The Top 10 Employee Wellbeing Trends, Milestones, and Scandals of 2019

They say hindsight is 20/20, but in 2019 the future is 2020. With that in mind, let’s look back at the year’s Top 10 wellbeing trends, milestones, and scandals, which foretell what we may expect in 2020.

1. Wellness Research Gets Randomly Clustered

In the early going, a typical employee wellness program doesn’t have much impact on healthcare costs, health, quality of life, or job performance. This, based on data from a cluster-randomized study of employee wellness at BJ’s Wholesale stores. (Cluster randomization means the worksites, not the individual participants, were randomized.) Get the lowdown in my article, The 4 Factiest Facts Overlooked in the Latest Wellness Study Kerfuffle.

But rumors of wellbeing’s demise were greatly exaggerated. A cluster-randomized study of Gap stores showed that stabilizing worker schedules led to increased sales and — while it’s no panacea — enhanced employee wellbeing, especially sleep. (A separate major study confirmed that unstable schedules are strongly linked — more strongly even than low wages — to workers’ psychological distress, sleep disruption, and unhappiness.) The contrasting results from these studies, building on previous research, surely will persuade business leaders to prioritize organizational strategies over health behavior modification gimmicks.

2. The Worst of Times, The Best of Times for Financial Wellness

Employees filed a class action lawsuit against one prominent employer for allegedly selling out its workers’ 401(k), costing the plan tens of millions of dollars in excess fees and underperformance, in exchange for mega-donations and lavish personal gifts. It was a quid pro quo before quid pro quos were cool, finagled at the same time employees were being warned to “understand their values and get their finances in order.” (Learn more in my Financial Whatness? article.)

On the other hand, Dan Price of Gravity Payments, who, in 2015 raised his company’s minimum wage to $70,000 per year while slashing his own salary, launched a plan in 2019 to establish the same healthy wage for employees of a new acquisition in Boise, Idaho. Mr. Price has his naysayers, but you’ll be convinced he understands his values when it comes to employee wellbeing — financial and otherwise — after you listen to this interview:

3. Burnout Still Isn’t a Medical Diagnosis

The World Health Organization got caught up in mistake news when, in ICD-11 (the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision), it elaborated on the definition of burnout, which it already had listed in ICD-10 as a factor that might influence health or use of health services. The media wrongly reported that WHO had reclassified burnout as a medical diagnosis, and word spread like wildfire. (I chat with Nate Randall about it on his Illuminate HR podcast.) We may ask, “Why did we get so lit up about a mere rumor of burnout being a medical diagnosis?” Perhaps the answer can be found amongst employees struggling psychologically, and those endeavoring to support them, yearning for validation? (BTW, burnout is a diagnosis in the Netherlands, Sweden, and a few other European countries.)

4. Whaddya Expect, Yale?

Unionized workers at Yale University filed a class action lawsuit over the university’s financially weaponized and ignominiously named “Health Expectations Program.” (See my article, Not-So-Great Expectations Land Yale Wellness in Court.) We can do better. And, I believe, we usually do.

5. Workplace Mental Health, Brought to You By the People Who Gave You Workplace Weight Management?

In my 2018 wrap-up, I observed that workplace mental health had taken the spotlight. In 2019, that attention increased multifold, culminating in the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the US Chamber of Commerce, with more than 2 dozen partner organizations, pledging to support workforce mental health. But let’s take a breath and, before jumping on a workplace mental health bandwagon, take stock of lessons we learned from past missteps on the obesity bandwagon. We must deeply understand the issue, confront our knowledge gaps, give employees voice, listen to vendors and consultants with open minds but healthy skepticism, and keep our eyes on the evidence. Mental health is too complex, nuanced, and important for us to give way to fads, frauds, and quick fixes.

6. Scary Times for Men in the Workplace

Japan’s #KuToo movement — from the words “kutsu” (shoes) and “kutsuu” (pain) — arose in response to dress codes requiring female workers to wear high heels, a workplace policy the Health and Labor Minister declared “occupationally necessary and appropriate.” Similar requirements have ignited protests elsewhere, as well. Aside from the sexism these policies embody, even old-school health promoters should take heed of health risks linked to high heels (summarized in “High Heels and Workplace Dress Codes,” published by the British parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee in response to a petition calling to ban high-heel requirements — a petition that was rejected).

