Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: The Return of the Stressed
If you’ve been waiting for official confirmation that the population seems stressed, now you have it, courtesy of the American Psychological Association. Each year, the American Psychological Association reports on stress levels in America. In 2020 they report that “nearly 8 in 10 adults (78%) say the coronavirus pandemic is a significant source of stress in their lives, while 3 in 5 (60%) say the number of issues America faces is overwhelming to them. . . . Nearly 1 in 5 adults (19%) say their mental health is worse than it was at this time last year” (https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/10/stress-mental-health-crisis). You may be one of the stressed individuals the APA reports, and some among your colleagues certainly are—and it’s unlikely that general stress levels will fall much as people return to onsite work. Workplace design can’t work magic and eliminate the stress being experienced by people returning to the workplace, but some …