Last month, Mental Health Awareness Month gave our industry an opportunity to have a conversation that, historically, construction has avoided. Now that May has passed, the question is whether that conversation carries forward or gets buried again until next year. It’s one we can no longer afford to keep putting off.
For years, this industry has made remarkable progress on physical safety. Mental health, however, hasn’t kept pace. At JM Electrical, one of our core values is “Our People.” That means recognizing that safety isn’t only what’s visible on the job site, but also what’s happening with the individuals doing the work.
The Culture We Work In
If you’ve spent any time in construction, you know the culture well: be tough, push through, get the job done. That resilience is part of what makes this industry great. But when people are conditioned not to slow down or ask for help, mental health struggles don’t disappear, they get buried.
That dynamic is compounded by the fact that construction is still a largely male-dominated field, where vulnerability can feel like weakness. The result is a significant barrier to people speaking up when they’re struggling. We don’t need less toughness in this industry, but we do need to redefine what strength looks like.
Stress Looks Different Here
Construction is not an office job, and the stress doesn’t look like office stress. Long hours, early mornings, irregular schedules, seasonal layoffs and constant project transitions create a kind of instability that most professions don’t deal with. When you layer in fatigue, wear and tear on the body, and workplace injuries, it’s not hard to see how mental health can take a hit over time. At JM Electrical, where our teams work in fast-paced environments installing HVAC controls systems, we see that pressure every day, and it doesn’t turn off when the workday ends.
The numbers reflect what people in this industry already know. According to the CDC, the suicide rate for men in construction is nearly twice that of the general working male population, and five times greater than the rate of fatal on-the-job injuries in the industry itself. The industry also sees disproportionately high overdose death rates, and across the broader workforce, one in five adults lives with a mental health condition.
A Business Issue as Much as a Human One
When mental health goes unaddressed, its effects show up at work: absenteeism, higher turnover, lower productivity and greater safety risk. When someone is exhausted, distracted or overwhelmed, it affects their focus and decision-making. In construction, those aren’t just performance concerns, they are safety concerns.
With skilled labor difficult to find and harder to keep, employees are paying attention to where they work and why. They notice when companies invest in them and when they don’t.
What Contractors Can Actually Do
None of this requires a dramatic overhaul, but it does require intention. It starts with culture. If leadership isn’t open to talking about mental health, no one else will be. The tone is set at the top, and it filters down quickly, which is exactly why training frontline leaders matters. They’re often the first to notice when something is off, so give them the tools to recognize warning signs and connect someone with help.
An Employee Assistance Program is a meaningful investment, but only if employees know it exists, trust it and remember it beyond the first day of onboarding. That means actively communicating it, normalizing its use and choosing resources that speak to your workforce. A generic corporate wellness program doesn’t always translate to the trades.
What We’re Doing at JM Electrical
At JM Electrical, along with Local 103, we’ve partnered with Modern Assistance, an employee assistance program built specifically for the trades. Every member of our team has access to confidential support, including individual, family and couples counseling, substance abuse services, mental health and anger management resources, and 24/7 access to licensed clinicians. But beyond offering it, we work to make sure people actually know it’s there and feel no stigma in using it.
Mental health is a job site safety issue. The construction industry has spent decades making the physical job safer. It’s time to bring that same commitment to what’s happening on the inside.
I encourage you to take a hard look at what your company is offering. Ask whether your employees know about it and if they trust it. Ultimately, it’s about building an industry where people can show up, work hard, and feel supported doing it.
Whitney Mugford is director of human resources at JM Electrical Co., a Boston-based specialty electrical contractor.
