I had dinner with Professor Jeff Pfeffer in Auckland, NZ last year with a few other Stanford classmates. My perception of our time over dinner with him and rea

I had dinner with Professor Jeff Pfeffer in Auckland, NZ last year with a few other Stanford classmates. My perception of our time over dinner with him and reading his book “Dying for a Paycheck” left me with the following impressions/perceptions: We will hopefully see a social/cultural awakening to the toxic threat of workplace stress much as we did with the environmental movement in the 1960’s post “Silent Spring”. We have made great strides in enhancing water/air/soil quality at local/national levels in the last 50 years so there is precedence for enhancing workplace quality. Workplace stress “kills”(contributes more to the death of) more people than smoking, obesity, and alcohol abuse, according to Jeff’s research(admittedly, I haven’t dug deep to look at data set or measurement methodology). I’m an employer, a former early stage Amazon employee, and the chairperson of a large national veteran support charity. Wearing all 3 “hats” I have seen the negative cost of workplace stress. I left Amazon due to extreme burnout. I have provided staff(at great personal cost) unlimited time off benefits during emergencies my peers called ludicrous, but retain And I have seen 262 veterans suffering the consequences of varying degrees of extreme workplace stress. I think treating stress as an injury is a very important one for both employees and employers. I think the future is not about employers handing out free gym membership for physical well-being, but also providing training and support for mental/emotional well being. Treating stress as akin to a traumatic injury that requires immediate mitigation as well as an ultra local environmental threat akin to breathing dirty air or drinking dirty water is important. Well worth taking quite seriously, although I am clearly biased.