Employee Well-being During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the structure of work foremployees worldwide, as many began working remotely in response to national and local social distancing efforts. These changes occurring amid the transition to remote working conditions led to the question of how daily stress and daily uplifts occur in this new work context. For the present thesis study, I explored how internal (i.e., optimism) and external (i.e., team flow) resources function to moderate the effects of daily hassles and uplifts on employee well-being (i.e., burnout and professional efficacy) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a sample of 417 adults at baseline, and 266 at the follow-up, I investigated how specific resources function to protect employees experiencing occupational burnout. Additionally, I explored gender differences in these relationships. Study results demonstrated that both daily uplifts and hassles predicted burnout and professional efficacy at earlier stages of the pandemic, while at a later stage in the pandemic, the relationships between daily uplifts and burnout and daily hassles and burnout persisted, but only daily hassles were associated with professional efficacy. For males at baseline, higher scores in optimism strengthened the negative relationship between daily uplifts and burnout. Surprisingly, males with relatively low team flow in work or school settings seemed to fare better professionally with increased daily hassles. This finding indicates that males with less collaboration at work thrive as they experience increased daily stress. While these findings are specific to the COVID-19 context, they may be beneficial for companies and supervisors seeking to improve employee engagement.