Learning Center

As a full-time clinician and mother to 3 young children, the term “self-care” always sent me a strong message that I was too self-indulgent when I should be solely focused on the needs of my children and my clients.  So I stopped listening to advice on this subject and I stopped trying. Each time I set a goal in this ...

At a recent conference, Lisa tearfully described to me her agony as sole caregiver for her disabled husband for 33 years. Her pain hints at the burden of 34 million Americans caring for loved ones with dementia, disabilities, and other enduring illnesses. Most caregivers report significant stress, which mirrors my experience the last seven years as chief caregiver for my ...

You don’t have to be poor to experience significant financial stress. Even people with good jobs and substantial salaries can find themselves in situations where their family finances become precarious, setting off a cascade of stressful complications. I grew up in a home where there was substantial financial stress and I know from personal experience exactly how disruptive this can ...

Has your family been trying to figure out some rules to govern screen time? If so, you are not alone. Finding the correct formula for limiting the use of electronic devices in order to improve the quality of personal interactions and communication has become a priority for many families. What’s at stake is the limited and precious resource of our ...

On June 28th, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed House Bill 4640 which will create one of the country’s strongest family and medical leave programs. This new program will provide participating employees with the ability to take paid leave for up to 12 weeks a year to care for a family member or to bond with a new child, 20 weeks ...

A large study conducted by the Federal Occupational Health (FOH), the largest provider of occupational health services in the federal government has linked EAP use with improvement on measures of productivity, work and social relationships, perceived health status, attendance and tardiness, and global assessment of functioning. FOH used a five-item measure, the Work Outcome Suite (WOS), recognized as the industry ...

According to the Department of Labor, 61.1% of married-couple families in 2016 had both parents working. In my counseling work, and in my role as husband to a working wife, I bear witness daily to the power spouses have to support or undermine their partners. As I enter my 50th year of marriage, still working and still married to a ...

The most successful employers are always looking for a fully balanced “win-win” when it comes to achieving both higher productivity and healthier, happier, and more engaged employees. These organizations do not view the workplace as a zero sum game where the needs of employers are competing with the needs of employees. Rather, they seek to achieve a competitive edge by ...

It’s not a shocker to learn that a blog with a name like stress.health.business. (inaugurated in 2012) has featured more posts about stress than any other topic. However, you may be surprised to see how many different dimensions there are to the stress/productivity/health relationship. So, as we commence our 6th year of the blog, I have anthologized a diverse sampling ...

When I moved with my family from Maryland to Massachusetts 16 years ago, I told my husband and my realtor that my two top requirements were to be within 3 miles of a health club and a great coffee shop. This specification was not simply on my wish list, it was on my required list. At the time, I had ...

When I was a teenager I loved talking on the phone. Who didn’t? I remember sitting with the corded phone to my ear, watching my favorite soap opera, and talking with my best friend next door who was sitting with her corded phone, watching the same soap opera. I would spend hours in the evening talking with my friends, tying ...

As a working mother with 4 children, there are many things that I find challenging. How do I get everyone where they need to be after school? How do I get that extra hour of work time in when I have a big project due?  When do I get my haircut? How can I make everyone happy at the dinner ...

The United States won 121 medals out of a possible 306 at the 2016 Rio Olympics which just concluded in Brazil. You probably are not aware that Denmark defeated the United States 2-0 in Women’s Badminton (doubles) at the Rio Olympics. More importantly, you may not know how we compare to Denmark in the area of workplace happiness. Let’s start ...

Many companies are beginning to change the way they operate in order to reduce employee stress. In doing so they are recognizing that excessive stress is not only bad for employee health and happiness but it’s also a drag on productivity and the bottom line. Some of the most promising initiatives in this area are focused on creating a workplace ...

I’ve been thinking about getting our country a gift on her birthday this year. But what can I give a country that already has so much? What can I give that has value and significance? When I was about 5 years old,  I remember my father telling me that the only two signers of the Declaration of Independence who went ...

