Work-life Balance and Perceived Stress in a Telecommunication Infrastructure Company Amidst COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented impact on work and life to almost everyone. This paper aims to investigate the work-life balance and perceived stress amidst COVID-19 in a telecommunication infrastructure firm in Malaysia. Quantitative data was collected from 139 respondents using simple random sampling method. The findings showed that in general, slightly less respondents (48.2%) suffered from high level of stress compare to 51.8% who suffered low level of stress since COVID-19 pandemic started. For respondents between 26 to 40 year old, or the Gen Y, 60% of them perceived high level of stress. Findings also showed that every nine of ten respondents were worried about their finances, fear of being infected by COVID-19 and losing their job. As for work-life balance, respondents generally indicated low level of work interference with personal life, and a low level of personal life interfering with work. However, the number of days working from home was a significant determinant of work interfering with personal life. For those who work four days and more per week from home showed that work indeed interfere with their personal life. It was also found that  both work interfering with personal life, and personal life interfering with work are significant contributing factor to respondents’ stress during COVID-19. It is essential for employers to create more impactful initiatives to ensure their overall well-being is taken care of. This study has shed more light on employees’ stress and work-life balance amidst COVID-19 pandemic and it contributes to the managing of human resource in a an organisation by recommending some practical initiatives.