Shows
The State of Work Today#41 - Wellness Isn’t an App: Rethinking Employee Well-Being with Bob MerbergWhat if your wellness program is solving the wrong problem? In this episode of State of Work Today, I sit down with Bob Merberg—consultant, content strategist, and publisher of the HeHo newsletter—to break down what real workplace well-being looks like. We dig into the limits of health apps and step challenges, and focus on what actually drives retention, productivity, and mental health: job design, autonomy, and organizational change. If you want to build a culture that actually supports your people, this conversation is where to start.
Listen now: Learn more about...
2025-06-121h 02
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingTrump's Attack on Workers: How HR and Wellness Associations Are RespondingToday’s AI assisted conversation is based on Bob Merberg’s article, “New Threats to Employee Wellbeing: How HR and Wellness Associations Are (And Aren't) Meeting the Moment.” Subscribe to the Heigh Ho newsletter at https://heighho.substack.com.Employee wellbeing faces mounting challenges as the Trump administration takes action on multiple fronts (for example, by trying to gut the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board; dehumanize the federal workforce; and sow chaos at the Occupational Health and Safety Administration), much of which has taken place under the guise of “anti-wokeism.”If you’re a...
2025-03-1407 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingEmployee Engagement SOS?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 Engagement SOS? (See the article for links and references.)Subscribe to Heigh Ho — Work and Working Life: https://heighho.substack.com This is a public...
2025-01-2504 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingUnderstanding Evidence-Based Practice for Employee Wellness Leaders “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 questions are: How do you decide? And what is evidence anyway? I've come to realize that most wellness leaders, as well as HR directors and CEOs, don't care about evidence and ar...
2025-01-0313 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingLet Your People Go... to the bathroom (podcast version)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 in the news — nurses, teachers, women working in predominantly male jobs, professional drivers and transit operators, bankers, call center reps, and even work-from-home employees.This conversation counters the prevailing commodification of employee wellbeing, emphasiz...
2024-12-1006 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingJoseph Zito — Hero of the Triangle Factory FireA 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 article, A Nation that Catches Workers Before They Fall. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get...
2024-10-1704 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingThe Triangle Shirtwaist Factory FireToday’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 story and its application in modern life, so I left it in. See what you think.In an upcoming short episode, we’ll explain how my company, Jozito, was...
2024-10-1113 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingHealth Circles: An Organizational Solution to Improve Work and Health"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 Redesign Jobs for Better Work and Health? (and the resources I cite in that article). My thanks to subscriber Marnie Dobson Zimmerman, PhD, Director of the Healthy Work Campaign, who reminds me that the case for organizational solutions was...
2024-10-0310 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingMental Health StigmaThis 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 perpetuate stigma than to raise awareness of it.Especially valuable in this discussion is the relationship between public stigma and self-stigmaThe video (an audio recording with slides) the...
2024-09-2910 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingDesigning Jobs People Want to DoChange 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 might make — but the content still offers an ideal primer for HR, wellness, and management professionals who understand that progress with worker wellbeing depends on, among other things, understanding what makes...
2024-09-2913 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingTeen Worker WellbeingThis 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
2024-09-2708 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingCivility Policy Lands Coffee Chain in Hot WaterSomething different: This episode is a conversation that dives deep into a mash-up of two Heigh Ho articles...When Civility Policies Run Amok-accinoandAmbiguous Civility Policy Burns WorkersThe 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 it a listen!Of course, for complete details, read the articles linked above. This is a public episode. If you would like to d...
2024-09-2509 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingA San Francisco Bus Driver Navigates the Ups and Downs of Transit Operation(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 these words, listeners familiar with employee wellbeing principles will note Mc’s sense of purpose and belonging, as well as how he...
2024-02-1948 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingSteering Thru Stress: What Bus Drivers' Working Lives Teach Us About WellbeingThe 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 you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heighho.substack.com
2024-02-0811 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingBack to the Salt Mine: Labor Where You Least Expect ItGazing 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 by about 250 miners in round-the-clock shifts, extracting salt used largely for de-icing wintry roads.When Heigh Ho returns in January, I’ll feature an exclusive Q&A with a sal...
2023-12-2106 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingHow Work Expands to Fill the Time Available to Complete ItIn 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.Links mentioned can all be found in the Heigh Ho article the episode is based on. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss th...
2023-11-3010 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingInterview with a Truck DriverYou'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 Heigh Ho at http://heighho.substack.com.Leave a voice message about your job — for possible use in the newsletter or podcast — at https://www.speakpipe.com/Bob_Merbergs_Heigh_Ho_pod...
2023-11-1613 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingJob Crafting, with Rob BakerRob 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, innovation, and wellbeing… and where things can go awry.It’s not required, but if you have a chance, check out the scene before listening:(If the video player, above, doesn’t work, you...
