Wellness & Well-being Highlights April 7th

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of April 7, 2025

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog looks at a CPWR report that suggests better benefits in construction equate to better mental health—to how recent cuts in Higher Ed are leading to a brain drain—to how newly imposed US tariffs are impacting the Ag and Construction sectors. This week I would like to take this opportunity to examine the importance of transparency and stability when communicating major changes to the masses.

Over the past 2 months, I think the word “whipsaw” has been used more times in the media than I have seen/heard in my entire 66 years. M-W defines whipsaw as “to beset or victimize in two opposite ways at once, by a two-phase operation.” One only needs to look at how stock prices retreated—across the board—this past week in order to gauge the temperature of the markets…a clear indication of future instability. It is one thing to take a position and stand by it…but a totally different issue when one goes back-and-forth and/or confuses the public with less than clear explanations. Case in point:

President Trump signed executive orders suspending new tariffs on many imports from Mexico and Canada, two days after he imposed sweeping levies of 25 percent on two of America’s closest economic partners. The exemptions, on goods covered by the trilateral trade pact Mr. Trump signed in his first term, were a whipsaw reversal that followed days of economic turmoil. Stocks in the United States closed down.¹

Why does this matter? Because actions like those just mentioned not only cause anxiety in the markets but in our offices, jobsites, and homes as well. To be sure, Faust-Hartnett cited that nearly ¾ of participants in a recent survey of 1000 people in the US workplace, “…believe anxiety, caused by the current global political and social environment, leads to burnout at work.”²Meanwhile, as I attended an international Mental Health committee meeting last weekend, I heard some of the group members express their serious concerns about the current undertakings in Washington, DC. Overall, the consensus was there no need to get too worked up as ‘this too shall pass’. While I agree most organizations have faults, I cannot condone the strategy of shoot-aim-fire!

To this end, earlier this past week, our nation witnessed a US Senator take an “active” stance against the current state of chaotic affairs. Sen C Booker set a new record for the longest speech in this chamber (>25 hours).³ The irony is that a speech—by a Black man—surpassed the previous record by Sen T Thurmond, a segregationist, who filibustered for ~24 hours to oppose the Civil Rights Act in 1957. As my dear (late) friend Gary Stelzer used to say, “What comes around, goes around.”

Sources: [1] https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03/06/us/trump-administration-news

[2] https://www.plansponsor.com/the-workplace-mental-health-crisis-of-2025/

[3]https://www.npr.org/2025/04/02/nx-s1-5349429/sen-cory-booker-on-his-marathon-25-hour-speech-on-the-senate-floor

Construction: Better Benefits = Better MH

Trade Conflict & Anxiety

Bolstering Global H&S

Head Protection: More on Safety Helmets

Teens / Growth / Resilience

Do You Have a Healthy Social Biome?

All Generations Seek Work-Life Balance

Employees: Less Collaborative, More Confrontational?

Spotting a Sports Gambling Problem