Can Your Boss Help You Get Through Covid-19?

 Well, not likely.

But according to a new study, the right kind of boss can help reduce stress, and increase engagement and pro-social behavior in their workers who were anxious about COVID-19, according to newswise.com. 

“A global pandemic can lead some people to think about their own mortality, which will understandably make them more stressed and less engaged at work,” the web site quotes Jia (Jasmine) Hu, lead author of the study and associate professor of management and human resources at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.  “But business leaders who are attentive to employees’ emotional needs and unite them behind a common purpose made a positive difference and helped workers stay engaged at work and contribute to their communities.” 

Several studies verified this.  One study involved 163 workers at an information technology company in eastern China who filled out surveys twice a day over three weeks while cases of COVID-19 were surging in the country. 

"Results showed that the more that the employees thought about COVID-19 related deaths, the more anxious they felt and the less engaged they were in their jobs," newswise reports. 

But the employees’ anxiety and engagement were influenced by the type of boss they had. Employees did better if their boss exhibited what is called “servant leadership.”  It may sound very divisive, or dismissing.  But  servant leaders prioritize fulfillment of others’ needs, attend to employees’ emotional suffering, work to empower employees, and emphasize serving the community, according to the website. 

Employees in the study rated on a scale of 1 to 7 how much “My supervisor makes my career development a priority” and other statements that measured servant leadership.

Those who rated their supervisors higher on servant leadership showed less anxiety and were more engaged with their jobs than other employees, Hu says. 

“Servant leaders care about their employees’ well-being and prioritize their personal growth and happiness at their jobs,” she notes. “These types of leaders made it easier for their employees to deal with the anxiety associated with the pandemic.”

But servant leaders did more than that: They helped their employees channel their stress into positive behaviors. 

The findings showed that employees who rated their bosses as higher on servant leadership were more likely to report that they engaged in pro-social behavior, such as volunteering for a charitable group in their community. 

“Servant leaders encouraged their employees to find meaning in the pandemic by channeling their anxiety into helping less fortunate people in their communities,” Hu expalins.

It's not a novel approach.  Many studies have shown that volunteering can help ease depression or loneliness by making you grateful for what you do have, and the satisfaction and good feeling you get out of, well, doing good.

I volunteer at a homework club with kids who are struggling and I can't tell you the joy I feel when a child who has had a very hard time learning to read, reads, an  understands,  a sentence for the very first time.

These results were confirmed in two U.S. studies in which participants were told to imagine they were consultants advising a retail company on how to increase sales.

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