On April 15, we should have marked Polina’s 23rd birthday. But her 18th birthday was the last one we celebrated together. In September 2021, after years of struggling with her mental health, my niece died tragically.
No family emerges unchanged from a loss like that. Nearly five years later, ours is still grieving. But grief can also become action. Shortly after Po’s death, we founded The Polina Fund, through which our family and community work to support young women facing mental health and substance abuse challenges, and to help destigmatize these struggles before more lives are lost.
Polina’s too-short life taught me things I have tried to carry into every decision I make as a leader. That includes how we structure work, how we treat people, and what we owe one another in a world growing harder to navigate by the day.
THE PANDEMIC EFFECT
Young people entering today’s workforce are carrying burdens that previous generations did not face in the same way: prolonged social isolation from the pandemic, economic instability, political polarization, climate anxiety, and constant digital overstimulation.
The toll on our collective mental health is not metaphorical. It is measurable. When researchers surveyed 1,000 full-time U.S. employees in early 2025, they found that 75% reported experiencing persistent low mood driven largely by politics and current events. Nearly half said life was easier during the COVID-19 pandemic than it is today.
The pandemic did something particular and lasting to an entire generation. It shifted learning online, intensified isolation, shuttered community programs, disrupted employment and education, and destabilized the economy. The damage was not temporary. Youth anxiety and depression doubled globally during the pandemic, and among Gen Z workers in that survey, 54% said their mental health has never fully recovered.
These are not abstract statistics. These are the people sitting in our conference rooms, on our Zoom calls, managing our projects, and serving our clients.
Into that already-fragile landscape came the social media accelerant. For years, researchers, parents, and advocates warned about what algorithmic platforms were doing to children and teenagers, particularly young women. This past March, California jurors found Meta and Google liable in a landmark case involving a young woman whose compulsive social media use began in childhood. The ruling marked a watershed moment: For the first time, a jury concluded that these platforms were designed in ways that harmed developing minds.
WHAT WE CAN DO IN THE OFFICE
I am not in the business of judging Silicon Valley. I am in the business of asking what choices the rest of us are making.
Because here is the uncomfortable truth every business leader needs to sit with: Mental health is not a personal problem employees bring to work. It is something workplaces actively shape, for better or worse.
The economic consequences alone are staggering. Depression and anxiety account for an estimated 12 billion lost working days each year, costing the global economy roughly $1 trillion in lost productivity. Employees with unresolved depression experience a 35% drop in productivity, costing U.S. organizations $210 billion annually in absenteeism, reduced output, and medical expenses.
And yet the response from many organizations remains inadequate. Only 53% of employees know how to access mental healthcare through their employer. About 46% say they would worry about losing their job if they talked openly about their mental health at work.
The good news is that the opposite is also true. Employees who work at companies that actively support mental health are significantly less likely to experience burnout or depression. Supporting mental health is compassionate, but it is also smart organizational leadership.
HOW IT’S DONE
At Pyxera Global, when COVID arrived, we used it as an opportunity to question what kind of organization we wanted to be. That led to structural changes:
- We instituted a four-day work week in 2020 and continue to operate on a Monday–Thursday schedule.
- We moved to a hybrid workplace because modern families have modern needs. We still recognize the value of in-person collaboration and social connection.
- We reviewed our healthcare policies to ensure they included meaningful mental health benefits and regularly remind employees how to access them.
- We ensured each senior leader became certified in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), because leaders who cannot recognize signs of distress are not fully equipped to lead.
We are certainly not flawless at Pyxera Global. But we have tried to create a foundation that supports employee wellbeing because it is the right thing to do and because healthier employees create healthier organizations.
At The Polina Fund, we are also working to normalize conversations around mental health and substance use. In addition to providing financial support for women from underserved communities seeking sober living and mental health resources, we strongly advocate for Mental Health First Aid training. Like traditional first aid, MHFA does not make someone an expert. But it gives people practical skills that may help save a life.
We just finished Mental Health Awareness Month in May, but awareness is only the first step. I want to speak directly to fellow leaders—the people who shape workplace culture, design benefits, and decide whether managers are trained to recognize when someone is struggling.
Here is the challenge I put to you, and to myself: Move from awareness to action.
- Ask whether your employees actually know how to access mental health support.
- Ask whether your leaders could recognize a colleague in crisis.
- Ask, honestly, whether your culture makes it safe for someone to say out loud that they are not okay.
The people in our care—our employees, our colleagues, and the young people inheriting the world we are building—deserve more than an Employee Assistance Program phone number buried in an HR handbook.
They deserve leaders who take their wellbeing as seriously as their output.
The future of work is about whether people can survive and thrive within the systems we build.
Deirdre White is the CEO of Pyxera Global and a board member of The Polina Fund.