It’s not just you. A new study shows that a third of Americans say that their productivity has gone down since the election of Donald Trump. Conducted by productivity software company BetterWorks—from an admittedly small sample size of 500 “nationally representative, full-time American workers”—the study shows that the current heightened political climate is taking a hammer to people’s workday morale.
The study found that 89 percent of participants read at least one politically motivated social media post while at work, while almost half have seen a political discussion escalate into a full-blown argument in the workplace. (Which is bad, even if the thought of Debbie from HR and Brad from accounting brawling in the break room over the Secretary Of Education is kind of a funny mental image.)
More devastating, though, is the effect that politics is taking on workers’ precious “zoning out and watching cat videos” time. Instead of using their illicit internet time to relax, blow off steam, and recharge, political content is just getting people even more worked up and unproductive, removing a vital outlet for workers’ mental health.
Of course, Trump-related job fatigue isn’t just a problem in regular offices: it apparently affects Oval ones, too. A recent Politico report—quoting anonymous White House staffers—suggests that Donald Trump is also getting sick of him being president, saying he’s “growing increasingly frustrated with the challenges of running the massive federal bureaucracy.”