Employee well-being in the time of a pandemic

Employee well-being, according to the International Labour Organisation, encompasses all aspects of a professional life - from the immediate physical surroundings to how the workers feel about their jobs, from the state of their mental and physical health to the financial and social drivers of performance. In the past two years, a simple question such as “How are you doing?” has become more of an enquiry into how one is coping. This article examines employee well-being and the corporate dilemma of managing staff, their mental health and public health obligations.

Since COVID-19 was announced a pandemic in early ‘20, it has thrown typical work patterns into disarray and has accelerated a trend that had already begun: the movement of work to a virtual or online setting. This combination of a global crisis and a shift to remote work created a complex situation when it came to dealing with stress and anxiety in the workplace. Sadly, it is not just the mental or physical well-being of employees that is deteriorating, their social well-being is also suffering in light of continuous lockdowns and isolation.

Employees have been commuting to offices and work sites for decades, spending significant amounts of time surrounded by their bosses and co-workers. Today, however, many workers work remotely from their homes, where their daily routines have changed dramatically. People all throughout the world have been affected by the pandemic in distinct manners. Remote working has afforded us a deeper understanding of people’s personal lives as well as the difficulties and realities faced by employees as a result. Employees are reporting concerns such as a cognitive and emotional burnout, Zoom fatigue and a lack of boundaries between work and their personal lives, as a result of this virtuality. In addition, the pandemic has also caused anxiety as workers are worried about losing their jobs and suffering financial distress in case of a Covid-19 related hospitalisation.

While most white-collar employees have the luxury of working from the comfort of their homes, millions of workers around the world were not thinking of returning to the workplace – simply because they never left. Construction, health care, agriculture and mining, manufacturing, transportation and the performing arts were among the industries where the workers were unable to work remotely/or industry was closed due to lockdowns. In some cases, jobs in hospitality and bricks and mortar retail just evaporated. Within vital industries such as manufacturing, mining, transportation many had to choose between losing their jobs or risking infection of Covid-19 by showing up for work. Almost every country had an army of frontline and essential workers who were putting their own health at risk, with occupations that could not be paused in a global health emergency. Many of these workers were also women which has led to the gender inequality gap increasing in most economies.

Covid-19 has proven to be devastating for low-wage and unskilled labourers who maintain and support the global supply chains of a number of industries like textile, food and pharmaceuticals. As the expanding global lockdowns impelled many factories to shut down, millions of such migrant workers in countries such as India and Bangladesh were forced to return to their hometowns since they would not be able to sustain themselves without work.

Since the pandemic began, the widely associated assertions “everyone is working from home” and “everyone is having their shopping delivered at home” blatantly disregard a large proportion of the workforce – those who were manufacturing, packing and delivering these goods, while long queues at supermarkets (often a function of consumer hysteria) gave the perception of food shortages running out of food supplies, it was the delivery drivers, factory and warehouse workers who were hard at work. In addition, they were the ones risking their health to keep up with the increased online demand of such goods. These employees were either allowed to take unpaid leave and remain at home without a pay check or they could come to work, where the warehouses were operating at full capacity and remained congested. When these workers expressed their concerns about their employers not doing enough to keep them safe at work, they faced criticism from others who said they should consider themselves fortunate to have a job in such uncertain times.

A wide range of industries including health, aged and disability care, law enforcement, education, hospitality and construction have enacted laws that require all their employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19. If employees refuse to comply with such mandates, they risk losing their jobs. The pandemic has politicised the contract between an employer and an employee due to the perception of risks around those employees who do not wish to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. It is becoming increasingly important that before implementing such regulations, that it may also be discriminatory or in violation of human rights laws, employers should assess the position of vulnerable employees.

How a company treats its workers through a crisis will be long remembered from a cultural and brand perspective. Employee behaviours, such as productivity, commitment and engagement will all be influenced by how companies respond. Organisations and leadership must take a long-term view of the wider impact of pandemic as well as their businesses to find a workable solution that respects legal rights of workers and public health, while demonstrating some compassion towards their employees. Corporates now have a once- in-a-decade opportunity to rethink outdated notions of ‘wellness’ that were mostly focused on delivering vanilla sick-leave policies, which could impact a company’s value over the longer term.