I can’t imagine that anyone would ever feel inspired to write an article about the “Top Five Reasons for Taking 100% of Your Pay.” Nobody requires encouragement to accept their entire compensation. So why do 41% of Americans not use all of their available vacation time? Why are people not using an average of 9.2 days per year of their ...

The Department of Labor (DOL) is preparing to introduce new rules governing overtime pay this summer. The new regulations, which represent an historical reversal of a 50 year old trend, are very good news for salaried employees making between $23,600 and $50,440 per year. You probably didn’t know that fifty years ago overtime pay was the norm for salaried employees, ...

A high-ranking source at OSHA has confirmed that the agency will require all managers and supervisors (from companies with more than 25 employees) to pass a licensing exam by the year 2020 demonstrating management competencies. The senior OSHA official, who wishes to remain anonymous until the agency officially promulgates the new regulations, declared: “Management induced stress is a plague on ...

  Grieving has many different faces. Some of them are familiar and expected like sadness and despair. However, some of the effects of bereavement are more subtle such as experiencing an insidious decline in concentration and enthusiasm. This can be a problem for people returning to work after a bereavement leave. It has been a problem for me for almost ...

Usually when we speak and think about tolerance and compassion for those with Asperger’s Disorder, it is in the context of children at school.  Educators and parents emphasize the many strengths of these individuals and request kindness and understanding from their classmates.   However, these efforts, and sometimes our own eagerness to model compassion, frequently dissipate when we enter the workplace ...

A recent article in the New York Times detailing the arduous demands Amazon places on its employees has put a spotlight on the subject of working long hours. The authors contend that Amazon, an amazingly successful company well on its way to become the world’s first trillion dollar retailer, is conducting a Darwinian experiment in “how far it can push ...

A new research study from Stanford University and the Harvard Business School has named workplace stress as a contributor to at least 120,000 deaths a year and up to $190 billion in health care costs. 120,000 mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and coworkers who die prematurely, in part, due to work environments that are allowed to remain toxic. ...

We are forgetful creatures. I’m not referring to the “senior moment” variety of forgetfulness. I’m talking about the habitual forgetting that takes place in the midst of everyday life challenges and stresses, when we “forget” to make those choices that we know will keep our bodies, spirits and relationships healthy. We forget that change can only happen today and not ...

Last week the Boston Globe published a chart which details the current costs, in dollars and in time, of providing care for an older family member (It is worth noting that the chart appears in the business section because the astounding numbers illustrate just how significant this issue is for many employees and for the organizations that employ them)   ...

Some days it feels that way. You’re a manager with an ever lengthening task list and rapidly approaching deadlines and you worry that your blood pressure and stress level may be reaching new heights. Then one of your employees, let’s call him Ted, walks in the office and asks: “Have you got a minute to talk?” Freeze frame. You are ...

Of all the employee personal issues that managers and HR professionals are called upon to address none is more complicated, hidden and stressful than domestic violence. A new Massachusetts law, signed by Governor Deval Patrick on August 8, 2014, has now codified specific employer responsibilities to employees who are victims of domestic violence. Under the new law, employers with at ...

Ward Cleaver was an exemplary Dad, calm and wise and always available to talk with his kids and guide them. His wife June was an iconic nurturing at-home Mom. The Cleavers made a great team and their children adored and respected them. The men of Ward’s era were not expected to be present for their children’s births and did not ...

Stress is a modern plague responsible for 75% to 90% of all doctor’s office visits. OSHA has declared it a workplace hazard costing American business $300 billion annually. Conventional wisdom blames work, and its toxic stew of constant deadlines, excessive workloads, 24/7 connectivity and globalization, as the primary stressor in contemporary life. However, new research, recently published in the Journal ...

When I started working in the employee assistance profession, EAPs did not offer legal consultation services. If a distressed employee called us about a legal issue we could be sympathetic listeners and try to help them manage their anxiety about the problem, but we could not give them what they needed most which was immediate legal advice. I remember one ...

