Letter from the Editors: Dual Pandemics

As we write this letter in early June 2020, we are struck with unrelenting grief over the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, and so many more Black individuals who came before them. At the same time, we are grieving the loss of over 418,000 people worldwide who have lost their battle with COVID-19. As Editors-in-Chief for this Journal, we are keenly aware that the world is facing two pandemics. The first, is new and novel – COVID-19; the second is longstanding and insidious – Racism. Both lead directly to sickness and death, and have a negative impact on behavioral health, the focus of our journal. Both interact directly with all aspects of our society, including the workplace.

As we observe workplace leaders considering how best to support employees and workplace goals throughout this dual pandemic, we recognize a needed global paradigm shift with regard to how we, as individual scholars and practitioners, can support necessary individual and systemic change. This change includes the broader economic, social, educational, criminal justice and other systems and structures that continue to be designed to subconsciously and consciously support racism and to prevent equal treatment of employees who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). As a Journal, we focus on the intersection of work and behavioral health, in the broadest sense of the terms, and we cannot ignore how both pandemics are interrelated with the workplace. The workplace must recognize its role and impact it has on concerns such as health disparities due to COVID-19, and the impact of racism on the health and well-being of BIPOC.

As Editors, we felt a need to not only make a statement indicating our commitment to standing in solidarity with BIPOC, but to commit to taking steps as Journal editors to work toward calling out white supremacy by actively seeking research that helps us learn new ways to work toward dismantling systemic and structural racism, and all forms of oppression in the workplace. We know many of our Editorial Board members, authors, peer reviewers, and researchers have been searching for ways in which they can make a difference and contribute to a new normal in the world of work and as Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, we pledge to support work that focuses on the intersection of antiracist practices in the workplace and behavioral health. We recognize racism as a primary factor among BIPOC in its contribution to health and behavioral health disparities (Bailey, Krieger, Agenor, Graves, Linos, & Bassett, 2017; Hardeman, Murphy, Karbeah, & Kozhimannil, 2018). Racism is a form of trauma that contributes directly to ill health and well-being (Kirkinis, Pieterse, Martin, Agiliga, & Brownell, 2018).

Over the past few weeks, several workplace leaders have reached out to us asking for ways in which their workplace behavioral health programs, such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and other related workplace-based programs, can better support BIPOC employees and developing and implementing more antiracist policies and practices. We want to work to answer their call for help. As an initial step, we are publishing an article written by Co-Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Jodi Frey, as the lead article in Volume 35, Issue 2, along with this statement. While Dr. Frey’s article does not provide all of the answers, it challenges the EAP field to assimilate new information and consider different ways in perceiving our current and future roles in the workplace. The article provides tangible actions and activities that EAPs can do to begin taking a more conscious position to support employees by integrating antiracist perspectives and practices. It is our intention that this article will serve as a starting point that will inspire additional future articles that provide a combination of research and best practices to inform the challenge of transforming our workplaces to be more just and equitable, for BIPOC and all other employees who face persistent discrimination and oppression at work. We will recruit more BIPOC to our Editorial Board and peer review network. Over the past few years, the Journal has built a successful network of international authors and readers, and we plan to further the effort to advance research in global thought and inclusive ways of understanding workplace behavioral health.

As the world focuses on how to bring the workforce back together after months of physical distancing and onsite employment limited mostly essential employees only, we cannot “return to normal.” We must seize the moment as workplace behavioral health researchers and leaders and guide our workplaces to a new normal—one that promotes health, safety and well-being, with special attention to antiracist behaviors. We ask you to join us in this work. We want to encourage researchers to submit your journal articles that focus not only on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, but go deeper in to more active ways that research can inform workplace ally-ship and influence program and policy change that will push workplace leaders to work toward dismantling long-existing racist and discriminatory systems and instead, work to create just institutions.