Employee Happiness Declined Amid the Pandemic

Recent research found that employee happiness declined as the pandemic raged across continents. Per Aviva’s Embracing the Age of Ambiguity report, 20 percent of employees were happy as against 13 percent in August. 44 percent never really logged out of work leading to an ‘always-on’ work culture in the pandemic. Do you know how your team feels about the alarming statistics? In this article at People Management, Elizabeth Howlett talks about how employee happiness declined during the pandemic.

How Employee Happiness Declined

The research revealed more shocking news regarding why employee happiness declined during multiple lockdowns. 67 percent of employees did not take sick leave three months before February. By August, it increased to 84 percent. 34 percent of respondents worked through sickness.

CIPD senior employee relations adviser Rachel Suff asked managers to prevent remote employees from working harder. “Managers play a crucial role in helping to counter the ‘always on’ mindset by making sure their teams have a structure to their day that draws a clear line between work and downtime,” she explains.

After-Effects

58 percent of employees were ignoring their health, while 55 percent thought they did not have time to look after their mental well-being. 43 percent of the respondents noticed the intensity at which work hampered their personal lives.

The Soke therapy consultant Kathryn Dombrowicz conveys, “Psychologically, employees might feel a need to prove their productivity while home working, perhaps feeling their jobs are at risk.” Since there is no physical boundary between work and home, staff members still are logged in at work after hours.

PM To-Dos

Monitor after-hour email messages and during lunch breaks so that you can help your team enjoy their me-time. As a project manager, you must clearly state what your expectations are. Have regular one-on-ones with your team to understand how they are managing their work and home chores. You must really know what your people feel about slogging after hours and extra workload.

To view the original article in full, visit the following link: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/employee-happiness-dropped-dramatically-during-lockdown