How the Coronavirus Lockdown Reshaped Work, Burnout, and Mental Health Worldwide 

Back in 2020, I published a blog titled 'Coronavirus: Do Not Fear the Bogeyman,' inspired by a powerful message from Dr. Bruce Lipton, stem cell biologist and best-selling author of The Biology of Belief.

Lipton wrote, "We are being programmed with the belief that this particular cold virus is 'deadly.' This fear has shut down concerts, conferences, and major public events all over the world. The fear has led to quarantines and the closing down of international travel. It has even led to a major scarcity of toilet paper in Australia, where concerned citizens emptied the shelves of this commodity in anticipation that they will be walled up in their homes with this infection".

At the time, fear spread faster than the virus itself.

Five years on, we are being called to reflect. What did fear create? And what did we learn from the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown?

Let’s explore what has changed in the world of work since.

The Bold Shift: From 9‑to‑5 to Everywhere, All at Once

Before the Coronavirus lockdown, most people went to the office, regular, predictable, tangible. Remote or hybrid work was niche.

Globally, and here in workplaces across the UK, US, and beyond working from home isn’t a trend anymore. It’s now habitual.

In the UK, for instance, only 4.7% of workers worked from home pre-pandemic. Now, around 40% do so at least one day a week The Guardian.

This shift should feel liberating, but freedom brought with it a body in confusion, not clarity.

Fear, Stress, and the Immune System Rollercoaster

Dr. Bruce Lipton’s voice remains essential here:

“We are being programmed with the belief that this particular cold virus is ‘deadly.’”—a belief that shut down gatherings, travel, and triggered global anxiety.

Why does this matter? Because chronic fear hijacked our biology. The stress response became the new normal—fight, flight, freeze—not rest, digest, repair.

Workplace Burnout: Before, During, and Now

Burnout wasn’t invented by Covid, but it was amplified.

• Pre‑pandemic (2019): 76% of full-time U.S. employees reported feeling burned out at least sometimes; 28% said very often or always (Allure+1)

• During & after: Aflac (2022) found 59% of U.S. workers were experiencing burnout (combining moderate, high, and very high levels) (Workforce.com)

• Health workers (2018 vs. 2022):

  • Burnout very often rose from 11.6% to 19.0%.

  • Workers reporting “poor mental health days” rose from 3.3 to 4.5 per month CDC+1.

• Physicians (2022–2024): Burnout slowly decreased—by 2025, 43.2% reported symptoms (down from 53% in 2022), a step toward recovery, but still high American Medical Association.

5. HR’s Hidden Avalanche

While burnout surged across professions, HR teams bore the emotional fallout. Everyone turned to them for answers, pandemic guidelines, hybrid models, workplace wellbeing advice, but crisis hit before clarity.

There was no road map, yet they were expected to hold it together. 5 years later and our HR leaders are still carrying that weight. And burnout in HR remains dangerously high, though data is fragmented, organizational surveys consistently indicate this.

This is exactly one of the reasons I developed HR Alchemy. A highly specialised 2 day programme that teaches HR leaders how to prevent HR Burnout and equip them with the emotional resilience and emotional intelligence to deal with any situation in the future without compromising their mental and physical health.

6. Remote Work: The Hidden Stressors

Working from home never meant “all calm, all flexible.” It meant:

• Zoom exhaustion

• 24/7 togetherness at home

• Disappeared boundaries between work and life

• Loss of informal cues and connection

One study reported that 47% of remote workers felt the blurred boundary between work and personal life was damaging time.com.

Gallup found that employee engagement dropped to a 10-year low in 2024, one driver being unclear expectations, a legacy of sudden overhaul and DIY hybrid setups Gallup.com.

In the absence of the water‑cooler where you’d check “Is everyone okay?”, mental distress went unseen—especially in hybrid or fully remote models.

7. What Did Change: Employee WellBeing Became Non-Negotiable

Here’s what Coronavirus did change:

• The Great Resignation—a wake-up call: job attrition surged as collective burnout hit a tipping point in 2021 Workforce.comtime.com.

• Companies began (finally) taking employee mental health seriously: reducing meetings, building resiliency initiatives, and piloting “weeks of rest” time.com.

• Employee wellbeing is now expected, not optional, but many organisations still lack long-term strategy beyond reactive webinars.

Let’s reflect:

Before Covid:
Employee Wellbeing strategy = rare.

After Covid:
Employee Wellbeing = board-level mandate in many orgs... but implementation is inconsistent.

Which brings us to this moment.

8. Five Years On: What Have We Learned—and Where Do We Go Now?

The Bogeyman wasn’t Covid. Fear was.

It’s time to choose nervous system regulation over reaction. To move from fear-coded leadership to energetic clarity.

Here’s where you can begin to rewrite the code, for resilience, not just survival:

• Close the gaps in mixed work models: train managers on mental cues, even when screens replace hallways.

• Build preventative systems, not reactive patches. Training in emotional intelligence, trauma-informed leadership, and nervous system literacy is non-negotiable.

• Create rituals that breathe, not hustle, a registry of dignity, boundaries, and embodied presence.

If reading this has resonated, if you feel that tinge in your jaw, the lingering “can't crash” energy, you're not alone. That’s why I created How to Move from Burnout to Brilliance in 25 Minutes, a high-impact resource designed precisely for HR leaders still holding everyone up.

Move from HR Bunout to Brilliance - Get Your Free Training Video Here.

Rest, Not Resilience: The Real Transformation

Resilience has become a mask. Real transformation happens when we regulate our nervous systems through presence, not performance.

We don’t need one more webinar on being “tougher.” We need:

• Workplaces that see exhaustion before burnout becomes a crisis

• Emotional boundaries taught and modelled, not just messaging

• Leaders trained in self-awareness, conscious leadership and emotional intelligence 

We are here to support you in delivering your employee wellbeing strategy, contact us today to future proof your business.