Combating Stress by Bank Employees with Social Support under Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The entire world/world economy has been stopped currently due to coronavirus pandemic more known as Covid-19. It was started with Wuhan, China in 2019 has now spread now to more than 188 countries of the world. It is spreading within people due to close contact with each other. World Health organization (WHO) has declared this outbreak as pandemic on 11th March 2020. Almost every country of the world has been locked down since March 2020 and for the first time in history international trading and travelling has been banned. Currently Active Cases all over the world is 5,97,25,211 with majority in USA (currently Active 49,70,963 Cases). This pandemic has already caused global economic disruption & right now we are observing largest economic depression. The first case of COVID-19 in India was reported on 30th January 2020 & on 24th March 2020 Phase-1 lock down was declared by Prime-Minister Narendra Modi in India. Everything is bolted except various essential services like Medical, Hospitals, Foods & Fruits etc. Doctors, Nurses, Police, Army, Sanitation Employees are playing important role as warriors, along with them Bank Employees’ are playing an unimaginable Role. Bankers have played significant role since the beginning of Corona Pandemic. They have cope up with this drastic situation & provided much needed service to customers. They ensured sufficient money is provided where needed. Even by knowing different possibilities of risk, bank employees ensured essential services are not interrupted. Bank staff have taken all important measures for their own safety, family safety and customer safety. Approximate 14 lakh bank employees are providing service to entire nation at very High risk. Many of the bank staff are detected with covid-19 positive, but still sufficient services are provided in entire nation. They are important & inseparable part of Corona warriors, but definitely stressed with all this situation. In this Pandemic situation, Social Support received by a Bank employee have a crucial role. This support can enhance the inspiration of employee. During this Pandemic, adequate safety measures are ensured by Branch Manager & his peers. But this has impact on the stress of employee. Organization culture do play important part in reducing employee stress. Top management support is much needed to have adequate safety in banking premises. Various safety measures taken like working with 50 % staff, Hand gloves, Facemask, Premise/ counter sanitization have ensured Bank Staff Safety. These all-important measures were taken by Banking industry to reduce the employee stress as much as possible. Outside the organization all the important care is taken by family of the employee. They are providing quality food, maintain health & also maintained home cleanliness that reduces the stress of employee to great extent. Thus, social support is important part in employee’s routine life, but more crucial in this type of Pandemic situation. Friends & Relatives can also reduce the stress of employees by giving them regular calls and talk to them regarding health, give updates regarding covid-19 which may be useful and give some entertainment which can make employee relax.