AUTHOR=Rehman Saqib , Hamza Muhammad Ali , Nasir Adeel , Ullah Aman , Arshad Nabeela 

TITLE=Impact of COVID-19 and Consortium Factors on Mental Health: Role of Emotional Labor Strategies in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.795677

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.795677

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=The last couple of years pandemic (COVID-19) had led the people to a severe fear of economic crisis, and people had undergone the situation of perceived job insecurity.  On the other side, several measures were taken to control this deadly pandemic, but it hit triumph of operational activities globally. The study addresses the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 8, related to decent work and economic growth, under COVID 19 situation. This quantitative study examines the effects of fear of economic crisis and perceived job insecurity on mental health with the moderating effect of surface acting and deep acting. Surface acting is faking the emotions which actually someone does not feel and incontrast deep acting is modifying inner feelings according to the required emotions. The study used sample data from private-sector employees and deployed Smart PLS for structural model assessment. This study analyzes whether the ongoing pandemic crisis affected the private sector employees more as many organizations took tougher decisions to sustain their business operations. Two main findings of the study; 1) surface acting moderates the relationships of fear of economic crisis and perceived job insecurity with mental health and decline the impact of both on mental health 2) while the deep acting negatively moderates the relationships of fear of economic crisis and perceived job insecurity with mental health and it upgraded the mental health even in the presence of both. The study highlighted the importance of deep acting at workplaces to sustain employees’ mental and psychological stability. The organizations can introduce the mechanism of emotional labour strategies and strengthen the mental health of their employees in the underlying fear of economic crisis and perceived job insecurity.