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The potted plant test

Researchers tested their theory by going into an office at night and placing potted plants by the desks of some employees. They placed office supplies on other employees’ desks.

The employees who were exposed to this small dose of nature displayed higher job performance, an increased desire to help, and enhanced creativity. No one was negatively impacted.

Bringing nature indoors

Live plants can’t be part of every work setting, but they’re not the only way to bring the benefits of nature indoors.

Nature-related elements can include:

• Windows with views of nature
• Indoor water features
• Murals of natural scenes
• Artificial plants or flowers
• Fish aquariums

Design features related to nature can also be more significant and included in building plans. For example, investing in landscaping designs outside office windows or having an indoor garden are ways to positively impact employees.

These options don’t have to break the bank or require a pot of gold, however. Simply allowing employees to place potted plants by their desks is an inexpensive way to enhance the workplace.

With a little luck, everyone will reap the benefits for having a little more green nearby.

Key to remember: Bringing natural touches to the workplace can have a positive impact on job performance, cooperation, and creativity.

Providing other mental health information

In addition to the availability of EAP services, general information about mental health should be shared often. Attendees had these suggestions:

• Posting info: “The back of bathroom stall doors is an open canvas!”
• Newsletter articles: “We have a monthly mental health and wellness newsletter that we post for all employees. It also has exercise and food information, and challenges of the month.”
• QR codes: “We regularly rotate our benefits bulletin board with mental health helpful ideas, and QR codes to available benefits.”

Key to remember: Sharing information about your EAP and other mental health resources supports workplace well-being and makes it easy for employees to take advantage of valuable resources.

Use your policies, programs, and people

There’s no quick way to erase workplace stress or ensure that all employees feel their mental health is at its peak, but workplaces can put policies and programs into place that provide a solid foundation of assistance and support. In addition, the actions of managers, supervisors, and coworkers contribute to a culture that helps employees thrive.

During recent “Let’s Talk About Employee Mental Health” webcasts, J. J. Keller opened up the chat to ask attendees what’s working for them. The result was a great list of actionable ideas that support worker mental health:

• Being there: “I tell people that I am in their corner and if they would like to talk, I am here. Also, I end emails with ‘Stay Fabulous!’”
• Notice something good: “Compliment others – it doesn't have to be work-related.”
• Time to recharge: “We give wellness time off, and we have added an unpaid leave of absence for mental health time.”
• Choose your benefit: “We have a wellness credit that employees can use toward mental health apps or gym memberships, etc.”
• Making connections: “We held a ‘get to know one another better’ bingo during a break last week; one-on-one meetings for goals are happening with supervisors/managers and their employees, and we have employee of the month by department, with a lunch with leadership.”
• Checking in: “I try to do employee check-ins every Friday by calling a few employees just to check in on how they're doing work wise and outside of work.”
• Embedded resources: “Our workforce is managing survival-level challenges, not just work-life balances. We introduced work-life coaches that are embedded with our employees.”
• Compassion during times of grief: “When we had an employee death last year, the company brought in a grief counselor. I thought that showed our company cared.”
• Help at your fingertips: “Our company offers a free app … that has stress management exercises and reminders. Our corporate office paid for a group subscription. We agreed to fund the cost as a benefit.”
• Get up and go: Exercise is a great stress-reliever, and attendees mentioned walking, pickleball, and a health/fitness app that offers personalized 5- to 10-minute workouts as well as rewards for reaching a goal. One workplace offers “fresh air Friday walks” during breaks and lunch.
• Fun and food: “One of the best HR initiatives that I did was a Jenga tournament, we do an annual employee appreciation food truck.” Another idea: “We have a truck come quarterly with fresh fruits and vegetables for staff to purchase.”
• Phone detox: “I recently did some research and found that people are coping with stress by doomscrolling. We are doing a little challenge to keep people off their phones.”
• Intranet info: “Our company has a website that has up-to-date mental health, bereavement, and financial help resources, that they can go to anonymously.”
• Multiple methods: “We have quarterly meetings and address mental health concerns when talking about leave. I send out our employee assistance program information after every employee relations talk as well. It's free for the first visits, which is very nice.”
• Wellness challenges: “We have a yearly 6-week Health and Wellness challenge. Employees get to learn about benefits offered and healthy habits.”

What do you do now?

There’s not enough time or energy to implement every possible mental health support program, and doing too much could result in programs not being implemented effectively. To decide which ideas would resonate with your workforce, look at data and gather input. To do this you can use:

• Corporate surveys that provide insights into programs employees would value and what they’d like to change.
• Wellness committee members who can offer ideas as well as generate grassroots support for wellness and mental health programs.
• Aggregate health risk assessment data, often provided by your insurance provider or a health vendor, that can yield statistical information about well-being and areas most in need of support.

Key to remember: Employees are looking for mental health support and there are a variety of ways to embed this into company culture.

Potential future increases

The bill, The Restoring Overtime Pay Act of 2026 (HR 8868), would increase the federal minimum salary level as follows:

• 2026 — $45,000
• 2027 — $55,000
• 2028 — $65,000
• 2029 — $75,000
• 2030 — 55th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally*, updated annually

*The current 55th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally is $89,440 and could increase to $98,000 by 2030.

The measure would allow the Secretary of Labor to establish a higher salary threshold through notice and comment rulemaking, as long as it can be updated annually.

The bill would also require the following:

• The Secretary of Labor would need to provide annual, automatic updates to the overtime threshold of at least the 55th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers.
• If the Secretary doesn’t establish an increased salary threshold, the 55th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers nationally would take effect, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) from the second quarter of the preceding calendar year.
• The Secretary would need to publish a notice announcing the revised salary threshold no later than 60 days before the revised threshold takes effect.
• The BLS would need to publicly publish data on its website for each week of each quarter and data on weekly earnings by census region.

The bill is in the first stage of the legislative process. It was referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce. While it has a small chance of being enacted at this time, it does show that some members of Congress are interested in this topic.

Key to remember: Congress members introduced a bill increasing the federal salary threshold level. But for now, employers can use the 2019 federal salary threshold to determine whether they may classify an employee as exempt.

Termination and lawsuit

In January 2024, Rodney was surprised to receive a letter from the employer firing him for “excessive absenteeism, providing false, dishonest, or misleading information in connection with a request for leave, and failure to follow the notification procedure for leave time.”

Rodney sued, arguing that the employer denied his FMLA rights and that he never received proper notice from the TPA. He also claimed that the significant problems with the TPA’s system discouraged him from taking FMLA leave because he believed it wouldn’t be recorded correctly, and that he wouldn’t be able to speak with anyone at the TPA.

The employer argued that it gave Rodney FMLA benefits for all dates for which he provided a complete FMLA certification. The employer also claimed that the TPA sent letters to Rodney regarding his certifications, but Rodney claimed he never received the letters.

Court ruling

The court ruled in favor of Rodney, stating that a reasonable jury could find that the TPA’s system created a “burdensome approval process” that interfered with or discouraged Rodney from taking FMLA leave. The court also took issue with the fact that the HR department saw discrepancies with Rodney’s leave, but never discussed them with him before his termination.

Severson v. S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Eastern District of Wisconsin, No. 24-CV-1063, April 27, 2026.

Key to remember: Employers are responsible for ensuring that they or their TPA doesn’t make the FMLA process overly burdensome for employees.