Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing

Is employee engagement a sinking ship? According to Gallup, engagement is taking on water, with the firm’s frequently repeated survey findings showing an engagement rate of 31% — a 10-year low. But a closer look surfaces insights that lead us to believe employee engagement may be very much afloat. We break it down in this AI-assisted conversation, based on the original Heigh Ho article Employee En...

 “How do we do an evidence-based wellness program when there is no evidence?” This was a question asked of me by a distinguished wellness director. She also happened to be a physician who understood better than most the meaning of evidence-based practice. You may agree or disagree that there is no evidence supporting specific employee wellness interventions, but for now, the more important questio...

A conversation (AI-assisted) about an employee wellbeing topic a lot of people never think about: Delaying bathroom use because of lack of scheduling flexibility, lack of access, or excessive job demands. This has serious physical and mental health consequences, and you’ll be shocked at the range of workers affected, including — in addition to warehouse and poultry processing workers, who’ve been...

A quick, AI-assisted conversation describing the heroic actions of Joseph Zito, hero of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. This episode is based on Bob Merberg’s web page, The Story of Joseph Zito . Learn more about the fire, and how it became an inflection point in the arc of employee wellbeing, in the previous podcast episode — or read about it in Bob Merberg’s free Heigh Ho newsletter articl...

Today’s AI-assisted conversation is based on my post, " A Nation that Catches Workers Before They Fall ," about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which was an inflection point in the arc of American worker wellbeing. In this episode, the AI took some liberties, expanding the scope of the original article. I agreed with 99% of what was being said, and it was generally accurate and added to the...

"Organizational solutions" are gaining traction in conversations about employee wellbeing. Organizational solutions entail changing how work is done. Enjoy this AI-assisted conversation about one example of an organizational solution, health circles , which includes a lively discussion of a specific case study. The conversation is based on my article, Is It Time to Revisit Health Circles to Redesi...

This AI-assisted conversation takes a deep dive into Bob Merberg’s excerpted presentation, given to a group of employees around the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, about mental health stigma. Unfortunately, for all the preoccupation with mental health stigma the last few years, many people presenting as mental health advocates haven’t studied the topic at all. As a result, they may do more to perpe...

Change the work, not the worker. This lively AI-assisted conversation takes a deep dive into the basics of job characteristics, motivating job potential, job design, and job crafting. It’s based on a recorded practice session for one of Bob Merberg’s presentations — the rough cut is available on YouTube . The AI makes a few minor flawed connections and inferences — no more than a live interviewee...

This experimental AI-assisted two-person conversation is based on the Heigh Ho article, Teenage Workland: Taking stock of teenage worker wellbeing (in words, numbers, and music) , which includes the chart the podcast speakers refer to. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heighho.substack.com

Something different: This episode is a conversation that dives deep into a mash-up of two Heigh Ho articles... When Civility Policies Run Amok-accino and Ambiguous Civility Policy Burns Workers The episode is AI-assisted, but don’t let that put you off. It’s a polished dialogue that sounds like a conversation between two curious speakers who share enthusiasm for labor and employee wellbeing. Give...

(Subscribe to the Heigh Ho newsletter at heighho.substack.com .) Get a look from "the seat" as Muni driver Mc Allen describes why he loves his job and San Francisco and public transportation in general. Mc also shares sides of the role we rarely see: a bus driver’s schedule, time off, pay, and the levels of autonomy, job demands, and social support known to define job stress. Though we don’t use t...

The job stress of city transit operators, especially bus drivers, has probably been studied more than any other occupation. Along with other jobs in the transportation industry, bus driving is often cited as one of the most stressful jobs. Though it may seem esoteric to office workers, the lessons we’ve learned about bus driver stress are relevant to almost everyone. This is a public episode. If y...

