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

July 6, 2026

Share this article

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

Recent Posts

September 25, 2026
I will start with only one word. Not a headline, not a statistic, only a single word that followed me around a conference room in downtown Denver in May of 2026 as I mingled with Colorado’s largest manufacturing executives. I was participating in the 52nd World Trade Day Conference, the largest international gathering of international trade professionals, policymakers, and business leaders. This year’s theme was blunt: “A New Era in Trade: Globalization in Question.” The keynote wasn’t about growth strategy or market expansion. It was titled “Safeguarding Trade in a Weaponized World Economy.” Every speaker I listened to and every hallway conversation I eavesdropped on kept circling back to that same word. Not tariffs, not GDP, not affordability, but ‘uncertainty.’ The word ‘uncertainty’ isn’t just a trade-conference buzzword. It’s showing up everywhere. Meanwhile, economists who track something called the World Uncertainty Index — a measure built from language in global news coverage — clocked its highest reading in more than three decades of data earlier this year. The index’s newest national poll found that nearly half of adults say they’re more anxious than they were a year ago — and when researchers asked people what’s driving that anxiety, the economy topped the list, with roughly seven in ten adults reporting they feel anxious about it. And uncertainty is not confined to our minds and our markets. It’s in the terra firma beneath us. Geophysicists studying the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults in Southern California recently reported that the two faults are carrying more accumulated stress than at any point in the last thousand years. If they were to rupture together through the Cajon Pass, researchers estimate the resulting earthquake could reach magnitude 7.4 to 7.8 — enough to simultaneously disrupt highways, rail lines, and energy corridors across multiple cities.
September 25, 2026
The necessity of integrating the EverythingDiSC™ profile into vocational training for people with disabilities is rooted in its ability to facilitate deeply personalized and meaningful career planning, a crucial element for ensuring successful employment outcomes. It acknowledges that job success relies far more on behavioral competencies than on technical ones.
September 25, 2026
Arthur Schlesinger Schlesinger was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Elizabeth Harriet (nee Bancroft) and Arthur M. Schlesinger (!888-1965), an influential historian at Ohio State University. His paternal grandfather was a Prussian Jew who converted to Protestantism and married an Austrian Catholic. According to family tradition, his mother, a Mayflower descendant, was of German and New England ancestry and a relative of historian George Bancroft. Schlesinger practiced Unitarianism. As a writer, I am confronted with three problems: 1. Everyone reading this has unexamined biases. 2. Embedded biases can color how one perceives stories of religious intolerance. 3. Gross ignorance. I am figuring out how to please everybody who reads this; however, I welcome intelligent argument if you think I'm off. I do not proselytize for any religion but hope every individual will map their path of faith, even if it is a path of no faith. Just identify your spiritual horizon and head for it. Simple. What I know is all that I know, a finite library of cerebral knowledge. Outside that subjective reality lies a vast universe of ignorance, my reason for open-mindedness and humility. At my core, I'm a perma-skeptic who continually questions everything, especially long-embedded personal 'truths' and hidden biases. Notwithstanding actual apparitions, I tend not to believe abstract concepts unless they are carefully and logically derived through reason and are perceived by my senses. If I think I hear divine voices speaking to me, am I crazy? Or am I receiving the voice of God speaking to me through the megaphone of conscience, just like Joan d'Arc? I don't know. That's why I explore this subject with you. I'm blessed or cursed with being born with an extreme curiosity about everything and how everything indescribably connects to everything else. Please receive this report for awareness, not necessarily agreement with every point. I could make mistakes, so please don't crucify the piano player. Aware that this report will be read by everyone, from non-practicing or devout Christians to befuddled agnostics and confirmed atheists, I strive to communicate in a way that reports, educates, and contributes to understanding differences and their core reasons. Knowing how belief systems directly affect one's worldview and behavior is helpful as you may lead, manage, or interact with people. Are Catholics more hopeful because a scapular guarantees salvation? Are Protestants more negative because of a focus on our inherently sinful nature? Remember that I am not a theologian, so feel free to challenge whatever you disagree with or want to provide correction. I'm a teacher, not a preacher. On all matters, I take a Socratic approach, always searching for higher-quality questions, as in AI prompt engineering.
September 25, 2026
Historical Context and Ubiquity
September 25, 2026
My Refrigerator as Metaphor for Tariff Stressors
September 24, 2026
Men Being Harassed at Work by Women
September 24, 2026
How many psychoactive drugs can you identify?
John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy at a congressional hearing, illustrating a discussion of nepotism in public office.
By Frank DeDominicis • September 22, 2026
Explore the risks and potential benefits of nepotism through historical, political and workplace examples and what fair leadership requires.
August 10, 2026
Generally speaking, most adults consider play as something extra after the to-do list is completed, a reward for accomplishing a task, or a diversion from something serious and heavy. In actuality, it should be considered vital for mental health because, without it, we ignore the child in us who wants to explore, test, and play. Play is inherent in human and animal natures.  Being in the early days of Act III of life and preparing for a good death, I am more serious about things and consciously scheduling play times. I assign play equal weight, if not greater, to other life priorities such as work, worship, friendship, and love. I've enjoyed many hobbies that provide great satisfaction, but with aging, I've pared them down to only a few. If I were to live as long as my centenarian mother, I have time to read only 1000 new books, so I'd better carefully choose what I put into my head. Likewise, protecting play time is essential to my mental health.
August 10, 2026
Lest you mistake this article for a Timothy Learyesque' drop-out' message, I'd like to be clear. While retreat is a common tactic in war, it is intended to help regain posture and consolidate power resources, rather than abandoning the battlefield. Thanks to the internet, many of us are bombarded daily with cognitive overload from useless information, if we allow such abuse. Unfortunately, constantly staring at screens has become the norm for many humans. It is estimated that approximately 70% of the world's population, or nearly 5.775 billion people as of July 2025, is online. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?  The answer is that it is both. The internet has dramatically shrunk and flattened our world of communication, which is excellent for collaborative ventures, but which also benefits malicious actions by begrudged individuals.
Show More