Education Advisors’ Experiences of Stress and Coping in the Virtual Working Environment

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, most education advisors were forced to work from home, and continuous stress may have negative impacts on educators’ work performance and psychological state. However, there are rare studies on stress whilst working virtually for education advisors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, understanding stress in the virtual working environment is important to support them to cope. Underpinned by Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping, a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted. Following snowball sampling, 12 participants (Male=7, Female=5, Mage=31.74) from the UK and China were interviewed. The six phases of thematic analysis were employed to analyze the data. The study identified the sources of education advisors’ stress from colleagues, clients, families, and personal levels that laid negative consequences on their work and life. A series of problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies, such as boundary management, were raised for them to cope. The findings highlighted the education advisors’ stress experiences and raised practical coping strategies at personal, organizational, and family levels to defend against the stressors whilst working virtually, and contributes to understanding how they dynamically appraise the stressors from a transactional process perspective within the virtual working environment.