Work-Related Mental Health Under COVID-19 Restrictions: A Mini Literature Review

Abstract

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions, including national lockdown, social distancing, compulsory quarantine, and organizational measures of remote working, are imposed in many countries and organizations to combat the coronavirus. The various restrictions have caused different impacts on the employees' mental health worldwide. The purpose of this mini-review is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on employees' mental health across the world. We searched articles in Web of Science and Google Scholar, selecting literature focusing on employees' mental health conditions under COVID-19 restrictions. The findings reveal that the psychological impacts of teleworking are associated with employees' various perceptions of its pros and cons. The national lockdown, quarantine, and resuming to work can cause mild to severe mental health issues, whereas the capability to practice social distancing is positively related to employees' mental health. Generally, employees in developed countries have experienced the same negative and positive impacts on mental health, whereas, in developing countries, employees have reported a more negative effect of the restrictions. One explanation is that the unevenly distributed mental health resources and assistances in developed and developing countries.

Relationship between research activities and individual factors among Japanese nursing researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Items related to living with a partner or spouse, raising children or not and caring for elderly or other family members or not tended to inhibit research, but were not statistically significant. This survey did not include a mental health questionnaire, as in the previous study by Liu 2021 [ 27 ]. Since this survey was conducted in the early stages of the pandemic and at a time when there was no large-scale lockdown in Asia except for in China [ 28 ], it is possible that the impact of the pandemic had not yet manifested itself.…”

How remote working can affect mental health: Work-life balance and meeting fatigue

“…"4 Besides meeting fatigue, research confirms that stress, emotional exhaustion or distress, and anxiety and depression are psychological symptoms that are associated with remote working. 5,6 Meanwhile, a significant number of my family and friends work (at least partially) from home. It's just a personal observation, but many people seem to struggle more with stress or frustration while working remotely than when they worked in the office.…”

Relationship between Employee Mental Health and Job Performance: Mediation Role of Innovative Behavior and Work Engagement

“…One reason for this interest is that employee mental health is increasingly prominent within workplaces, which leads to significant costs including absenteeism, burnout, employee compensation claims, work–family conflict and low productivity [ 2 , 3 ]. In particular, with the outbreak of COVID-19, the uncertainties and fears associated with the virus outbreak, along with survival crisis of enterprises, lead to increases in employees’ mental disorders [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. For example, Xiong et al [ 7 ] found that people in China, Spain, Italy and five other countries had higher levels of symptoms of anxiety, depression, traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”