The labor of talking to stay healthy and socially connected: Communication work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the primary means through which people protect themselves and their loved ones from COVID-19 is by communicating with others, as they discuss preventive health behaviors and make decisions about safe social interaction. These conversations are sometimes quite challenging. Guided by the conceptual lens of communication work, this study was an investigation of how communication during the pandemic was experienced by people as work.