Amid a global pandemic, unprecedented numbers of citizens relied on essential public employees as lifelines for their health, safety, and connectedness to the broader community. These public servants worked tirelessly through collective trauma to ensure their neighbors had what was needed to maintain some semblance of a routine in an otherwise unpredictable environment. This article uses narrative inquiry to examine the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic disruption on the public sector workplace, the quality of work life, and to investigate how employees coped during the crisis. Our research reports on interviews with 43 front-line and behind-the-scenes public employees who describe how they coped, maintained their public service motivation, and worked through increased demands for emotional labor in this new work-life environment. The findings suggest the need for human resources policies that allow for a flexible, reflective, holistic, and person-centered approach.

在全球大流行中，空前数量的公民依靠重要的公职人员作为他们的健康、安全和与更广泛社区的联系的生命线。这些公务员在集体创伤中不知疲倦地工作，以确保他们的邻居拥有在原本不可预测的环境中维持某种表面上的日常所需的东西。本文使用叙述性调查来检查 COVID-19 大流行中断对公共部门工作场所、工作生活质量的影响，并调查员工在危机期间如何应对。我们的研究报告采访了 43 名一线和幕后公职人员，他们描述了他们如何应对、保持公共服务积极性以及在这种新的工作与生活环境中应对情绪劳动需求增加的情况。