Babitha Balakrishnan

By Babitha Balakrishnan | HR.com Most organizations offer paid time off. Far fewer make employees feel comfortable using it. With summer Paid Time Off ( PTO) season in full swing, many employees are preparing to log off, but truly disconnecting is often easier said than done. Concerns about overflowing inboxes, unfinished work, and staying visible while away can turn time off into another source of stress.

Highlights: The costliest claims often begin as missed or delayed preventive care. Younger employees are increasingly at risk, but remain under-screened. Prevention fails without access, follow-through, and trust. Most employees don't avoid preventive care because they can't afford it. They avoid it because the system makes it easy to delay - long waits, short appointments, no one following up, and a general sense that they're not sick enough to bother yet.

Highlights: Programs don’t solve pressure built into daily workflows. Employees need clarity, control, and realistic expectations. Burnout reflects cumulative strain, not isolated incidents. Workplace stress in America is no longer a background concern, it has become a defining feature of the modern work experience. Nearly three in four employees now report moderate to high levels of burnout, the highest figure recorded in six years. Among Gen Z workers, that number climbs to 74%.