Meanwhile, in the US, HuffPost exposed a prominent professional services firm that set us all back a century or so with one of its women’s leadership trainings. The training’s handbook espoused that “the most important thing women can do is ‘signal fitness and wellness.’” ??

It advised trainees to have a “good haircut, manicured nails, well-cut attire that complements your body type.” Then it warns: “Don’t flaunt your body ― sexuality scrambles the mind (for men and women).” Respect for the equal opportunity mind-scrambling.

Click on the headline, below, to read the full HuffPo article and to view the employer’s “leaked” video response.

7. Eat Meat, Not So Much, Mostly Bacon

Just when you were getting on board with a plant-based diet comes a new, supposedly more rigorous analysis by 14 researchers, saying it’s fine (nutritionally) to eat red meat, even processed meats like bacon. The new analysis argued that previous studies were either biased by veggie-lovin’ diehards and food industry shills or simply weren’t sciency enough.

But wait… what’s this?! Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the deli, it turns out the lead author of the new analysis had previous ties to the meat and food industry.

This type of shenanigans is why I, seriously, refrain from engaging in nutritional advice. We really understand little about the health effects of specific foods and nutrients — just what we hear in our personal echo chambers. Y’all let me know when you’ve got it sorted out and I’ll resume my old ways, dishing out unsolicited advice to eaters with reckless abandon.

8. Priming Your Business Case for Wellbeing

Exploitation of Amazon fulfillment center workers has been alleged worldwide: untenable work intensity, unsafe conditions, rampant 911 calls about employee “breakdowns,” dehumanization — the whole nine yards (or, in this case, 900 yards… too far to get to a bathroom on your Amazon work break).

The question to be pondered by employee wellbeing professionals, employee-engagement and -experience leaders, and conscious capitalism stalwarts is how Amazon manages to achieve spectacular business expansion (including — let’s face it — job growth) and profitability in the context of these alleged abuses. We like to insist that treating workers well boosts profits, stock price, and overall juju. But will business leaders look at Amazon — recently dubbed America’s best-run company by the Drucker Institute — and conclude that the secret sauce lies in using surveillance, analytics, and robotics to squeeze the very last drop of lifeblood out of workers? Is it time to ask whether the business case for employee wellbeing is the best case?

9. Will Organized Labor Be a Game Changer?

“Organized labor” must be dirty words in HR and employee wellbeing circles. We rarely hear them mentioned outside of those companies with labor contracts. But times are changing and may be signaling something vital about the state of employee wellbeing. The question is: Are we listening?

A majority of Americans view unions favorably — their support is at a 15-year high. And, while union membership levels in the US remain low, unionization of white collar workers (like journalists and academicians) is surging. What’s more, strikes are on the the rise. Nearly 500,000 workers took part in work stoppages in 2018, up from 25,000 in 2017 and the most since the mid-1980s. With prolonged strikes by auto workers and Chicago teachers — and restlessness brewing amongst overstrained video game developers, some of whom organized a walkout of their own — 2019 showed no signs of letting up.

For a reality check on the wellbeing priorities of employees, invite some strikers off a picket line and ask their opinion of the 10,000 steps-per-day walking program your company is launching.

10. I’m OK — You’re #OKBoomer

Browse the nearly 100 blog posts I’ve published on my website and you’ll find no mention of millennials — because 99% of the traits attributed to millennials are bullsh*t. Or maybe I should say “birdsh*t,” because generational stereotypes are just another way to pigeonhole folks. So, while I can understand the backlash that may have led to 2019’s patronizing #OKBoomer meme, it ultimately serves only to perpetuate our society’s take-no-prisoners polarization.

OKBoomer may lead to some age discrimination lawsuits, or it may just be a flash-in-the-pan. Either way, it can serve as a reminder for each of us to embrace diversity and inclusion, in all its forms.

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Thanks for making it to the end of the article, rock star! Whadja think? You know I appreciate a Like, Share, or Comment. And subscribe to the Redesigning Wellness podcast to catch an upcoming episode in which host Jen Arnold and I do our traditional off-the-rails end-of-year wrap-up. Happy Holidays! — Bob [Update 12/09/2020: The podcast episode is now available and not to be missed!]