Wellness & Well-being Highlights
for the
Week of October 16, 2023
This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog consists of topics on how a US bankruptcy court judge recently wiped $1b of settlement funds owed to the US taxpayers off of a major culprit’s accounting ledger to mental health stigma is still afoot in the workplace (especially the construction industry) in spite of recent efforts by employers to how immigrant labor was exploited during the construction phase of the 2022 Men’s World Cup. Today, I wish to shed some light on the issues of college degrees, careers, and life expectancy. Having spent nearly 40 years in differing roles related to workforce development, I can attest to the fact that to remain significant one must continue to learn. Sadly, for the past +30 years our nation has blindly placed too much emphasis on the “College for All” mantra…upon high school graduation. I would like to suggest that a better approach is college for all when the time is right. Not all 18-year-olds are ready to reap the benefits that college provides. Going to college for the sake of going—because that is what “everybody” does—is a bit misguided. Why? At the 30,000’ level: Student debt has ballooned to $1.7t…$0.5t more than the housing subprime debacle in 2007 that, in an economic sense, brought the world to its knees! At the 30’ level: We all do not learn the same way. I, for one, benefited from going through a US-DOL Registered Apprenticeship Program in Carpentry before ever earning a college degree. This social maturation process allowed me to immediately apply theory to practice that consequently opened career doors in the field, office, and university. To this end, is it any wonder why you now see universities across this nation marketing their degrees’ connections to the workforce? More importantly, employers have recently had an epiphany with regards to basing an increasing amount of their hiring decisions on what someone can do vs what someone may have learned. Furthermore, is it any wonder why you now see an explosion of industry-related micro-credentials (i.e., edX, Coursera, etc.)? Nevertheless, as a nation, we cannot ignore what contemporary research has revealed:
- “Americans with four-year college degrees are flourishing economically, while those without are struggling;”
- “Unhealthy behaviors are more common among people without college degrees…;” and
- “…those without degrees [were] being targeted by the pharmaceutical industry in the first phase of the opioid epidemic.”
Need I say more?
https://fortune.com/2023/10/11/companies-increasing-skills-gap-based-hiring-over-degrees/amp/
Opioids settlement & “Court-approved” Bankruptcy
Immigrants / Overdose Deaths / Action
Is MH improving in the workplace?
Steps to addressing MH in the workplace
Students / MH Crisis / Lack of Professionals
New study: Genetics & Suicide risks
NFL / Retirees / Disability Benefits
Suspended: Talks between Actors & Hollywood
Tesla / Germany / Safety issues
Kaiser-Perm reaches a new deal
Upcoming webinars, etc.:
Roundtable: Better Job Site Culture
Addressing the Childcare Crisis
NOTE: The links provided above are for informational purposes only. None of these serve as a substitute for medical advice one should obtain from his/her own primary care physician and/or mental health professional. Please contact johngaal@moaflcio.org with related questions or comments.