>The erosion of the spending value of the dollar (aka the amount of inflation from post-covid government spending), and therefore most people's salaries probably have more effect on people's feelings about their salary and how far it's not going, which in turn negatively impacts feelings about work and overall stress.

Even though inflation shot up post covid, by all official statistics wage growth has outpaced it. Therefore to imply that this behavior is as a result of people earning less in real terms is incorrect.

See: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q, note the units for the chart, which indicate the figures have already been adjusted for inflation