Grant Fuller on men, mental health & the cost of unsafe worksites
Last week, on What Does It Feel Like, Being You Today?, I sat down with Grant Fuller, Health, Safety & Wellbeing Principal at Alchimie and co-founder of Wellness in Infrastructure, for awe inspiring conversation - perfectly timed in the lead-up to International Men’s Day.
Grant spoke candidly about growing up in Montana, losing his father at age five, and learning early that men and feelings, weren’t a great relationship.
💙 “I didn’t see the men around me show emotion. I want my boys to be able to.”
We traced the pathway that shaped him — being raised in a small Montana town marked by addiction and loss, finding freedom and purpose on fishing boats of Alaska, and eventually building a life in Australia.
Grant also spoke candidly about what it cost him to stand up to unsafe cultures and bullying on a major project — a long period of union harassment that left a deeper mark than he realised at the time.
💙 “Two years of harassment… being filmed, edited, posted online… told ‘you’re a liar’ for hours. I thought I was fine. Then I realised: I wasn’t.”
Grant described the moment he understood the emotional impact:
💙 “I was told, ‘take the emotion out of it’, and I said, ‘I don’t know how.’”
That experience fed directly into the beginnings of Wellness in Infrastructure. Grant talked about Professor Luke Downey’s 2018 research, which found burnout at almost 50% in construction and depression and stress four to five times higher than the general population.
💙 “People were hurting. Enough wasn’t being done. We wanted to change those statistics.”
One line stayed with me, well after the show:
💙 “This isn’t about being nice for the sake of it. The way we treat people at work can push them over the edge or pull them back from it.”
For anyone who works in infrastructure, construction, or mostly male environments — this episode is a powerful reflection on what real prevention looks like: clarity, safety, leadership, and environments that don’t break people.
Grant’s honesty, insight and lived experience bring a rare depth to a conversation workplaces (and beyond) desperately need.
What does it feel like, being you, today?
www.raebonney.au
#InternationalMensDay #MensHealth #MensMentalHealth #Infrastructure #ConstructionIndustry
#WorkplaceMentalHealth #PsychosocialSafety #SafetyLeadership #MentallyHealthyWorkplaces #BurnoutPrevention #BullyingAndHarassment #LivedExperience
