As this global pandemic evidently takes its alarming toll on the workforce, one’s mental health is at great risk—triggering stress, anxiety, and depression.
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Adjusting to the new normal is not getting any easier. While majority of businesses have been easing its truncated operations with staggered returns to the office or the prevalent work-from-home protocols, workers are beginning to exhibit a new kind of suffering, one that anchors on mental health. Given the limit to operate at a half-strength, it’s quite challenging to find balance between ramping-up the business while providing stability to the employees. Needless to say, it is a challenge on everyone’s part, especially since we are all treading this new sense of reality for the first time.
In whatever situation we’re in, it still boils down to feeling as if everything is out of our control. A survey conducted by Premier Value Provider Inc. (PVP) states that the stress, anxiety, and depression of work-from-home employees are already at a critical level. Therefore, especially during these unparalleled trying times, we can neither disregard our own mental health nor belittle the stress of others who work indoors and as front-liners. Even more so for thousands of employees who lost their jobs after their employers were left with no choice but to close business operations.
During the quarantine, the hospitality industry was badly hit by the pandemic. And with a very heavy heart, Airbnb had to layoff 25% of its staff while motel chain’s CEO Angie King closed all branches that are under her ownership. This resulted to thousands of helpless employees who had to keep their head above water.
At times, we don’t have to always enforce ourselves to be productive because there could be a more serious reason on why we lost focus in the first place. Try to navigate the cause of your stress and anxiety at work. Could it be your supervisors? Your teammates? Or maybe it’s the oddly exhaustive workload? The pandemic itself could be the cause of your anxiety, but some other factors could be triggering it. For example, your new work routine is stretching you far too thin than normal.
After identifying the aspect of your work that you dread and if it’s something you can’t work it out yourself, raise the concern to your boss. Talk to them and allow them help you figure out your priorities. As uneasy as it may sound, I bet they would love to hear from you as well. The amount of work can be really overwhelming mainly when you’re already stress and anxious enough. If short breaks, few phone scrolls, and quick chit-chats recharges your mind, it won’t harm your list of to-dos. After all considering the crisis hovering on us indefinitely, we have to find a healthy compromise in dealing with an internal distress as well.
We have our individual difficulties in coping with the pandemic, which goes without saying, our own ways to cope, too. If you feel like venting out to your closest friends and families is just becoming a cycle of barely making it, it might be high time to seek for an expert’s help. Or if you have never felt the confidence to confide to someone whom you’re familiar with, having an online psychological consultation may be what you need right now. Good thing even in the safety of our own homes, mental health organizations are offering mental health support online, especially during this time of crisis. When I felt the need to have my mental health checked, I had my 30-minute free online psychological consultation with The Mind Nation. It provided me the solace and serenity as I endure every day of being in quarantine and the focus I need to keep grinding at work.
