Utility supervisors and safety managers carry responsibility that rarely switches off: the safety of every crew member, storm response, compliance, incident investigations and sometimes the call no leader wants to make to a family. Over time that weight can lead to exhaustion, poor sleep, irritability and burnout. It’s a response to the role, not a lack of resilience. Confidential therapy can help, and many utilities offer it through an employee assistance program.
Article summary
- Supervisors and safety managers are accountable for crew safety around the clock.
- Serious injuries and fatalities affect leaders deeply, even when they weren’t on site.
- Gallup found manager engagement fell from 30% to 27% worldwide in 2024.
- Seeking help after a critical incident is part of good leadership, not a sign of weakness.
Why safety leadership is so heavy
A utility supervisor or safety manager answers for crews working around energized lines, gas, traffic and heavy equipment. You plan the work, enforce the rules, investigate incidents and stay ready for storms and emergencies. You may also act as the Designated Employer Representative for drug and alcohol testing, which means removing someone from duty after a violation.
Managers everywhere are carrying more strain. Gallup found manager engagement fell from 30% to 27% in 2024, while engagement among individual contributors stayed flat (Gallup, 2025).
- Responsibility for crews’ safety
- Incident investigations and regulatory compliance
- Storm command and long restoration events
- Staffing gaps and retirements of experienced workers
- Enforcing rules and testing decisions with people you know well
- Pressure from regulators, executives and the public
After a serious injury or fatality
When someone on your crew is seriously hurt or killed, leaders often handle the response, the investigation, the family and the team, while setting aside their own reactions. It’s common to replay what happened, question decisions, sleep poorly or feel guilt, even when you did everything right. If those reactions don’t ease after a few weeks, trauma-focused therapy has strong research support.
Seeking help after a critical incident is part of good leadership.
Signs a leader is burning out
- You can’t remember the last time you fully disconnected
- Decisions feel heavier or take longer
- You’re more cynical about leadership, regulators or the job
- Sleep is broken by thoughts about crews in the field
- You’re short with your family
- You’re drinking more to switch off
The World Health Organization describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon caused by chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed (WHO). It isn’t a diagnosis, but it’s worth taking seriously when low mood, worry or poor sleep lasts more than two weeks.
Different levels, different pressures
Crew leads and general foremen
You work alongside the crew and answer for its safety in real time. See our guide to utility worker mental health.
Supervisors and safety managers
You plan, enforce, investigate and report, often with limited control over staffing or budgets.
Directors and executives
You carry decisions about safety programs, storm readiness and workforce across a whole service area. Our article on corporate burnout covers that level.
Families
Storm duty and incident response can mean long absences from home. Many employer programs cover spouses and dependents, depending on the plan.
Have EAP benefits through work?
Proactive Wellness participates with Spring Health, Lyra Health and BHS/Revive. Complete our intake form first. Our office coordinates eligibility with your program, then schedules your first session by secure video in New York, New Jersey, Georgia or Massachusetts.
Practical steps you can try this week
- Debrief after serious incidents, including for yourself. Make sure crews get support, and set aside time to process the event yourself.
- Build a deputy structure for storms. Rotate command so no one leader carries every shift.
- Separate investigation from blame. A just-culture approach protects crews and lowers the emotional load on everyone.
- Bring staffing and workload risks up with data. Retirements, overtime and open positions are safety issues worth putting in front of leadership.
- Protect real time off. Schedule recovery after storm events like any other part of the safety plan.
- Check your benefits. Search your benefits portal for “EAP,” “Spring Health” or “mental health.”
No amount of personal resilience fixes chronic understaffing or a culture that expects leaders to be available every hour. Naming that clearly is part of protecting your crews and yourself.
Evidence-based approaches
Therapy at Proactive Wellness is confidential and held by secure video, so it fits around a demanding schedule. Approaches with strong research support include:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for stress, anxiety, irritability and low mood. The American Psychological Association’s depression guideline recommends CBT and related therapies for adults (APA).
- Trauma-focused therapy after a frightening event at work. The APA’s 2025 PTSD guideline recommends cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure as first-line treatments (APA).
