Impact of COVID-19 on the Mental Well-Being of Employees: A Study of Mental Wellness of Employees during COVID-19 in India

Abstract

COVID-19, which also induced an economic downturn globally,has forced the organizations to suddenly implement remoteworking, creating many challenges for the employees. The fastspread of the virus may also create fear among the employees.It can have a detrimental impact on the mental well-being ofemployees. There exists inadequate research on this subject,which is not only new but also very important. The study aimsto assess the impact of a sudden transition to remote working,economic downturn, and the fear of virus transmission on themental well-being of employees in India, focusing on the triggersof anxiety & mental illness. The impact of anxiety-causingindependent factors, including organizational support, worklifebalance, isolation, fear of the virus, and recession, on mentalwell-being, was determined through a survey. The dependentfactor, i.e., the severity of anxiety, was measured using GAD-7questions. The independent factors were measured throughstructured questions. Statistical analysis of the data was carriedout on SPSS. There were no significant differences in genderbetween severities of anxiety. Logistic regression revealed thatOrganizational Support significantly influenced the anxiety ofemployees. It was found that there exists a significant associationbetween the severity of anxiety in Employee AssistanceProgram, Job Insecurity, Financial Impact, and Fear of gettingthe virus, Concern over Safety at Workplace, Home Environmentand Deterioration in team collaboration.