When it’s seen as a chronic condition, it can be managed in the long term By: Bill Zolis Obesity, or excess weight, has for a very long time been seen as a just fact of life for some people, or as a...

Plans for new programs are raising some very hard-to-answer questions By: Bill Zolis It’s hard to know what to make of the recent announcement from the federal Liberal government and the New...

First, resign from your job as general manager of the universe By: Bill Zolis Half the reason that people suffer from burnout is that they don’t know what’s causing it – or, more to the point, they...

The tax efficiency of benefits should be a key consideration in how you structure employee plans  By: Bill Zolis The basic math behind the concept of tax efficient benefits is a bit of a no-brainer....

What are the big issues in work and benefits we’ll be dealing with after Covid?    A lot of the experts are starting to talk about “the end of the pandemic” and, even though the Omicron variant...

Plan members and sponsors reveal their (slightly different) lists of most-wanted benefits  By: Bill Zolis What benefits do plan members really want? What benefits do plan sponsors believe offer the...

“The Great Resignation” is making benefits more important than ever By: Bill Zolis A couple of months ago, I’d never even heard the term, “the Great Resignation,” but now it seems to be popping up...

There comes a point where a good night’s sleep is worth fighting for. By: Bill Zolis When you’re happy and healthy, when you feel that you’re able to cope with the stresses and challenges of life,...

Time and again we ask ourselves, Who would ever have imagined this was possible? By: Bill Zolis Let’s imagine that it’s New Year’s Eve a little over a year and a half ago. We’re with friends and...

We’ve spent a year and a half waiting for the pandemic to be over, and now the daily numbers are going down and the restrictions are starting to be lifted. At the same time, we are realizing that, even if the virus disappears entirely, the sudden, life-changing and work-changing effects it forced on us are going to be with us in the long run.

We’ve talked a good deal about mental wellness in the workplace, but one of the hardest parts of trying to provide solutions has always been a sense of vagueness and uncertainty: What are the issues? Who is affected? How can you tell the difference between the normal ups and downs of life and an emerging mental wellness crisis? Is there a problem here? Does someone need help, or will they work it out by themselves? Should I be doing something?

We’re hearing a lot about mental health and mental wellness in the new workplace environment – fair enough – and I think that many of the solutions we’re looking at could just as easily be described as providing coping strategies, helping people adapt to change, and finding ways to take control of challenges in troubled times.