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As recently as May 28, Amazon, often criticized for its worker-productivity tracking, announced it will install cubicles, dubbed AmaZen booths, so its warehouse workers may jump into them to watch short videos featuring positive affirmations, calming sounds and guided meditations ¹.
Yet Amazon workers have told the media they work under a ‘brutal’ reality ² of long hours, physical labor, workplace injuries and fears about taking time off. One user called the booths ‘dystopian,’ and others said the retail giant should focus instead on improving pay and working conditions.

On the other hand, the Financial Times (FT) created a partnership that lets its journalists explore their fears and anxieties in a powerful, expansive way – by making short films. The FT film series lets journalists collaborate with playwrights, creative artists and other experts to explore today’s top issues, from the most recent drama about giving up privacy in a world driven by algorithms and big data, to Brexit, homelessness and climate change ³.

A wide variety of methods were deployed in attempts to support workers’ mental health during the pandemic, although the relative success of these programs is still playing out ⁴. For example, Culligan Water, offered free self-care videos, meditation sessions, manager wellbeing calls and health coaching for employees and their spouses. One of the company’s owners also spoke about his own mental health activities in an employee video, encouraging employees to practice self-care.

Devils Backbone Brewing Company in the US took a different tack by engaging its workers in events such as Zoom happy hours and meetings for parents balancing childcare with remote work. They also offered professional development courses through LinkedIn Learning.

In terms of health, a tool at WorkforceNutrition.org lets companies assess their programs and guides them to develop a plan to enhance efforts to give employees access to and knowledge about healthy nutrition ⁵.

These steps primarily worked because they reflected the company’s values, which was important to both employees and employers alike ⁶.

Companies also learned that their focus on efficiency can hamstring them with a lack of flexibility. That means empowering employees in new ways, including cross-functional knowledge and training so they can take on varied, adaptive and flexible roles. It also means giving employees more flexibility in choosing when and where they work. Research has long established that remote work can help mothers better balance their work and family responsibilities, which makes them less likely to sacrifice one for the other ¹⁰. Additionally, more couples share family responsibilities more equally now than they did before the pandemic ^{11 12}.

Employers also need to open their eyes to the challenges of employees who care for the elderly ¹³. Research by Human Research Management on senior care found that 83% of adult children have sought new care options for their senior loved ones during the pandemic and 89% were considering switching from a nursing home to in-home care. About 17% of the U.S. workforce care for a senior relative or loved one, and nearly half of them are sandwiched, also caring for children under the age of 18. And family caregivers are not solely Gen X and Boomers. Of the 41 million Americans who are unpaid caregivers to the elderly, 10 million are Millennials.

Corporations need to acknowledge that the world of work has changed and there may be no ‘going back.’ While it is impossible at this moment in time to truly gauge how the impact of COVID will play out, it is clear that support, flexibility and awareness will go a long way to advance employee health and wellbeing in the workplace.