These are indeed strange times filled with hard choices. I don’t envy any parent, employer, teacher, school board member, etc. any of the choices they are having to make. Pile on top that the “volume” of these conversations has been turned up to 11 by our current political climate, and any choice can feel very isolating. But it turns out… none of us are isolated.

The group Civic Science reports key findings from extensive surveys completed each week. They focus on many different behaviors and choices during the COVID crisis, but I found the data on schools interesting in that, while none of this is perfect (which I can testify to as part-time Home Online 4th Grade Monitor), it’s not all bad either. Many different choices are being made and most people report decent satisfaction with those choices. I call out a few of the numbers on schools below, but the entire report from this week can be found here. Happy reading!

As part of my job I sit on a number of boards of directors and this week I had four board meetings (NOTE: Who’s in charge of scheduling around here?!?!). A theme in every single one of those meetings this week was the fatigue and stress employees are experiencing due to stresses, both work and personal, brought on by the variety of life changes induced by COVID-19. There’s no question that most people’s lives are materially different at work and at home: inability to travel, lackluster technology, closed offices, closed schools, spouses/partners/kids at home, reduced opportunities to socialize. The list is long. In my view, “We” are not dealing with these stress inducers.

Unfortunately, there are no magic answers for these issues, but below are a few resources that you might find helpful in helping your employees, co-workers, family members, or kids deal with COVID-19 induced stress.

From the CDC on coping with job stress – Lot’s of helpful links and hotlines at the bottom.

From the CDC again on designing healthy work environments.

From the American Psychological Association with LOTS of links and data related to parents and people of color.

From Deloitte on practical strategies to help employers take care of employees.

This is a short list of great resources and links, but I know there are more. What resources are you relying to help deal with workplace stressors in the time of COVID-19? Let us know in the comments.