[shermantanktop]

This article has a lot of "trend" and "have you noticed" and "people are doing X" and "this is a thing" statements. I'm not looking for hard data in a blog entry but this smells a lot like someone extrapolating from a few interactions to create a buzz article.

But I'll take the bait: I have noticed no such trend.

People did that before pandemic, they do it now. Some of them are performatively demonstrating that they are important, and therefore busy, and therefore tired. Some of them appear to have medical issues. Some of them have a cold but find lying in bed boring. Some of them are indirect-bragging about their heroic alcohol intake.

[op00to]

I haven’t seen this. I see people responding when sick and I usually tell them to wait or give me some of their tasks so they can rest without worrying. I don’t care if someone is under the weather. They can reply or not, and if I see that they are sick or low battery, it’s just a reminder to give a little grace.