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ACADEMIA Letters PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON FRONTLINE WORKERS Oluwatosin Sidiquat Zubair The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), upended work in most countries, as governments and private establishments in most countries had to enforce stay-at-home orders to curtail the spread of the virus (Cleeland, 2020). The pandemic brought and is still bringing about a lot of changes in the world of work and our way of life in general. The new normal has made most organizations resort to working from home. Even though most workers were able to begin working from home, the adjustment was not easy. However, not all services can be rendered from home. Some services require the manpower to be present physically at the office to perform such. Employees in this category are termed the “Frontline workers (FLWs).” The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented psychological effect on the FLWs. Tomer and Joseph (2020), defined “frontline workers” as employees within essential industries who must physically show up to perform their jobs. They are the employees that must be present to get the job done. FLWs are employees who conduct a range of operations and services that are typically essential to continued critical infrastructure viability (Blau, et al., 2020). Apart from the economic, social, and political effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on most countries, the psychological effects on individuals are enormous and vary amongst them. The outcomes of this psychological effect on every individual are what the FLWs are expected to deal with in addition to their regular duties. The FLWs are trying to adapt to the new normal, including new protocols and guidelines, and are still expected to be best to serve their clients. Some of the immediate psychological impacts recognized among FLWs were anxiety, distress, depression, fear of the spread of infection to family and friends, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Rahman et al., 2020). In most organizations, FLWs are often the first, or the last and only, face-to-face interaction Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Oluwatosin Sidiquat Zubair, tosynox@yahoo.com Citation: Zubair, O.S. (2021). PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON FRONTLINE WORKERS. Academia Letters, Article 2965. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2965. 1 a customer has with a company. Employee morale and motivation was a challenge during the pre-COVID 19 era with FLWs ranking among the lowest in motivation (McGregor & Doshi, 2018). As such, this is still a major challenge that these organizations are facing at this time coupled with situations of extreme stress and physical strain, a state of demoralization or burnout (Alhammadi et al., 2020). The daily functions of FLWs have changed and they have to adapt to the new, in some cases stressful context. These workers were faced with the contradiction of continuing their traditional work, which requires physical interactions, with the stipulation of maintaining physical distance, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and cleaning and sanitization. This has posed a major challenge and a new dilemma: approximation versus social distancing. (Lotta, Coelho, & Brage, 2020). FLWs such as retail customer representatives, or field technicians who regularly have customers visiting or have to visit customers, have concerns about COVID-19 exposure and transmission. They are faced with the challenge of performing a highly interactive role while having to observe physical distancing. Some FLWs struggled to perform both old and new tasks without receiving the necessary support to deal with the new situation. Most FLWs felt concerned about the workload, their health and others, and the overall perceived direction of the pandemic which led to anxiety, stress, and disappointment (Rosemberg et al., 2021). Retail workers now considered as frontline workers have been referred to as the forgotten front line as they have received fairly less attention in the press and generally compared to health workers (Voorhees, Fombelle, & Bone, 2020). A study on food retail, food service, and hospitality sector identified four key themes of the many uncertainties experienced by frontline workers: being infected and infecting others, the fear of the unknown, isolation, and work and customer demands. The workers in these industries were recorded to experience heightened levels of mental distress because of where they worked and the already existing inconsistencies they faced daily before the pandemic started (Rosemberg et al., 2021). Four main stressors were identified in another study conducted on retail workers; fear of the unknown, fear of infection, mistreatment by consumers, and the role of the powerless enforcer (Elnahla & Neilson, 2021). To ease off these stressors and uncertainties, most of the FLWs adopted various forms of coping mechanisms ranging from engaging in daily exercise, watching movies, listening to music and reading books, spending time with kids and partners, cooking, spending time outdoors drinking and smoking, watching less or no news about COVID-19 to reliance on hope or having a positive outlook (Rahman et al., 2020; Rosemberg et al., 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough for everyone. However, it has been particularly challenging for the FLWs who at the risk of their safety work every day for the sake of others. Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Oluwatosin Sidiquat Zubair, tosynox@yahoo.com Citation: Zubair, O.S. (2021). PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON FRONTLINE WORKERS. Academia Letters, Article 2965. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2965. 2 It is imperative that employers have the necessary tools in place to provide adequate support to FLWs considering that they are the brand ambassadors of the organization (Redmond, 2020). There should be a provision of COVID-19 health and safety plan to protect employees and the availability of PPEs. Establishment of employee assistance programs, open communication, keeping employees up to date with relevant and engaging communications, appreciate them for their hard work through recognition and reward, and most importantly help them improve their physical and mental health with wellbeing tools, articles, and programs. The unanticipated pandemic has brought on remarkable stress and required everyone to adapt rapidly to the government’s health care protocols and guidelines. In all of these, the FLWs were and are the most affected. The pandemic has shed more light, through various research, on how essential and indispensable the work of FLWs is and the need to provide adequate support and favorable working conditions for them. REFERENCES Adie Tomer, & Joseph W. Kane. (2020). To protect frontline workers during and after COVID-19, we must define who they are. Bookings Metro’s COVID-19 Analysis, 1–26. Alhammadi, S., Bartolo, A. 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How COVID-19 Has Affected Frontline Workers in Brazil: A Comparative Analysis of Nurses and Community Health Workers. Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Oluwatosin Sidiquat Zubair, tosynox@yahoo.com Citation: Zubair, O.S. (2021). PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON FRONTLINE WORKERS. Academia Letters, Article 2965. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2965. 3 Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 00. https://doi.org/10. 1080/13876988.2020.1834857 McGregor, L., & Doshi, N. (2018). How to Motivate Frontline Employees. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 2–7. Rahman, M. A., Hoque, N., Alif, S. M., Salehin, M., Islam, S. M. S., Banik, B., … Cross, W. (2020). Factors associated with psychological distress, fear and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Globalization and Health, 16(1), 95. https://doi. org/10.1186/s12992-020-00624-w Redmond, R. (2020). How to Support Frontline Workers. Retrieved August 5, 2021, from https://www.rewardgateway.com/blog/supporting-frontline-workers-with-recognition-communicationsand-wellbeing Rosemberg, M.-A. S., Adams, M., Polick, C., Li, W. V, Dang, J., Hsin, J., … Tsai, J. H.-C. (2021). COVID-19 and mental health of food retail, food service, and hospitality workers. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 18, 169–179. https://doi.org/10. 1080/15459624.2021.1901905 Voorhees, C. M., Fombelle, P. W., & Bone, S. A. (2020). Don’t Forget About the Frontline Employee During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preliminary Insights and a Research Agenda on Market Shocks. Journal of Service Research, 2020(4), 396–400. https://doi.org/10. 1177/1094670520944606 Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Oluwatosin Sidiquat Zubair, tosynox@yahoo.com Citation: Zubair, O.S. (2021). PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON FRONTLINE WORKERS. 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