An Evaluation of Stress Levels in Professionals Performing Work from Home in it Industry during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background:  Stress is a feeling that comes from emotional and physical tension. Stress can come from any thought that makes you feel sad, angry or nervous. It is a natural feeling of not being able to cope with specific demands and events. Stress is your body’s reaction to a challenge or demand.  Negative responses to challenges can have an adverse effect on the health and happiness of the person who is undergoing stress. IT industry is a filed that poses lot of stress on the workers due to the peer pressures, working hours and work stress. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the stress among IT professionals who are working from home. Materials and Methods: The study design involves a cross-sectional study was done among IT professionals to evaluate the stress among IT professionals who are undergoing work from              home admist the COVID- 19 Pandemic situation (6 months duration). A study involved a self-developed questionnaire consisting of 27 questions to assess the stress level of IT people              working in IT industry for more than 2 years. This questionnaire was circulated in Google forms and 137 people responded for the survey, out of which 123 participants were undergoing work from home. Results: Out of 137 study participants, 18.25% of them were female and 81.75% of them were male. 25.55% participants were of age group 18 - 35 and 74.45% participants were of age group 35 -50. 90.51% participants are IT professionals and out of those 86.86% of participants are doing work from home. 72.26% of the participants feel that they are stressed too much due to work from home, and 27.47% of the participants feel that they are not that much stressed due to work from home. 45.99% of participants are more stressed, 28.47% of them are moderately stressed, 13.14% of them are lightly stressed and 12.41% of them are not stressed. Conclusion: Thus, the study concluded an innovative finding that IT professionals experienced severe stress due to high peer pressures, home environments and were more prone to psychosomatic disorders.