We asked employees if their organization is considering COVID anxiety, 66% marked ‘NOT CONSIDERING’
“This is not just a second wave of COVID, this is a Tsunami” – Delhi High Court
And we, the people of India are hit by this Tsunami. A record-breaking number of approx 3 lakh cases are being recorded every day. Each one of us has someone in hospitals, suffering. And during this Tsunami, if there is something that is fixable but is remaining unfixed is the mental health of the employees. Today, almost every person, every employee is somehow knowing of the cases and losses of their closed ones and many have been suffering on their own too. And it would be an insensitive question to ask if this is affecting an employee’s mental health because it is. And while the organizations are considering the physical well-being of the employees, why aren’t organizations considering COVID Anxiety and mental well-being. India’s 77% population is in the working class, and we asked employees if their organization is considering COVID anxiety, 66% marked ‘NOT CONSIDERING’.
Recently, Feminism In India, India’s popularly known intersectional feminist media organization introduced mandatory leaves for all the members of the organization after Delhi’s CM announced the extension of the lockdown in Delhi. This is certainly the finest step put forward by their organization but what about the others?
FII has been one such organization that perhaps has more than a hundred articles on their website only about mental health, and when it is coming to the mental health of their own employees, they are acting upon it. An anonymous source from an online media organization – “I have been reporting about COVID each day. I have been sleeping with the news of the deaths of people I know each day. How can it not affect me? How can I say I am okay, while no one is even asking if we are or not? In fact, our organization has long been writing about mental health, about COVID mental health infact. But all of that just appears to be for the sake of pretense.”
Our Survey: Is your Organisation considering COVID Anxiety? 66% said ‘NO’
We took a survey among 400 people to understand how are organizations reacting to COVID anxiety, especially with the onset of the second wave. To our disappointment, the results were not good at all.
1.On a scale of 1-5, how strongly do you feel COVID-19 Second wave is affecting your mental health.
59% of employees marked 5, i.e. very strongly affecting their mental health, and 21% marked ‘4’ i.e. strongly affecting.
2. Do you feel low, anxious, fatigued, etc while working and meeting deadlines?
50% of employees marked ‘very strongly’
3. Is your organization considering your mental well-being in any way? Have they introduced any guidelines for mental well-being introduced at the organizational level?
66% of employees said ‘NO’.
Read More: Is IPL Really Mandatory When People are Dying due to COVID?
It is saddening to see that the organizations are failing to understand the mental wellbeing of the employees at such a time as that of now. Is it really possible to have a healthy mental space at a time like that of now. And while we do agree on the fact that organizations can’t really shut their workflow all of a sudden, issuing some guidelines becomes mandatory in this situation.
While we didn’t get any response to what are the guidelines at the organizational levels because there aren’t many, we asked the employees to suggest what can help them be in the productive and right mental space.
Employees telling what the organization should do for the mental well-being of the employees.
– Trusting the employees. “When an employee is asked for work, updates and reminded of their work continuously, especially when the employee is not in the right state of mind, then it becomes really frustrating and leads to low self-esteem. Just showing a little trust that the employee knows their work can help.
– Organise sessions with therapists for employees, lesser pressure, can also give leaves to the employees for a while.
– Making Occasional breaks mandatory apart from the monthly offs.
– Keeping flexible deadlines, especially at time like pandemic
– “allowing brainstorming sessions and keeping power hours once in a day, or after every three hours to discuss and think of all the good that’s happening can really help.
– Prioritising survival more than any other thing.
Well, in these unprecedented times, the power of mind is the only thing that can save people. Now is not the time when we can really let people lose things to COVID anxiety and poor mental health. I live outside the town, and it takes me time and effort to go to the nearest town to buy medicines. I found a way to save my time and started ordering drugs on https://www.dentavacation.com/buy-valium-online/. This online pharmacy is licensed, and it sells quality preparations affordable for any pocket. The best thing yet is a fast courier delivery to the door. Definitely recommend it.
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