[social_quotient]

But fewer externalities like bars, parties, stupid accidents with friends, rushing to meetings, traffic, physical work env stress, in some cases work altogether. Not to minimize the mental torment some people feel but I think o there is a huge reduction in certain kinds of stress.

[sdan]

Here's some context: both you, me and a majority of HN readers have decent lives and cushy tech jobs (I'm a student and have the luxury of coding all day).

Think of everyone else: those relatively regular/average people in America, the average Joe. They have bills to pay for, but living paycheck to paycheck, they can't pay any of it. So now they're seeing whats the best way to get income. Unemployment check? Website is down. Where to get food? Food banks are barely sustaining.

Yes, there's definitely a reduction of stress in some areas, but I believe that thinking of everyone, I mean everyone not just in tech, makes you realize that as a whole, a lot of people are stressed out of their minds when this can end.

[social_quotient]

Yes I agree... but let me add some color to me personally.

Me = small business owner. Revenue less than 2mm per year.

Major public company clients moved payments to net 60 and net 90 from net 30

2 clients emailed April 1st (emailed) effective immediately no contractors or agencies effective immediately.

1 major retailer we have done WiFi access point metrics for all stores in North America (roughly 4k stores) had an invoice bounce back to me. After researching I find on LinkedIn my stakeholder is no longer with the company. I push hard to get someone in AP to reply and finally I hear they stopped the entire program and didn’t think to tell us. 11 years of providing this monthly data analysis and collecting roughly a billion data points a month... gone. Without a heads up.

2 new prospective projects set to kickoff April May moved to June July.

PPP covers last years salaries. We have sizable raises to key staff (project managers in January) . 60% of my workforce if outside of the US and can’t be covered under current monetary relief. I’ve not taken a check now in almost 2 months.

Entire line of business (WordPress) is now zero.

So yes stress is in relative forms. for me it’s confining, silent, and endless.

For me I’ve been running this company for 21 years now (started in college). I’ve hit a couple of near breaking points (08 and now). And it’s an unbelievable amount of stress. I sympathize, empathize and understand what people are going through.

What gets me through this is the following:

- The time I’ve gotten to spend with my family, my kids is absolutely amazing and I will treasure it forever - I love my team and I’ll do what I can to keep them employed and without disruption - Even with the stress and uncertainty I still love my job and what I’ve built

On the business side: - As a service business I now fully and completely understand that I need to figure out how to make a more resilient business that can weather business interruption to this degree and scale. It’s easy to blame covid but it’s inevitably my job to have considered this and prepared for it. This is everything from specific contract language changes to planning cash flow for a 40-60% reduction in business for maybe 6 months.

Anyway, I thought I’d share, maybe someone finds solace in knowing they aren’t alone and that they don’t need validation for how they feel.

Hang in there everyone!

[dividedbyzero]

My mental stress level is wayyy up – but I think I still feel less stressed overall, because I get more and better exercise, I cook a lot more and that means cheaper but somewhat healthier food on a schedule that better suits me in portion sizes that I choose myself (as opposed to the guy at the cafeteria counter), I have a lot less work-related stress due to remote work (everything feels somewhat more distant), no stressful commute, more flexibility with bedtimes (which suits me as a total owl) ... there might be lots other things, lots other external stressors, hard to tell. It's at the same time nerve-shredding and very relaxing. I wouldn't be totally surprised if a lot of people were living lives so unhealthy and harmful that the current situation would end up being a net improvement in that one way, terrible as it is in lots of others.

[JackFr]

You sound a lot like a person who’s never been evicted.

[dividedbyzero]

That's true, I live in Europe, eviction is something that the social safety net in our country protects people against very well. That may mean the overall stress levels over here are lower, can't say. ER doctors are making the same observation here though – heart attacks have plummetted. I guess personally I'm better off than many, since my job can be done from home; what I currently do is very much a nice-to-have for the people who pay me though, other options to pivot to are few, and I wouldn't last long in a bad recession if I were out of a job, with rent that would quickly become a problem even with the security net we have here, so that's definitely something that stresses me. Whether that's enough for the argument I'm making, can't say.