Stress on Employees during ‘Unlock-1’ Vs. ‘Unlock-2’: A Comparative Study

The SARS-CoV-2 cases had crossed 20 million marks in the world with more than 8 lakhs deaths and Indian count was over 2 million with about 50,000 deaths by end of July 2020. With no respite in near future, the numbers may exceed 25-30 million worldwide and 3.5-4 million in India, by the end of August 2020. COVID-19 spread was restricted because of ‘lockdowns’ along with the countrywide ‘curfew’ in India but with ‘Unlock-1’ and ‘Unlock-2’ rapid spread of coronavirus had been noticed in the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, U.P., West Bengal, Bihar, Telangana and Assam. Delhi’s count of confirmed coronavirus cases has kept it ranging from second to sixth place. Under these circumstances, stress is natural on the working class mainly due to regular travel needs. The comparative study between ‘Unlock-1’ and ‘Unlock-2’ reveals that employees take proper precautionary measures, however, ‘Wearing masks’ have decreased from 99.5% to 95.5% and ‘Preference to work online’ has reduced from 96.6% to 93.6%. ‘Stress of financial constrains’ on employees have reduced from 89% to 84% and ‘stress of job insecurity/instability’ has reduced from 84% to 82.66%. More than 76% respondents feel that ‘lockdown’ is not the solution and therefore support regular/proper protection.