Stop chewing so loud! Working at home in quarantine is driving Florida couples crazy

This just in: Working from home with your significant other around is officially driving you crazy during the coronavirus quarantine.

Especially if you live in Florida, according to a new survey.

You probably didn’t need a survey to tell you this. After all, both of you have been working from home for more than a month now. And your SO is, at this very moment, doing something so annoying you feel like you’re going to scream, such as watching YouTube videos without headphones or asking for a sandwich or ignoring the kids or hogging the workspace. Chewing ice or chewing loudly or just chewing.

Breathing. Existing.

In any case, you’re not just imagining the frustration. GearHungry.com, a tech and gifts review website, has surveyed Americans to see how isolation in the Covid-19 era is affecting relationships. And Florida is not excelling.

A survey of 3,000 at-home workers reports that 63 percent of couples in Florida say working from home every day has put a strain on their relationship. The national average is 45 percent.

So what’s so stressful? The survey is not entirely sure, but here are a few possibilities:

• One in three people say they do not shower or bathe every day. For the love of God, clean up. Nobody’s hoarding soap yet.
• Fifteen percent say they stay in their sleepwear all day. Putting on pants might save your marriage, people. Do it.
• Eighteen percent say both partners don’t have enough room to work comfortably. Look, you can’t both sit in the comfy chair.
• Ninety seven percent of the women surveyed said they took the most steps to prepare for isolation. Fifty-four percent of men said they prepared the most. We are sure nobody is arguing about this and by “nobody” we mean “everybody.”

The GearHungry.com survey does have some good news, though, reporting that a third of respondents say working from home makes them more productive. Fifty-six percent say they talk more to their family than they did before quarantine.

The website also suggests the following actions to de-escalate home tension: Invest money in headphones. Invest time in an exercise routine. Split household chores in half. Good luck.

This story was originally published April 20, 2020 at 10:04 AM.