilience

Introduction

It is well-established that employee health and well-being have important implications both at work and for other aspects of an employee’s life. Years of research have shown that healthy employees translate into positive work outcomes and productive workplaces. Indeed, organizational productivity is tied to employee performance. Global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, however, has threatened employee health and well-being in unimaginable ways. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020 (WHO, 2020). Since then, this disease has resulted in the loss and disruption of human life across the globe and continues to present an unprecedented challenge to public health, world economies, and the world of work (WHO, 2022).

Even as strides are made in the development and availability of COVID-19 vaccines (Greenwood & Krol, 2020), high death tolls, multiple waves of infections, reinfections, the emergence of variants, and the continuous resurgence of cases into 2022, have put many businesses, large and small, across developing and developed countries, in financial crisis. In fact, this disease has spurred furloughs and layoffs as millions of businesses face survival concerns and foreclosures, with more than half of the world’s workforce at risk of losing their livelihoods (WHO, 2022). Several enterprises and employees remain uncertain about what recovery and the future could look like. It is clear however, that within an uncertain global and economic outlook, developing and maintaining a healthy and motivated workforce presents a big challenge to employers.

Undeniably, safeguarding the health and well-being of workers should be a top priority for employers. Within the context of the current pandemic, however, the physical health and well-being of employees have taken center stage. As development and progress are made with vaccines, protecting the physical health of employees from COVID-19 is no longer the primary concern. Promoting the mental health/well-being of employees is now viewed as the key to the survival of workplaces. In fact, psychological distress has emerged at the forefront of the pandemic as societies, systems, and workplaces are being transformed; there are no vaccines for employee psychological distress (Singh & Ramdeo, 2021). Psychological distress is one of the most common dimensions of poor mental well-being. It can take many different forms and is known to occur on a continuum of severity with depression and other anxiety-related mental disorders. It is therefore characterized by mental and physical symptoms, as well as, emotional suffering, which threaten the social well-being of affected populations.

Indeed, employees are experiencing elevated levels of psychological distress and are grappling with thoughts of isolation, trauma, burnout, suicidal thoughts/tendencies and stress as the world and workplace undergo significant changes. This state of emotional suffering becomes a crucial determinant in employees’ overall physical health as well. In fact, emotional suffering can lead to a host of physical illnesses, such as, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases (Rajgopal, 2010), and a general decline in physical health. In turn, employees and employers experience negative consequences including low levels of work engagement, higher levels of absenteeism and presenteeism, and overall decreased productivity.

Given this stark reality, it is unsurprising that organizations are struggling to manage employees’ psychological distress. Further, research suggests that the effects of pandemics outbreaks tend to be prolonged (Brooks et al., 2020), therefore, workplaces can remain affected for a long time by COVID-19. In this context, the development of a mentally resilient workforce is of utmost importance. Mental resilience describes the psychological capacity of the employees within organizations to survive and grow in challenging, stressful situations and environments (Nguyen et al., 2016). Research on employee resilience suggests that a resilient workforce can provide a competitive advantage much more valuable than the social and economic resources within businesses (Rego et al., 2017). Further, building a mentally resilient workforce is also associated with several positive outcomes such as employee engagement, improved job satisfaction and self-esteem, work happiness, organizational commitment, a sense of autonomy and purpose in life, and improved interpersonal relationships. Overall, developing mental resilience can hold the key to navigating the pandemic and beyond.