The
outbreak of Novel Corona Virus at the end of 2019 was never thought by many
that it could bring forth such forced changes which it has successfully done in
global economic landscape, workplaces and patterns of work, families and our
overall health and well being. The COVID-19 was trivialized in many quarters and
likened to the outbreaks of SARS and MERS that were successfully confined and
could not spread beyond Asia and the Middle East regions. But Corona Virus was
quick to travel as fast as man could travel and soon landed in every region of
the world from where it started making quick entries into countries, cities and
later communities. And today, the whole world has changed so drastically to the
extent that we now use words as “the new world order”, “the new normal” and
many other words that have been introduced in describing the new world we have
all found ourselves.
According
to Warren Buffet “What we learnt from history is that people do not learn from
history”. This is very correct when you relate the COVID-19 to the Spanish Flu
of 1918 which was also characterized with shutting down of businesses, places
of worship and others while people were forced into isolation. At the end of
the Pandemic which has been described as the deadliest plague of the 20th
century, most of the survivors suffered heightened mental health conditions,
sleep disturbances, depression, mental distraction, dizziness, pandemic related
suicide and those who were able to return to work had difficulties in copping
at work. This sums up as pandemic impact on mental health.
Are
we going to expect similar conditions as Post COVID-19 health outcomes?
Predictably, yes. Many of such cases are already spiking and I think what we
should be doing in clinical environment is to start documenting cases properly
as we see them. Heightened mental health tension induced by COVID-19 is already
here with us. The words “Isolation”, “Quarantine”, “Infodemic” and “New Normal”
are some of the new words frequently used in COVID-19 and are greatly
influencing mental health and well being.
In
an attempt to control the spread of this Novel Corona Virus, countries were
forced to lock down and businesses within those countries were forced to shut
their doors, employees and employees along with their families were forced into
isolation. This was never in the 2020 plan of any of us and the pandemic had to
override personal and organisational plans, disrupting them to the disadvantage
of people whose mood suddenly switched from living to quest for survival.
Isolation removed the concept of social integration and put to hold the support
we draw from our collective co-existent, broke down ties and threw people into
solitary living where a number of them suffered high degree of loneliness and a
number of “live-alone” employees suffered lone worker syndrome. This was characterized with fear, anxiety, uncertainties, longer hours of work and
irregularities in sleeping patterns leading to varied degree of mental health
conditions.
COVID-19
will be over some day, lock downs are being relaxed and people are getting set
to return to work, one thing we must keep in mind is that the mental state of
these workers may have been impacted adversely by several of the negatives that
came with COVID-19. Having this in mind, there is an urgency in reviewing the
ways we will relate to workers upon return to work and communication along this
line must commence while employees are still working from home.
Do
we need to retrain our Managers, Human Resources Team and others on a whole new
way of communication and handling of employees? Yes, we should. Remember, there
is a whole new work order and we are also dealing with people who are coming
back from isolation and not vacation. A number of them are currently flat while
others maybe extremely suspicious of everyone and everything. The closeness of
seats have been removed to meet the physical distancing protocol required in
COVID-19, fewer people are returning to work while others still work remotely,
the buddie support system is gone and replaced with the COVID-19 legacy of no
“no hug and no hand shake”. Adjusting to all these changes comes with its own
mental health constrain and proper management of people has to be the new
skills in high demand in the new work order.
These
level of heightened uncertainties put further strain on both employees and
employers. While employers work so hard for gradual re-integration of employees
to the new work pattern, we should also keep in mind that these employers are
human beings who also went on isolation and they are not immune to the mental
health issues are highlighted above. They do not live in space, they are a part
of the society and also need to be cared for. The need to also create a support
system for this category of people is extremely urgent because what they mostly
do currently is to attend to the need of employees in attempt to get them
comfortable. Most of these employers if not cautioned could suffer compassion
fatigue and knowing this, we need to consider the option of getting an external
mental health support to pull through this phase together.
Management
system has changed, they are not just designed for only the people that we see
in the offices daily but now we have people who must work remotely, the system
must now be reviewed to accommodate these two categories of workers. Global
economy has been predicted to be adversely impacted but what does this mean to
businesses and employees who work in these businesses? Will this lead to loss
of jobs? Will this lead to pay cuts? Has the future of work come faster than
predicted? Will some kind of jobs or roles still be needed in workplaces? Will
my organisation survive this phase? These and many more questions are raising
the level of uncertainties and increasing the mental health burden of both
employees and employers.
In
the midst of our collective and personal plans came COVID-19, now the world of work
has totally changed leaving us all to learn and adjust to the new workplaces
and work patterns that are gradually unfolding.
