Employee welfare continues to take multiple hits

Health, family, finances and jobs are all issues that poll after poll identify as causing the most sleepless nights. It's challenging enough when one of the four invades our psyche and can trigger panic. It’s hard to imagine how to cope when people are attacked by two, three or all four concerns simultaneously.

Sadly, that is the reality for over half of all working Americans and millions of Floridians. The coronavirus virus immediately jeopardizes the health of all Americans. However, an even more significant threat is its debilitating effect on the economy in terms of layoffs, downsizings, declining investment income and loss of health benefits. It’s about UNCERTAINTY and, sadly, the deeper we get into it, the more unclear things become.

The outlook for jobs and the economy in the Florida is particularly precarious. Let’s unpack two realities. First, over 10% of the state’s GDP comes from tourism, an industry that has been blown out of the water, literally and figuratively. Marriott and Royal Caribbean have already begun laying off staff, and the U.S. Bureau of Statistics recently noted the state could lose more than one million tourism-related jobs (food preparers, maids, wait staff, recreation workers) as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Wayne Hochwarter, Jim Moran Professor of Management
Areas of expertise: Employee motivation, job stress and coping, and influence behavior/ proactivity