Vicarious Trauma as an Operational Hazard: How Death Changes Work Culture

The January 2026 Minneapolis tragedies—especially the ICE murders of Renée Nicole Good and ICU nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti—have evolved from ‘breaking news’ to what psychologists term a ‘cascade of collective traumas.’ The relentless flow of disturbing reports significantly impacts people, both positively and negatively, creating fertile ground for those who profit from chaos and confusion.

The Minnesota failures of our safety system are ‘critical error’ messages in our social contract. ICE criminal abuse events, captured on high-resolution video and distributed via 24/7 news cycles, are a profound psychological ‘distraction engine’ that directly impacts the modern workforce, everybody from the custodial engineer down to the lowly and humble CEO.

Worker Stress Losses – Relative to Current Events

Here is the current 2026 status of US workers’ mental health and well-being:

Anxiety/Hypervigilance: Absenteeism & Missed Deadlines; Cost: $322 Billion; (Burnout related)
 

Numbing/Detachment: Loss of Motivation & Innovation; 2% Drop in Global Engagement

Cognitive Dissonance: High Turnover & "No Confidence; 34% Increase in Intent to Leave
 

Cost of Living: Consumer buying power is 50% of what it was in the 2000s, as reflected in the

BLI.gov image below. In other words, average household consumables cost twice as much. From December 2020 to December 2025, the increase is over 125%. Working-class people feel it.

Shifts in Worker Attitudes

The primary shift is a transition from automatic conformity to institutional cynicism.
Erosion of the Safety Imprint. Recently, I conducted an informal survey on current events and their impact on commerce, in reference to claims made by Dr. Mark Scullard in his blog, The Invisible Drain on Your Company’s Culture. His article cites that the core feeling of insecurity that we all have is now greatly magnified for many workers, resulting in aberrant behaviors such as increased gossip, tension, and outright argument. Dr. Mark Scullard reports that insecurity affects everyone, especially those with high ‘S’ DiSC profiles, regardless of position or status. Trust, communication, and efficiency erode when insecurity is high. Insecurity significantly impacts the bottom line, affecting decision-making and innovation.

Carefully monitoring trends, I believe US workers are in the middle of a transformation of their collective spirit. Workers are forced to become more mentally disciplined, consciously making an effort to maintain focus and concentration on work tasks and everyday chores, despite the constant media noise about a country in turmoil blaring in the background. Even when tech is off, neighbors or friends eagerly inform us of breaking news, often tragic, especially regarding human rights crimes.

Compared to global cultures, this adolescent country called the United States of America, ‘discovered’ by Europeans a mere 250 years ago, is growing through an ideological synaptic pruning. Our organizational values are shifting. In commerce, this adjustment is seen in the ever-present balance between executive decisions about what is best for the bottom line and what is best for the humans who produce it.

On religious foreign relief channels and on ‘good news’ networks, we daily witness the moral development of shared public consciousness and what appears to be a growing heart of communal compassion. Yes, America is enduring adolescent growing pains. If you doubt that observation, then consider the adolescent behavior modeled by politicians, who often display incorrigible teenage behavior, including slander, foul language, and worse.

For many workers, the lens through which they view the state as a protective entity has been shattered. The fact that both Minnesota victims were U.S. citizens (and in Pretti’s case, a VA nurse and union member) creates a ‘proximity of fear’ for white-collar and healthcare professionals who previously felt insulated from such violence.

The “No Confidence” Internal Vote: According to SHRM’s 2026 research, a massive chasm has emerged between supportive and unsupportive employers. Employees are increasingly casting an ‘internal vote of no confidence’ against companies that remain silent or offer “toxic positivity” (e.g., management’s suggesting mindfulness apps) in response to state-sanctioned violence.

Vicarious Trauma Workers are experiencing symptoms of ‘secondhand trauma.’ Mind Share Partners (2025/2026) reports that 42% of U.S. workers cite global/national events as their primary mental health stressor, leading to a state of “languishing” (a sense of stagnation and emptiness).
Trauma isn’t just an emotional state; it is a cognitive tax. The January 2026 Minneapolis ICE murders affect three gears of productivity in measurable ways:

Cognitive Load & Presenteeism

Employees are ‘present’ but mentally highly distracted. The brain’s executive function is hijacked by the ‘algorithm of anxiety.’ A 2026 University of Illinois study found that 61% of workers are currently “languishing,” resulting in a significant drop in focus and creativity.

The Cerebralization Defense: According to Erich Fromm’s theory, many workers cope with the shock by ‘numbing out’ or becoming purely logical (cerebral). While this might look efficient, it leads to long-term burnout and a total lack of innovation, as the worker is essentially ‘acting like a robot’ just to survive the day.



Increased Error Rates: The hypervigilance triggered by footage of agents clapping batons against shields or counting bullet wounds (as reported in the MN Oversight Report) triggers a physiological stress response. High cortisol levels are scientifically linked to poor concentration, irritability, and a spike in workplace accidents or errors.

