If you feel like friendships are harder to make or maintain than ever before, you're right. The pandemic did us no favors when it came to building and maintaining close friendships. While we may have been sharing "Zoom Happy Hours" from our deck or sofa, even the most intimate conversations were being mediated by a screen, and vocal nuances and body language cues were often lost.
Workers are taking more mental health leavesnow than they were in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic started. According to data collected by behavioral health services provider ComPsych, the percentage of workers taking a leave ofabsence increased by 30% from 2019 to 2024, while mental health leaves increased by 300% in the same time frame. ComPsych analyzed data from over six million global employees.