I met Steve Mellor in the mid-1980’s when he was a young HR professional and I was a green EAP consultant. We bonded immediately as allies and comrades learning to make a place for ourselves in the corporate world. Along the way, we also took time to compare notes on the joys and challenges of being husbands and dads. Later ...

Organizations are on a quest to identify the essential elements of employee engagement. They dream of building cultures and work environments that will capture every last ounce of employee discretionary effort. They want employees who arrive at work every day with all the optimism, ambition and enthusiasm that they brought on their first day believing that happy people create more ...

For the past 25 years the Families & Work Institute has been tracking the benefits practices, policies and programs of U.S. employers. Their findings have documented the many ways that employers and employees benefit from flexible and family friendly workplaces. The data demonstrates that in return for providing a more supportive workplace to employees, employers benefit by having “more engaged employees, ...

Are you a superhero? If you hesitated, think again: Are you a family caregiver? Do you juggle multiple demands at work? Are you the “go-to” person for planning family activities? Do you ever pick up the slack for family members or coworkers? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may very well be a superhero. Although we ...

Last October, I had an opportunity to ask 25,000 strangers five questions concerning their attitudes and feelings about work. Today’s post reviews some of the responses I received to one of those questions: “What are your strategies for balancing the demands of work with those of your personal life?” As you might expect, there is great variability in how people ...

A few weeks ago the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that Dr. James Knight had a right to fire his dental assistant Melissa Nelson because Dr. Knight’s spouse (based on his admission of an attraction to Ms. Nelson) viewed the relationship as a threat to their marriage. Ms. Nelson, who had been an excellent employee for 10 years, filed a gender ...

Philip Tuttle is a self-employed lobsterman who works the waters off Harpswell, one of my favorite spots in the midcoast Maine area. His enviable commute to work consists of walking about 25 yards from his back porch to his 26 foot lobster boat, the Queen Tut. His commute might be pleasant but that is the only aspect of a lobsterman’s ...

The business community is developing a variety of interventions that are designed to improve the health and productivity of employees while controlling their health care costs. Employers are well-positioned to positively influence employee health and behavioral choices with a wide array of tools including: financial incentives to reward positive health behaviors, healthy food choices in the cafeteria, effective management practices ...

Most EAPs offer organizations integrated dependent care resource and referral services (for children and the elderly). Typically, dependent care services are accessed through by phone (some EAPs make this service available 24/7) or via the EAP website. There is significant variation, however, in what these services offer employees and how they are actually delivered. Some EAPs provide employees with information ...

Perhaps you remember the cartoon image of Wonder Woman or the Lynda Carter TV version of the 1970‘s female superhero. As more women have entered the paid workforce over the last several decades, the image of needing superhero powers to balance work, family and health has become a familiar metaphor.  Unfortunately, tending to the multiple needs of others often puts ...

As the Northeast digs out from the storm named Nemo, I am thinking about the status of telecommuting in the workplace. I haven’t seen the numbers on this yet, but I would wager that a record number of Massachusetts employees were working from home last Friday as this super storm approached and the governor ordered everyone off the roads. The ...

Providing ongoing care and support to an elder can evoke mixed emotions ranging from a sense of accomplishment and pride to guilt, anger and frustration. The 2012 American Time Use Survey reveals that nearly one quarter of those between the ages of 45-64 identify themselves as elder care providers. Caregiving can be stressful and difficult: 20% of caregivers are providing ...

Work-life balance is complicated. It’s an intricate consideration – much more than just assessing personal priorities and learning how to manage our time. It’s an Ideal, a goal and a pursuit that will probably be a little bit different tomorrow than it is today. When we used to talk about balance, it was a conversation rooted in location. Are we ...

1.  EAPs improve early identification and intervention for employees with mental health and substance abuse disorders. 30-40% of your employees will experience mental health and/or substance abuse disorders at some point in their lives. Depression accounts for as much medical and disability cost as hypertension, diabetes, back problems and heart disease. The positive impacts of early intervention for an organization include: savings ...