Quarantining is getting old. And each new day the isolation is harder and harder.
That’s the key finding as we look at our fourth week of COVID data. While many stressors such as shifting to wfh, managing childcare and homeschooling, and Amazon not having prime shipping on something we want have seen peaks and valleys, some stressors have just gone up and to the right. And each of those have to do with socialization…or rather, the lack of it.
Let’s start with the big ones.
On the personal front, lack of connection to friends and family has driven a 17% increase in stress levels over the last two weeks. Ouch!
The professional side isn’t any better, with respondents citing a 16% increase in stress levels related to missing connections to professional mentors. A 12% increase in stress levels connected to collaborating with co-workers, and an 11% increase in levels related to socializing with co-workers.
This lack of connection contributed to 37% of people saying they are more stressed out this week than last week, but it’s not the only contributor.
Respondents continued to report high stress levels connected to job security and/or reductions in their hours/pay. While these numbers have not gone up week-over-week, they have remained constant, with zero reprieve. In fact, 85% of survey takers continue to report some level of stress related to job security.
With some states beginning to reopen, next week will be interesting, but for now — economic optimism held steady with 21% saying they feel more optimistic about economic recovery this week than they did last week, and 61% feeling the same level of optimism that they did last week. Roughly the same optimism levels we saw the previous week.
Stay tuned for the final few weeks in our COVID Pulse Survey Series — including a look at the impact of reopening news.
