[psytrx]

Interesting read. I'm an emotionally unstable person, and perfectly aware of that. I've found my tools and mechanisms to handle that. But when COVID hit our company and my team and I had to cope with the changes in culture and environment, I could see the gradual increase of dissatisfaction, reduction of emotional energy, and stress that spread out to every single team member. Some could cope (by slacking 80% of their time), some couldn't, because they had to wear the slackers on their shoulders.

However, I was sure it wasn't just me who suffered. I could feel it hitting the others too, and we even openly talked about it. The job was still interesting, got more challenging and our impact on the health of the company grew. It felt nice, at least to me.

It wasn't big things that made us unhappy, but rather the small stuff. Annoyances, such as missing/stolen computer mice in the office, dirty floors or stale coffee beans in the machines.

The analogy with the 'pebbles' hit me hard.

_Maslach has affectionately named this feeling “pebbles.” She describes them as the tiny, incremental, irritating, and painful stuff at work that can wear you down._