Behavioral and Organizational Outcomes

Have you found yourself becoming distracted by external news media noise? This can result in your mentally checking out at work, but more so by a psychological decline into a state of passive apathy. Coupled with the US’s slow economic recovery from COVID, and a workforce that is not hiring humans nearly as fast as AI is replacing jobs and creating many more AI-based or influenced jobs.
In fact, 2025 was a record-breaking year for job terminations, with over 1.2 million in the first 10 months and over 165,000 in a single month. 57 major corporations accounted for all of these terminations.

The only jobs that are really AI-secure, and are likely to remain secure, even on an intergalactic space station, are jobs which specifically require conscious use of the world’s greatest quasi-tool, the human hand, coupled with human intellect, problem-solving ability, and creativity. Temple Grandin, who humanized the US beef slaughter industry and thus has dramatically changed our thinking about autism as a disadvantage and disabilities in general, supports this belief.

With increased US manufacturing materials costs due to Trump tariff increases, small businesses cannot compete with big businesses, which can survive and provide positive numbers for stockholders by cutting labor expenses with large layoffs, a classic tactic from Jack Welch, The Man Who Broke Capitalism.

A new phenomenon is referred to as the ‘glass door,’ a source of constant job insecurity as many companies avoid bad publicity by quietly and routinely laying off small batches of employees: ten, twenty, or fifty at a time, without public service announcements. This is called ‘the forever layoff.’

As of February 2026, corporate layoffs have reached their highest levels since the 2008 Great Recession, with over 108,000 job cuts announced in January 2026 alone.

Major Layoffs: Early 2026 (Jan–Feb)

In addition to corporate layoffs, the federal government went on a firing spree, with the total number of US federal employees who exited in 2025, due largely to Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts, reaching approximately 317,000 to 352,000.

With massive and growing job insecurity, consumers are cutting back on all expenses, delaying health and automobile maintenance appointments and payments, contributing to their own inflation. This savings habit is good for Westerners who are notoriously poor at saving for a rainy day. Workers are anxious about a world in constant bellicose turmoil, at a time when public mistrust of institutions is at an all-time high.


Even the world of tech is slowing down with hiring, a concerning observation, considering we were warned several years ago, when Chat GPT launched, to start upskilling and cross-skilling, in light of AI predictably replacing members of work teams with online dashboards. Some workers and employers have flexed and thrived. Some have not and now struggle to adapt to a new, more efficient world, or they no longer exist. Contrasted against the number of new business filings, the current trend towards business bankruptcies is shown in the image below:

Failure Results of Trump Tariff Economy

What does all this add up to? It adds up to a worker mood similar to those described by Erich Fromm in his landmark works Escape from Freedom (1941) and The Sane Society (1955), which argued modern workers handle the psychological shock of industrial life through what he called ‘automation conformity,’ a process by which people just ‘numb out’ their authentic selves to survive in a crazy-making environment.

‘Numbing out’ is Erich Fromm’s creation of a psychological defense against existential anxiety. This anxiety is heightened by workers increasingly feeling disposable, as if they must suppress their real passions and feelings, as they are now perceived as a commodity whose value is determined by the labor market. These results, Fromm declares, are a loss of a sense of Self and a movement toward a numb emotional state. Have you ever felt this way? Do you know?

If you watch a slew of violent cops versus bad guy movies, you will become conditioned to non-reaction to the seriousness of bloodshed on the screen, when in fact, witnessing it live would be traumatic. Yes, movies make us numb, so does feeling like the corporation doesn’t really acknowledge or value you. Feelings of dehumanization are too much for some people to take, and they may break or ‘quietly quit’ in their head.
The good news is that some of the more successful companies that have survived Covid and the AI bombshell are those whose executive decision-making is always carefully guided by the principle of human first, not money first.

Conclusion

Data shows that workforce well-being is no longer an optional perk; it is a strategic necessity. If an organization does not acknowledge the ‘shattered lens’ of its 2026 employees, it faces a major retention crisis. Flourishing employees are 13% more productive, but they only flourish in environments with high ethical clarity and psychological safety.

Continuing business investments in worker personal development training and support services that are specifically preferred by workers does pay off. Does your HR department first conduct a needs survey before providing employees with training resources? Survey your workers, and you’ll likely find consistency with some of the disengaged attitudes described herewith.

REFERENCES

The Tragic Shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdZIPhdDUiE

Quiet Quitting Accelerated by Covid and Chaos - 66% Workers Disengaged

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B4s_rybqKY

An increasing number of Americans feel ‘stuck’ at work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kk1kIYWKlo

The Glass Door – Parsing Corporate Layoffs

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/video/office-anxiety-americans-feel-facing-forever-layoff-work-127560021

Job Security IS OVER: Millions of Americans Facing Uncertainty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrHcedxrK9Q

The Invisible Drain on Your Company’s Culture - Dr. Mark Scullard

https://bit.ly/4quOkV3

Workplace MH Trends: MindShare Partners

https://www.mindsharepartners.org/blog/workplace-mental-health-trends-that-defined-2025

In 2026, Most Workers Are Still Languishing

https://www.fastcompany.com/91484396/in-2026-most-workers-are-still-languishing

MN Oversight Report

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LShOniu4SkWFlwaVhyixmoRHhz86WGOO/view?usp=sharing