Our 2021 Impact

2021 challenged people’s health and livelihoods in unprecedented ways. As the COVID-19 pandemic persisted, so did our commitment and ability to meet worker’s needs.

Our priority: supporting the emotional and economic well-being of vulnerable workers. We did that across last year through our immediate, confidential text line. We also expanded our support via written resources and content. We changed lives by meeting people where they are with services they need. 

We connected with thousands of under-resourced and frontline workers across the United States — early childhood educators at small daycares struggling with stress, pharmacy workers fearful that COVID safety measures weren’t being followed, healthcare workers who were being bullied and uncertain about what to do, manufacturing workers frustrated by lack of a living wage — all looking for a path forward.

Our incredible, trained volunteers are both coaches and guides — helping open up potential paths and providing emotional and tactical support so that workers find a next step that works for them. 

In 2021, that next step was powerful. Over 92% of people who connected with Empower Work reported improved mental health.

2021 was also a year of transformation for Empower Work. Our team laid out a roadmap to expand our service to meet greater needs and invest in larger changes to policies, practices, and approaches that will build healthier, more equitable workplaces for millions of Americans. The need is tremendous: 40M Americans lack access to resources during critical, livelihood altering experiences. We believe that we must not just meet people in their moment of need, we must radically reshape work to prevent many of these experiences from happening. So that all people can thrive at work.

Learn more about our impact in this brief video:

People come to Empower Work during some of their hardest, most gut-wrenching experiences:

• When they’ve been fired and are worried about feeding their family and paying rent,

• When they’ve been in increasingly uncomfortable interactions with a manager that leave them feeling physically and emotionally unsafe, 

• When they feel deeply disrespected, underpaid, and mistreated at both of their jobs, and lack the time and confidence to find a new job,

• When they can’t sleep and are sick at the idea of going to work due to bullying, harassment, or discrimination,

• When their employer won’t support their health or that of their family during a pandemic,

• When they hate the idea of staying in their job but feel stuck and are unsure how to start a job search. 

Connecting with a trained peer counselor transforms the moment and the future. We often see a vivid metamorphosis as conversations unfold — a person who started off feeling like they had no options or agency will end their conversation with hope and an action plan.  

We’ve learned from post-use surveys and follow-ups where people share what’s happened since reaching out, that our support resulted in mindset shifts, new action plans, and an increased sense of optimism for the future.

One of the biggest trends we saw in 2021 was that discrimination, bullying, and harassment tripled compared to 2020. It mirrored in many ways the continued complexities, stress, political polarity (and intensity) playing out across the United States. For example, discrepancies over workplace vaccine policies or compliance by coworkers might quickly escalate to bullying or threats. 

Paired with that, our team noticed a surge in people speaking up and amplifying others. The urgency and intensity seemed to lead to an increase in speaking truth, though frequently tempered by fear about financial security.

Some key text line trends from 2021:

• Over 30,000 people supported through our text line and digital resources

• A 20% increase in new text line conversations

• A sizeable increase in repeat users — 10-15% of those we supported had used the service more than once

• The number of conversations involving discrimination, bullying, and harassment tripled compared to 2020

• Conversations related to job loss or career decisions nearly doubled over last year

• Unemployment needs had a 30% increase

• Mental health, financial needs, legal needs, and COVID as a factor in their situation stayed the same vs. the previous year

• The impact of disability, race, and gender in work-related grievances remained prominent

Dedicated volunteers power our support line

Our support would not be possible without the volunteers who power our text line every day. 

People are overwhelmingly motivated to become peer counselors because they want to help underrepresented workers who are struggling. Many volunteers have personally experienced difficult work situations and understand the value of providing a sounding board to brainstorm possible next steps. Others have personally benefited from having a support system and want to pay it forward to help those who may not be fortunate enough to have access to such resources.  Our volunteers come from a wide variety of professional backgrounds and include social workers, HR specialists, executive coaches, engineers, product managers, firefighters, chefs, and more.  

By becoming a trained peer counselor with Empower Work, volunteers are able to not only give back, but also develop their own professional skills, becoming better co-workers, managers, and leaders in the process. Through our training, volunteers develop key skills and learn everything from how to enhance their empathy for others to honing their communication and coaching skills.