Impact of nature connectedness in reducing depression, anxiety and stress of working community during Covid - 19 pandemic Insights from IT Sector in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Professionals in the IT sector are subjected to many stressors leading to an array of mental imbalances and disorders. Nature deprivation: lack of connectedness to nature amidst their busy task oriented, accuracy related stressful work schedules can be highlighted as a significant factor causing poor mental health. In view of this, the current investigation focuses on inquiring the impact of ‘Work From Home’ (WFH) scenario on depression, anxiety, and stress levels of the IT sector employees during pandemic with special reference to their level of exposure to nature. A sample of Software Engineers who were working from office before pandemic (n=35) based in Colombo, Sri Lanka were examined in this investigation via a mixed method. DASS 21 self-report scale was adopted to record the perceived depression, stress, and anxiety levels of participants both before the pandemic when Working from Office (WFO) and during the pandemic once shifted to WFH scenario. A questionnaire survey designed by the author was executed to record the participants level of connectedness to nature during WFO scenario and during pandemic when WFH at his/her own workstation. It was observed that the number of participants having depression, anxiety, and stress in different levels (45%, 52%, 45% respectively) during WFO with less nature connectedness (46%) has significantly reduced during WFH scenario (30%,34%, 16% respectively) with increased nature connectedness (74%). Increasing the possibility to create more connections with nature by participants during WFH set up can be identified as a significant variable in reducing their depression, anxiety, and stress levels. The findings of this study sheds light on actions that organizations can take to lessen the negative impact of techno-stressors on mental well-being of workers in the IT industry.