How Leaders Can Help Employees Returning to Work Feel Safe

Everyone from business leaders to politicians are calling on employees to return to the office. As President Biden said in his State of the Union Address on March 1, "It's time for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again. People working from home can feel safe to begin to return to the office."

While this may sound like a great idea, after two years of avoiding risks, it isn't easy going to be easy to convince everyone to hop back on public transit or spend all day working in an air-sealed highrise. Despite business and political leaders' ongoing calls for workers to return to the office, many employees are reluctant. Although some have moved or just no longer want to commute, a small percentage of employees are unable to return to work due to underlying mental health challenges, some caused or exasperated by the pandemic itself.

When a protective impulse becomes a detriment

While epidemics and pandemics always bring about fear, the widespread and constantly shifting nature of COVID-19 created an exceptionally high level of fear for many people worldwide. By the end of 2020, some researchers were using the term "coronaphobia" to describe the unique fears and anxieties sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

By and large, being risk-averse during a pandemic has been associated with positive outcomes. When the impulse to protect oneself from a virus such as COVID-19 becomes negative is when one's protective impulses start to impact one's ability to thrive.

As an example, consider my friend Michael. Michael is a healthy, 58-year-old history professor who has been happily teaching online since his university shut down in early March 2020. Recently, Michael told me, with a hint of pride, that he hadn't even stepped foot in a store for over two years. He also hasn't been to a dinner party, theater, museum, or gallery. In fact, he hasn't done anything he loved doing pre-pandemic. He also confessed that when his university asked him to return to teach in person this past February, he decided to buy out his courses, cutting his income by a third to avoid doing so.

As others attempt to return to their pre-pandemic lives, Michael is still in deep lockdown, and I know that he is not alone. Still, why are some people afraid to return to their pre-pandemic lives and even willing to put their livelihoods at risk in order to do so?

Why some people are struggling to emerge from lockdown

Taking precautions during the pandemic was necessary. Reluctance to emerge from lockdown, especially if you are a vaccinated individual with no serious underlying health concerns, may point to underlying mental health problems, including three conditions that have been exasperated by the pandemic:

• OCD. While many people think they suffer from OCD, under 3 percent of American adults have been diagnosed with OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). For those who do suffer from OCD, however, the pandemic has been extremely challenging. A study published by Andrew G. Guzick and colleagues in late 2021 reported, "The COVID-19 pandemic has been an enormous stressor for individuals with OCD, especially for those with contamination symptoms." Similar conclusions have been reached by Wheaton et al. (2021) and Jelinek et al. (2021). Other studies, including Abba-Aji et al. (2020), found that the pandemic also resulted in a spike of new OCD cases. As such, OCD is one reason some people are struggling to break their lockdown and return to work on-site.
• Anxiety. Anxiety spiked early on in the pandemic and seems to be lingering. A study carried out by the APA in late 2021 found that roughly 55 percent of Americans were feeling somewhat or very anxious about the pandemic, and nearly as many (54 percent) were feeling anxious about the uncertainty of 2022. Anxiety is likely another reason why some people are struggling to return to their pre-pandemic routines, which may include working outside the home.
• Social isolation and depression. A 2020 study by a group of researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital found that the most prominent factors in reducing depression were social connection and social cohesion (e.g., for example, confiding in others and visiting family and friends). As study lead Jordan Smoller, M.D. and Sc.D., associate chief for research in the MGH Department of Psychiatry, told ScienceDaily in late 2020, "These factors are more relevant now than ever at a time of social distancing and separation from friends and family." If social connections play a critical role in mitigating depression, then it seems likely that staying in lockdown for an extended period of time is also likely to increase one's risk of depression and may be yet another factor making it difficult for some employees to return to the office. On the flip side, returning to work where one naturally has social connections may also be a way to treat some pandemic-related forms of depression.

How leaders can help employees feel safe returning to work

If you're committed to having your employees work on-site and committed to ensuring they feel safe and enthusiastic about the prospect, be prepared to invest in the process of bringing them back to the office.

• Grant employees time to test the waters. Whether you're talking about social distancing or masking, it is important that everyone has time and permission to move at their own pace. Invite people to visit the office before they commit to permanently coming back to work on-site. For some individuals, the process will need to be gradual.
• Be fully transparent about future emergency plans. No one wants to face early 2020 again when many employees felt pressured to keep showing up at work, even as COVID-19 cases were rising. For employees who are afraid to return to work, being transparent about how you plan to address any subsequent surges in the current pandemic and future health crises will be as important as sharing information on your current safety protocols.
• Provide mental health support to those employees who need it. We know that mental health problems increased during the pandemic and that some of these challenges (e.g., OCD, anxiety, social isolation, and depression) are likely now making it more difficult for employees to return to work on-site. Offer employees access to additional mental health resources to ensure they feel comfortable and fully equipped to return to the office.

You likely already invested in making your workplace safer on a physical level (e.g., by installing new air filtration systems and enhancing cleaning). Now it's time to invest in making your workplace safe on a psychological level.