2023-11-0542 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingReally? Workers Gladly Forgo Wages?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 episodes, visit heighho.substack.com
2023-11-0209 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingUnpaid Domestic Work and Invisible Family Load (Mental Load) — with Nikki ReynoldsYou’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 into research on unpaid domestic work (aka unpaid domestic labor) and its affect on women’s mental health, financial wellbeing, and return-to-office. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other...
2023-10-2328 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingUnpaid Domestic Work and Invisible Family LoadUnpaid 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 or get access to bonus episodes, visit heighho.substack.com
2023-10-2010 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingDishing on Meaningful Work, Finding Your Passion, and Loving Your JobI 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 — Colin Bullen, one of the first and foremost Heigh Ho supporters, generously shared an audio clip I was unable to use due to a technical glitch. Learn more abou...
2023-10-0510 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingHardscrabble Jobs: Character Builders or Mental Health Risk Factors?A Surprise AppearanceA 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 would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heighho.substack.com
2023-09-2706 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingWhat’s So Radical About Sabbatical?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 absence of a broader strategy, is just an anti-burnout placebo. That’s probably why Kira Schabram, Matt Bloom, and DJ DiDonna advise employers:"If you facilitate sabbaticals before employees are pushed to the brink, most will ret...
2023-09-2108 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingLessons Learned Working at a WarehouseOne 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 exhausted commuters; the transportation workers taking flack from those commuters when they can’t stick to schedules they don’t control; tradespeople suffering injury or ind...
2023-09-1910 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingThe 7 Dwarfs: Engaged Team Players or Marginalized "Others"?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 discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heighho.substack.com
2023-09-1508 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingHow Can Unions Be Resurgent When Membership Rates Are at an All-Time Low?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 Workers, SAG-AFTRA, and the Writer’s Guild, to name a few.In this episode, recorded on Labor Day 2023, Bob Merberg chats about whether unions can really be considered resurgent in this era when union membership rate...
2023-09-0712 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingSnow White-washing Child Labor, Then and NowToday’s Episode features another installment in our series looking at work through the lens of Disney’s 1937 animated classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has its share of chilling moments, though Disney sanitizes the darkest details of its source material — the 19th century Grimm Brothers’ version. Perpetuating white lies, so to speak, may be inherent to a tale’s retelling: Even the earliest versions of Snow White, arguably based on a true story, apparently glossed over a human tragedy — child labor — that plagues us to this day.
2023-09-0308 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingHere's How Music Affects Work and WorkersThis episode is based on one of the most popular posts in the Heigh Ho series looking at work through the lens of Disney’s 1937 classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Here, I use Snow White’s hit song — Whistle While you Work — as a springboard to explore the history of music at work, with tips on the genres that do or don’t make good on-the-job listening based on your likes/dislikes and the task at hand.Links cited in the episode:Sam Kemmis Zapier post on how to choose music for work: https://za...
2023-08-2111 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingSnow White and Working LifeBob Merberg kicks off a series looking at work and wellbeing through the lens of the 1937 animated Disney classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.In this epidode, we set the stage… examining why the influence of pop culture — including media targeted to kids — shouldn’t be underestimated. Decoding it helps explain how and why we show up at work. 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
2023-08-0905 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingAnnouncing Bob Merberg's Heigh Ho PodcastThis is a quick introduction to Bob Merberg’s new Heigh Ho podcast, created in conjunction with the newsletter, Heigh Ho — Work, Workplaces, and Worker Wellbeing. Upcoming episodes feature spunky, evidence-based storytelling about work.Subscribe to the newsletter at https://heighho@substack.com.Bob Merberg has set the pace for employee wellbeing in the US for more than 25 years. Learn more about Bob on the website of his consultancy, Jozito LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visi...
2023-08-0501 min
Heigh Ho — Work and WellbeingDomestic Work — Unpaid and UnseenUnpaid domestic labor, also called unpaid work, is time and energy expended within a household or family for the benefit of its members. With a tie-in to Snow White — and references to iconic cultural works like Dina Goldstein’s “Snowy” photo and Emma’s “You Should Have Asked Comic” — this episode explores the disproportionate burden unpaid domestic work places on women, and how this affects their emotional, financial, and occupational wellbeing. 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
2023-07-1310 min
The World of Work PodcastEmployee Wellbeing (w/ Bob Merberg)James and Jane are joined by Bob Merberg from Jozito LLC to speak about all things employee wellbeing. The conversation explores what wellbeing is and why it matters, as well as what organizations are doing (or not) that helps improve it.
2021-04-2652 min
Been There, Done That!31 - Employee WellnessKeeping your employees healthy and happy is just good business! Dennis Zink leads a discussion with Bob Merberg, a progressive and highly recognized wellness expert with Paychex, Inc., that identifies the best cost-effective policies and practices to have a healthy, motivated workforce.
2015-08-3035 min