“Did working from home during the pandemic feel like a vacation compared to being an essential worker? How did the stress levels compare for those who could work from home versus essential workers on the frontlines? #pandemicwork #essentialworkerstress #workingfromhome”
Essential Worker Stress vs Working from Home Experience
– How did the stress levels differ for essential workers compared to those working from home during the pandemic?
– Did working from home feel more like a vacation or was it mentally taxing as well?
Impact of Pandemic on Mental Health
– How did the pandemic affect the mental health of essential workers compared to those working from home?
– Were there noticeable differences in stress levels and coping mechanisms between the two groups?
Engaging Readers with Personal Experiences
– Share your own experiences and insights on how the pandemic impacted your mental health and stress levels.
– Invite readers to join the conversation and share their experiences as well.
Conclusion
Overall, the pandemic had a wide-ranging impact on mental health and stress levels, with essential workers facing unique challenges and those working from home experiencing a different set of stressors. By sharing our experiences and supporting one another, we can navigate through these challenging times together. #mentalhealthduringpandemic #covidstress #pandemichardships
No, it was not a stay home vacation because those are done willingly not because you’re being required to. The first couple weeks were alright but once it became clear that it wasn’t going to end any time soon it became boring and stressful. Not stressful in the way you experienced it but stressful in that there was nothing to do and spending all day avoiding other people started to become a mood drain and ruin mental health
I did WFH from 2017-2019 before returning back to the office in early 2019, and the reason why I did even though I could have continued working from home was I loathed it. So, of course when covid hit, it was very easy to return to doing WFH cause my work is not face to face (IT).
While I’m sure some people did quite enjoy the novelty of WFH at first, there’s something that at least for me is very mentally draining and your home life and your work life start blending together. I found that prior to covid, I’d realize it’s like 1pm and I still haven’t showered, I’m doing dishes during the work day, doing work during the evening, and as a result you are never really off work and you are never really home. Compound that with the inability to go out, I felt like I was a prisoner in my own house. Plus, I missed my walks to work and home, and just the general segregation of the two lives.
So, no, I didn’t really like it, I dealt with it.
I mean I lost my job and my oldest became suicidal and dropped out of school and we lived every day in absolute terror of death – I have an immune disorder.
So not really like a vacation, no.
I think this is very dependant per person.
I work in film and television and my industry completely shut down on 13 Mar 2020.
I was scheduled to wrap that day regardless, and I was starting to put feelers out of for a new show. And I remember watching every other show go down.
I had a 9 month baby at home.
And there was no work.
It was a different kind of frustration and fear for me, we immediately went into savings mode because we had no idea what was going happen.
It was very mentally taxing for me.
But it was also forced rest – that wasn’t very restful.
I found it awful. My partner got laid off by his work as soon as the lockdowns started. I was in the middle of my PhD and wasn’t allowed to do research but was still paying tuition for it; so I took a leave of absence and got a remote work job. My partner got a remote gig too, but it was short lived.
I worked from my basement for a management team who thought they had to micromanage everything we produced. I couldn’t leave the job because even with my income we were slowly sliding into debt. The team I joined slowly died as everyone was driven away or burnt out. I burnt out.
It didn’t feel like a vacation, it was the worst period of my life and I’m still dealing with the effects of it.
Here’s how it went. Rich people did well, while poor people did not.
I retain my bitterness from working retail during Covid, specifically department management in a grocery store. The volume of people who would get in my face screaming about no toilet paper or no flour or no virtually everything else still bothers me.
Covid was exactly the same as every other day, except with more people than ever disregarding my personhood while “praising” me for continuing my role in keeping society going.
Everyone’s experience was different, of course, but generally no. It sucked for everyone in different ways. For example, I was able to transition to working from home which was certainly more convenient, but cost me a lot of social interaction since all other gatherings were banned. I basically became a hermit who did nothing but work and sleep for a year…not very good for the mental health. Lots of others had similar experiences.
I was suicidal so no, not really a vacation for those of us used to leaving the house. There was also the whole “deadly virus spreading the world and killing millions” thing.
No. Domestic violence was up, school grades went down, a lot of people lost their jobs and companies, mental health systems are still struggling with the fallout.
So most people it was a very stressful time that has not yet resolved.
I was a high school teacher and in my observations roughly 1% benefitted, 20% it was neutral and 80% of the students were negatively affected. I’d imagine the same is true for the adults
Nope. My job turned into a 16-20 hours a day, five or six days a week slog. The only thing that seemed like a vacation was when they laid me off in 2023.
I wasn’t working so I starved .
I know people had a rough time, but me and my wife were fine as our jobs both transitioned to WFH; and the kids school set up schooling from home and he was too young for big exams to be affected.
I’m not going to say it felt like a holiday but I didn’t hate it. I missed visiting my in laws and going to the cinema but we’d just gotten a dog so we had a great distraction.
It was probably the best time of my life. I was off work for about 6 weeks but with the extra unemployment I wasn’t missing a ton of money every week. The kids and I went fishing almost every day and yes, it was an awesome stay at home vacation.
I was lucky enough that my life didn’t really change. I worked for a food company so they weren’t going to shut us down. I have always been an extreme introvert so I’d just go home to my cats. And the plant was in a town of less than 1000 people so it wasn’t like there was anywhere to go anyway.
