Employee care is often promoted as a key advantage of the workplace environment in job advertisements posted by large companies. Alongside the many social benefits that employers highlight as strengths, particular emphasis is placed on care for employee well-being. But what does this actually mean in practice?
From the company’s perspective, it has fulfilled its sincere intention to ensure the well-being of its employees by signing a contract with an intermediary firm tasked with providing such services.
The intermediary company, in turn, develops a platform for accumulating resources—by which one should understand collections of articles and video materials on various mental health issues. It integrates a chatbot with an appealing name to respond to client inquiries. It also compiles a catalogue of mental health specialists—some vetted, some not—with whom employees can connect when necessary. The firm further commits to organizing regular webinars aimed at both employees and consultants. Cameras and microphones are not mandatory, of course, which conveniently allows participation numbers to appear impressively high. Behind all of this stands a sizable team of administrative staff and technically skilled specialists—very often based somewhere in Asia—whose role is to ensure that the system remains operational.
And so the “caring” company pays a substantial fee to the intermediary firm and becomes its subscriber. In theory, this money should enable its employees to receive mental health support. In some cases, that does indeed happen. In many others, however, the employee receives:
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reading materials and videos that they could easily find by themselves on the internet
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a conversation with ChatGPT under a charming name and interface
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a limited number of consultations with counselors—where the most disadvantaged party is often the counselor, since the substantial fee has already been absorbed by technical maintenance, leaving very little funding for actual expertise.
At this point, the intermediary decides it will find cheaper labor for the real psychological support while raising the subscription price for the company. But the company has already approved a fixed budget, and its only option is to reduce the number of consultations available to each employee. What is the result? Money is allocated for mental health—supposedly for the well-being of employees—but it is spent largely on sustaining intermediaries. Competent professionals cannot realistically agree to the dismissively low rates offered by these intermediaries, and the quality of services inevitably declines. The outcome: employees still struggling with their problems—yet a financial report proudly showing that the company has invested in employee care.
Over the years, I have received numerous invitations from “large” intermediary firms asking me to join their catalogues. Some offered consultation fees appropriate for a fourth-year student. Others allowed consultants to set their own prices but failed to secure any business clients. I declined the first group; with the second, my name probably still appears somewhere in a directory from which not a single employee has ever contacted me. Meanwhile, I observed how employees were initially offered 12 consultations, then the following year 8, and the year after that 6. At the same time, well-being advertisements grew ever more emotionally charged, filled with promises and colorful language about prosperity, care, and an outstanding work environment.
Larger intermediaries buy out smaller ones, while the technical teams required for global operations demand far more maintenance than mental health expertise. The invitations I now receive are no longer to consult with employees, but to train artificial intelligence to do so. So when your employers promise you “well-being,” you may want to keep in mind what that promise often entails.
This text was generated entirely by natural intelligence—because artificial intelligence is still unable to convey my indignation.
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