Helping Brings Wellbeing: Volunteering as Professional Stress Reliever During COVID-19 Pandemic

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 brought a considerable change in the way of working and in people’s daily lives, causing, in addition to the health problems of the virus, stress in professional activity. This article aims to analyze whether volunteering practice can mitigate professional stress found during the social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A digital survey was applied, reaching 966 respondents. Linear regression methodology was used. Results showed individuals who practiced volunteering before the pandemic and managed to keep practicing it during the social isolation demonstrated greater capacity to delimit their roles at home and obtained lower rates of professional stress, calculated from the sum of variables related to work demand and autonomy in the activities. The study demonstrated that investments in corporate social responsibility and volunteering can bring benefits to the employees, and consequently, organizational wellbeing.