This edition of HR News Roundup features items on the “job hugging” phenomena, employees looking to employers for help with tough finances, the high cost of anxiety, Panic Button Laws, and more. Don’t miss our items from the lighter side.
‘Job Hugging’: Why All HR Leaders Should Worry about This Trend
Tom Starner, HR Executive
The rate at which workers are voluntarily leaving jobs has hovered around 2% since the start of 2025, according to recent U.S. Labor Department data. Outside of the initial days of the COVID-19 pandemic, levels haven’t been that consistently low since early 2016—a reality giving rise to the new term “job hugging.”
The trend spotlights how employees are clinging to their roles not out of loyalty but rather out of economic uncertainty, says Amanda Czepiel, an HR legal expert at Brightmine.“On the surface, low turnover looks like stability to HR leaders,” she explains.
Yet, Czepiel says, as inflation drives up everyday costs—and employees read constant headlines about mass layoffs—many feel the security of a steady paycheck and reliable benefits outweigh the potential risk of switching jobs.
Job hugging is a serious contrast to the job-hopping mindset that not too long ago defined career ambition and growth.
Related: American Workers Feel Stuck in Their Jobs. It May Be Costing Them, and the Economy
Workers Look for Employer Help as Financial Well-Being Dips
Kathryn Mayer, SHRM
Just 47% of employees feel financially well-off, a drop from the 52% who said so at the start of the year, according to a survey of nearly 1,000 full-time employees and 800 employers from Bank of America’s 2025 Workplace Benefits Report. That’s a regression to the same level measured in 2024, but higher than the 2023 level of 43%. Still, given the drop and confluence of economic pressures in flux, it’s a trend employers should monitor, especially given that levels may decline further.
,,,The drop in feeling of financial wellness is prompting more employees to look for help from their employer: Twice as many U.S. workers are currently looking to their employers for guidance and resources around near-term financial needs, compared to two years ago. The Bank of America report found that 26% of the workforce is seeking help in areas such as emergency savings, paying down debt, and overall financial wellness, compared to 13% in 2023.
Employees also said they are looking for financial wellness resources revolving around retirement education and planning (36%), learning how to generate income in retirement (33%), and developing good financial skills and habits (33%).
Related: Workers Doubling Down on Employers for Financial Guidance, Report Finds
Rising anxiety resulting in $14 billion in medical costs, Cigna finds
Jeff Lagasse, Healthcare Finance
Anxiety has emerged as a pervasive health challenge, and has resulted in about $13.9 billion in additional costs, according to a new report commissioned by the Cigna Group.
An analysis of Evernorth claims data showed a 20% increase in the prevalence of diagnosed mental and behavioral health conditions between 2020 and 2024, and 14% of the insured population has now been diagnosed with anxiety by a mental health professional.
These individuals account for almost $14 billion in medical, behavioral and pharmacy expenses, data showed, representing a disproportionate 27% of the total cost of care. And the prevalence of anxiety may be higher due to a lack of formal diagnosis by self-identifying individuals.
Top Safety Concerns of Workers
EHS Today
An EMCI Wireless survey of 1,000 American workers, exploring their perceptions and experiences related to workplace safety, found that:
25% of workers said they have experienced a hostile verbal altercation.
45% of Gen Z report that they are getting distracted by safety concerns and are losing focus at least a few times a week, and it’s hurting their job performance.
Asked why they don’t quit over safety concerns, 23% of workers say they can’t afford to lose their jobs.
As Workplace Incidents Rise, So Do Panic Button Laws
Robeert Fredman, HR Dive
The number of states and localities with panic button laws is small but growing as incidents like the Manhattan office building shooting in July raise concerns over worksite violence.
… About half a dozen states, including California and Virginia, either require or recommend panic buttons for employees, typically in the healthcare, hospitality or retail sectors. Many of these states plus several others also have so-called Alyssa laws, which require schools to install panic buttons in classrooms or provide them to teachers and staff. The laws are named for one of the students killed in the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida.
Municipalities are passing laws, too, with almost a dozen California cities requiring hospitality employers to give their workers panic buttons.
Related: Threats Against Executives Surge as Companies Grapple with Global Instability
How Do You Handle Failure at Work?
Michael W. Wiederman, Psychology Today
Some degree of failure is inevitable. However, people respond differently to their own failure. Do any of these three styles of response to failure sound like you? Recognize your failure style: impunitive, extrapunitive, or intropunitive. Pause before reacting and aim for a solution-focused response.
Six Problem-Solving Mindsets for Very Uncertain Times
Charles Conn and Robert McLean, McKinsey Quarterly
Great problem solvers are made, not born. That’s what we’ve found after decades of problem solving with leaders across business, nonprofit, and policy sectors. These leaders learn to adopt a particularly open and curious mindset, and adhere to a systematic process for cracking even the most inscrutable problems. They’re terrific problem solvers under any conditions. And when conditions of uncertainty are at their peak, they’re at their brilliant best.
Six mutually reinforcing approaches underlie their success: (1) being ever-curious about every element of a problem; (2) being imperfectionists, with a high tolerance for ambiguity; (3) having a “dragonfly eye” view of the world, to see through multiple lenses; (4) pursuing occurrent behavior and experimenting relentlessly; (5) tapping into the collective intelligence, acknowledging that the smartest people are not in the room; and (6) practicing “show and tell” because storytelling begets action (exhibit).
HR News Roundup: Quick Takes
- 5 Things HR Can Do to Hire — and Retain — Veterans
- How to Give Better Feedback at Work: The Manager’s Complete Guide
- US Union Membership Declining in ‘Right-to-Work’ States, Report Reveals
- Love on the Clock: 4 Tips for Managing Workplace Relationships
- Employers Project 10% Jump in Health Care Costs for 2026
- More Women Are Leaving the Workforce. Here’s What You Can Do About It
- Work-Life Balance in 2025: What Employees Say Works
- Abysmal August Jobs Report Puts Recession Fears Back on Employers’ Radar
- No Tax on Tips: 68 Occupations Listed in IRS Proposed Regs
- Top 10 OSHA Violations of 2025
- Grocery Prices Are Jumping Up. We Explain Why.
From the Lighter Side …
- In the late 1600s, British playwright William Congreve gave us the phrase “Music soothes the savage beast.” A French musician known simply as Plumes gives proof to this idea. Armed only with a pink guitar, he travels to various venues to serenade animals. His audience includes barnyard critters like cows, sheep, and donkeys .., but he has also performed for wilder creatures, such as elephants, giraffes, lions, and more. His videos are fascinating and soothing to man as well as beast. Check out his video shorts on YouTube or find him on Facebook.
- Hard to believe after an 85 degree day, but winter and accompanying blizzards are on the way. We know this because the Minnesota Department of Transportation revealed the winners of its annual “name a snowplow” contest. There are seven winners to reflect the state’s 7 districts. In addition to the winning entries, you can see the list of finalists. The winners are great, but we are sorry that “Accumulus Removeus” and “Catch My Drift” didn’t make the final cut.
- Change is hard. Some people adapt to change easier and more quickly than others. We’ve posted this amusing video clip on the Medieval Help Desk before, but we think it is particularly relevant today as AI changes the way we work.
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