- Problem-solving therapy, which breaks work and life problems into concrete, testable steps. A meta-analysis found it is probably an effective treatment for depression, with results comparable to other therapies (Cuijpers et al., 2018).
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for staying grounded in what matters to you when stress you can’t control stays high. In workplace studies, ACT-based programs reduced psychological distress, especially for people who started out highly stressed (Reeve et al., 2018).
- CBT for insomnia (CBT-I) for sleep that shift work or worry keeps breaking up. The American College of Physicians recommends it as the first treatment for chronic insomnia (ACP, 2016).
- Motivational interviewing if you want to look honestly at drinking or other substance use, without judgment (SAMHSA TIP 35).
- If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 any time.
Using your EAP or employer mental health benefit
Many utilities and energy companies offer an Employee Assistance Program or a mental health benefit through a vendor such as Spring Health, Lyra Health or BHS/Revive. Proactive Wellness participates with all three. Supervisors and managers are usually eligible on the same terms as other benefits-eligible employees, but plans vary. Complete our intake and our office will help verify what your plan covers.
Keep reading
- Utility Worker Mental Health: Stress, Emergency Response and Long Shifts
- Plant Managers and Operations Leaders: Recognizing Burnout
- Pipeline and Utility Employees: Understanding DOT SAP Requirements
- Counseling for working professionals: goal-focused help for burnout and work stress
Frequently asked questions
Is therapy confidential for supervisors and managers?
Your employer isn’t told what you discuss. We don’t share clinical information with your employer without your written permission, except in rare situations the law requires.
Someone on my crew died or was seriously hurt. Can therapy help me?
Yes. Leaders are deeply affected by serious incidents too. If replaying the event, guilt or poor sleep don’t ease after a few weeks, trauma-focused therapy can help.
I had to remove a worker from duty after a positive test. Is it normal to feel this way?
Yes. Enforcing testing rules with people you know is hard. Therapy can help you handle that stress. The employee’s next step is a separate DOT SAP process.
Does my employer offer Spring Health?
It depends on your employer. Check your benefits portal, or complete our intake and we’ll help verify your benefit. Proactive Wellness participates with Spring Health, Lyra Health and BHS/Revive.
Can I schedule sessions around storm duty?
Sessions are by secure video, and we work around on-call and storm schedules when we can. You need to be in New York, New Jersey, Georgia or Massachusetts during each session.
What if I’m drinking more to switch off?
You won’t be judged. Motivational interviewing helps people look honestly at their drinking and decide what, if anything, they want to change.
References
- Gallup. (2025). State of the Global Workplace 2025: press release.
- World Health Organization. (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases.
- American Psychological Association. (2019). Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Depression Across Three Age Cohorts.
- American Psychological Association. (2025). Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Adults: Treatments.
- Cuijpers, P., de Wit, L., Kleiboer, A., Karyotaki, E., & Ebert, D. D. (2018). Problem-solving therapy for adult depression: An updated meta-analysis. European Psychiatry, 48, 27–37.
- Reeve, A., Tickle, A., & Moghaddam, N. (2018). Are acceptance and commitment therapy-based interventions effective for reducing burnout in direct-care staff? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Mental Health Review Journal, 23(3), 131–155.
- Qaseem, A., et al. (2016). Management of chronic insomnia disorder in adults: A clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians. Annals of Internal Medicine, 165(2), 125–133.
- SAMHSA. (2019). TIP 35: Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Use Disorder Treatment.
Check your EAP eligibility
Proactive Wellness participates with Spring Health, Lyra Health and BHS/Revive. Complete our intake form first. Our office reviews it, coordinates eligibility and any authorization with your program, and then schedules your first session.
Have Spring Health through work? You don’t need to find us in the Spring Health directory first. After you complete our intake, our office works with Spring Health Care Navigation to confirm eligibility and add you to our caseload.
Eligibility and family coverage vary by employer, so coverage isn’t confirmed until we verify it. Therapy is by secure video for people located in New York, New Jersey, Georgia or Massachusetts. Please don’t send health details by email or in comments.
New to work mental health benefits? Read how trucking employees check their benefits.