It was amazing. I’ve worked from 15 to 34 I finally had a break that was paid. I thrived. I got sober in 2019. So Covid was a special time. I loved every moment.
We were 7 in the house. Having to deal with remote school for 4 of the kids. It was not a vacation….
Not for me. I worked 5 days a week the entire time. I lived in a house with 6 other people. It kinda sucked coming home day after day to my friends sitting around in their pajamas watching movies lol. I got a little jealous I’m not gonna lie
I got permanent WFH and 2 promotions, the first with a significant pay raise. I’m incredibly grateful. It wasn’t a vacation per se, because I still had to work, but it’s been a huge money saver.
There were many who lost their jobs, and homes and way of life.
It was great. All my university classes were online and before they organised stuff it mainly meant reading 1 email in 10 seconds and then having the time off. My teaching practicals were also online. I didn’t have to physically be present in school, just log on, hop on a call and teach that way. Super convenient for me.
I had much more energy, had the time to exercise and take care of myself and best of all, with everyone being deadly afraid of the plague I was able to do my shopping nice and easy without a ton of slow people in my way.
Actuallt got covid once the lockdowns ended. Felt like a bad flu and got me another week off work. 10/10 would live in a pandemic again.
Varied greatly from person to person.
I had a friend who loved it. He is an introvert who likes to spend most of his time indoors with his dog and play video games. We had an online job and a no significant other. He worked and interacted with friends and family online. Only ever left the house to get food and go for a run once a day. Was as happy as a clam.
Oppositely, I had a friend who had just finished nursing school a month before covid. Was immediately put on a covid floor. Watched hundreds of people die from covid. Worked 70+ hours a week for like a year. Couldn’t see their family or significant other because they had illnesses that would put them at huge risk from covid. Developed a drinking problem and a shit ton of anxiety/ depression. Was miserable until vaccines came out and life became easier.
It’s amazing how different all the answers are, but not surprising, I suppose.
Putting aside the larger picture, in that lots of people were dying and we couldn’t see family and friends etc…
If I think of our experience in our little family bubble… I had a fantastic time, 9 months of ‘working’ from home (ended up doing about an hours work most days). Usually, I did the required work at night with a few urgent tasks taken care of as they cropped up.
I spent the days through a lovely summer, in the garden, with my wife and toddler. Got a sand pit, swing set, paddling pool, and outdoor games. Loved it because I got so much quality time with my family that I’d have never gotten otherwise due to being at work.
I worked in food so I was there in the middle of the shit storm, but my husband was furloughed for 3 months. He hated it after about a week. Couldn’t go anywhere or do anything, so what was the point of even being off?
Idk but the traffic was way better.
There’s a difference between choosing to stay home, and being forced to stay home. Staycations have a known beginning and known end, that’s what makes vacations special, they’re a break from reality. You can always leave if you change your mind, go do something.
We were staying home to spread out the impact of COVID on the hospitals. Remember that we didn’t yet have a vaccine or know when they’re would be one. They were storing bodies in refrigerated trucks because morgues were full. Not a vacation the way i define it.
If you owned a comfortably sized home, where put on temporary leave and could take full advantage of the generous unemployment benefits you had an awesome paid vacation. Bonus points if you got along with your spouse and had hobbies not affected by the pandemic.
If you lived in a tiny apartment, didn’t get along with your spouse/ roommate very well and didn’t qualify for the generous unemployment benefits the pandemic was a living hell.
Plenty of people in between.
I had my son 3/24/2020. My first child. It was an awful time being a new mom with no one to help. No grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, friends NO ONE could help me during that time because of the virus. Looking back I really disliked that time. I’ve been in autopilot since his birth. Never really recovered from being sleep deprived.
We were stuck at home with a 4 and almost 1 year old. Not a vacation…
Lockdown destroyed a lot of small businesses.
It was a fucking nightmare.
You know huskies? Those dogs need to work in order to not go insane. If they don’t get enough exercise they will go crazy.
My husband is the human equivalent.
It was more like being grounded.
#1, I’m sorry you had to work like that.
#2, No, not for me. My job went away entirely (I was a costume maker for a local theater), so I was a stay-at-home mom during the lockdown. It was insane. The kids were suddenly cut off from their friends, their routines, and any semblance of normal life. All of a sudden I was a maid (do you have any idea how badly four people locked in a house will destroy said house without CONSTANT rounds of dishes, laundry, vacuuming, etc.?!), a therapist (kids really struggled), tech support (schools were NOT prepared, and how could they have been?), a fifth and eighth grade teacher (so, what, like 8 teachers?), a suddenly-unemployed person with no idea how to get back to work, and someone with asthma and an autoimmune disease, so scared to death of getting covid. It fucking sucked.
#3, All that said, I know a lot of people, probably including OP, had it way worse. I feel for them.
Even for those with jobs the whole time still had to fight the fear and the people with all their mask/no mask bullcrap everyone was fighting, racial tensions were up… families were fighting each other whether or not to go to Easter because grandma might die- you went in social media for some retreat and instead found gal gadot singing “imagine” and people fighting even harder there. there was no vacation. Many people are going through trauma therapy right now because of it.
Edit: fix autocorrect