Gazing out over Lake Erie from the Cleveland waterfront, you’re likely to see commercial and recreational watercraft. You’ll see white-capped waves and, in winter, some ice floes. But you may be in the dark about what lies beneath — not underwater, not on the lakebed, but 1800 feet further down, where people are busy at work. Under Lake Erie lies Cargill’s Whiskey Island salt mine, actively worked...

In 1955 British naval historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson published in The Economist an article about bloated government bureaucracies, stating : “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” He dubbed this Parkinson’s Law. Unfortunately, Parkinson’s Law is commonly misinterpreted to be an assertion about procrastination and personal ineffectiveness. It’s nothing of the sort....

You'll have a new world opened for you as you listen to comments by Dustin — a Texas-based long-haul driver — about pay, work schedules, and life on the road. Dustin also shares his perspective on work/life balance, 4-day workweeks, work-from-home, and the public's perception of truck drivers during peak pandemic. Catch the original article, and/or — if you like content like this — subscribe to He...

Rob Baker, author of Personalization at Work , and Bob Merberg explore job crafting, where a worker tailors their job-related tasks, relationships, and thoughts to optimize how it fits to their strengths. The conversation uses the allegory of Snow White’s and the forest animals’ job crafting in the Whistle While You Work scene to help listeners understand how job crafting can increase productivity...

Have you noticed business media banging the drum about workers’ willingness to accept less pay in exchange for certain benefits? The business world’s insistence that satisfying jobs can only come at a financial cost to workers serves primarily to defend and reinforce a flawed status quo. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episo...

You’re invited to eavesdrop as Nikki Reynolds of Inspired Wellbeing Solutions and I have a no-holds-barred conversation about unpaid domestic work — which includes tasks like caretaking, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and mental load — and the disproportionate burden it places on women. In the conversation, we refer to a previous Heigh Ho post, Domestic Work — Unpaid and Unseen, which delves more int...

Unpaid domestic labor, also called unpaid work, is time and energy expended within a household or family for the benefit of its members. It places disproportionate burden on women, with implications for emotional, financial, and occupational wellbeing. Find the original Heigh Ho post, with all related links, here . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers...

I asked dishwashers in an online forum… “What's your reaction when you hear people talk about doing what you love, finding meaning in your work, following your passion?” Listen to their answers, which are sure to surprise you. For lending their voices to this episode, my sincerest thanks to   —  Tara McMullen | Tara’s Substack: What Works  —  James Richardson | James’ Substack: Homo Imaginari  — ...

A Surprise Appearance A mistreated newsboy becomes a titan of industry. This episode reveals a unique connection between Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and working life, especially as it relates to the jobs we hold in our youth. What seems like character-building experience to the beholder may be more like trauma to those in the path of that beholder’s unkindness. This is a public episode. If you...

This episodes includes 3 ways sabbaticals enhance employee wellbeing while creating opportunities and the 3 pillars of good sabbatical policies. When first awakened to the sabbatical idea, I reacted skeptically. I’ve since seen that most medium and large companies can offer sabbaticals — longer, paid sabbaticals.  Some advocates hail sabbatical as a solution for burnout. But time off, in the absen...

One thing I learned from this job, and the many warehouse, retail, and food service jobs I had thereafter, is to refrain from assuming that most people's work lives are anything like mine and yours. Workers like little Louie and Old Joe, the bookie, the thieves, the truck drivers… We live and work among them. We also live and work among the women getting harassed on the street; the legions of exha...

Labor utopia or dystopia? What looks like a degrading portrayal of outcasts has also been framed as an homage to the American worker. In Disney’s Snow White classic, the depiction of the seven dwarfs informs modern perspectives on labor in the context of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Read the original article (with links to source material) here . This is a public episode. If you would like to...

Despite the fact that leaders seem determined to suppress the meaning of Labor Day, news reports in recent years may leave you with the impression that organized labor is resurgent. Stories abound about workers organizing and/or about work stoppages (or looming strikes) at Amazon, Starbucks, Chipotle, Trader Joe’s, Apple, and UPS, and among members of graduate student organizations, United Auto Wo...