Under Pressure, Not Alone

The job gets built either way, but what happens to the people building it? We pull back the curtain on mental health in construction, naming the pressures everyone feels but rarely says out loud: relentless schedules, thin margins, and a culture that equates stoicism with strength. The result is a quiet grind where “I’m fine” becomes a habit, veterans push past their limits, and crews treat exhaustion like a badge until safety and relationships start to crack.

We challenge the myth that toughness is the only path forward. Toughness without awareness becomes recklessness—on the job site and at home. Drawing from real-world rhythms—fast starts, frantic finishes, unforgiving punch lists—we explore how burnout signals show up as irritability, withdrawal, and numbness long before a breakdown. We also explain why isolation, not weakness, drives the industry’s high suicide rates and how moving from posters to presence can change outcomes.

Leaders set the tone. Practical, immediate steps matter: ask better questions, notice who goes quiet, honor your word about leaving on time, and normalize recovery after heavy pushes. For veterans, we validate the pull of structure while naming the risks of endless compartmentalizing—and we offer ways to channel that strength without burning out. If you’re feeling stretched thin, you’re not broken; you’re human under prolonged pressure. Stick around for a candid, compassionate blueprint that keeps crews safer, teams closer, and people whole.

If this resonates, share it with someone on your crew, subscribe for more straight talk, and leave a review to help others find the show. And if you’re struggling, reach out—we’ll listen.

If you're a military veteran in the construction industry, or you're in the construction industry and support our military vets, and you'd like to be a guest on the podcast you can find me at constructionvetpodcast@gmail.com , or send me a message on LinkedIn. You can find me there at Scott Friend. Let's share the stories and motivate others!

Chapters

• 0:00 Naming The Problem
• 0:58 Why Silence Took Root
• 2:11 What Struggle Really Looks Like
• 3:50 Systems, Pressure, And Dehumanization
• 5:04 Toughness Versus Awareness
• 5:18 Veterans: Strength And Strain
• 6:11 Burnout Is A Signal
• 7:15 Safety Risks Of Exhaustion
• 7:48 Isolation Outweighs Stress
• 8:17 What Real Leadership Does
• 9:31 You Need Support, Not Perfection
• 10:09 Speak Up And Reach Out

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:02

Construction has one of the highest suicide weights of any industry. And that is not because construction workers construction better rates. Time for another solo episode, this time a lot shorter, but not necessarily quicker. I want to talk today about the truth about mental health in construction. I think it's there's some reasons we don't talk about it, at least not enough. I do think there are some amazing advocates out there that are bringing it to light. Some people, field leaders, people throughout the industry, but I still don't think we talk about it enough. And I don't think it's because people don't care or because they're ignorant. I honestly believe it's because the industry was just built by people who survived by not stopping. And like I said last time, sometimes you got to slow down to speed up. You know, realign yourself. Because construction it rewards endurance and grit. It rewards those people who show up no matter how they feel. It almost becomes a bragging right sometimes on, oh, I haven't taken any sick days at all. I haven't seen a doctor in years. And I think for a long time that did make sense. Because if you didn't show up, nobody got paid that day. And if you didn't push through, sometimes maybe the project fell behind. Or if you're slowing down, you might have been replaced. Somebody else took your place. And the industry saw that and it learned something early, and that's that feelings were a liability. And that silence was somehow strength, and that you were surviving just by pushing through. Is pushing through really survival? I don't think it is. If you're not doing it the right way and you're not going about it with wisdom. And mental health, like many things, it doesn't usually look like a major breakdown. Sometimes it does. But sometimes it shows up in irritability or getting short with people, the short patience, withdrawing, withdrawing from people on the job site, withdrawing from your family. It's the constant fatigue. No matter how much sleep or rest you think you're getting, you're just tired. It it looks like people who will work 12 plus hour days and they just go home numb. Or people who they might never miss work, but they miss everything else. It's the job site leader who carries everyone's else's problems and they don't ever say anything. Think about it. It looks like I'm fine, said automatically. I'm fine. How you doing? I'm fine. Really? Press into that the next time somebody says that. Are you? Let's be honest with ourselves and with others without blaming. Construction itself didn't cause the mental health struggles, but it definitely amplifies them. As much as we wish they would, the deadlines don't move. The margins are very thin. Schedules are unforgiving, mistakes can be extremely expensive, and the pressure rolls downhill. The owners feel it. The project managers feel it. The supers feel it, the foreman feel it, the crews feel it. And somewhere along that chain of command, people stop being people and they start being production units. And this isn't intentional. I don't think it's malicious, but it it happens systematically. Systems don't care how you feel, they care what you produce. There's this myth of toughness. Construction has a very specific definition of what toughness means. It means don't complain, don't slow down, don't show weakness, don't make it about you. That version of toughness has built a lot of cities. But it's also buried a lot of pain. So here's the truth, we don't say out loud, toughness without awareness becomes recklessness. Think about that one more time. Toughness without awareness becomes recklessness. Veterans, they they thrive in construction, but they also struggle deeply in it. Because construction, it feels familiar. We talked about this last time. Structure. There's the hierarchy, there's a mission, there's urgency. But veterans are already trained to compartmentalize. We're already trained to suppress emotion when we have to. We're trained to push past the limits. Problem is construction doesn't teach them to stop doing that. It rewards them for doing it better. So you get people who are incredibly capable, but they're quietly exhausted. And burnout, it's not a failure. Burnout is not weakness. It's a signal to your body. It's your mind and body saying, This pace is not sustainable. I'll tell you firsthand, there are times you have to ramp up. You know, everybody out there that's in the industry or has experienced a tough project, when you kick that project off, it's fast. It's fast pace. Same thing at the very end of the job. When you're trying to wrap it up before the punch list or even during the punch list, it's let's go, go, go. I would warn my wife when a new project was coming up, hey, you know, these next few weeks as we get this thing kicked off, or hey, you know, these next few weeks as we close this thing up, I'm I'm kind of going to be out of touch. I'm going to be swamped. I'm going to be busy. And she kind of got used to that, and I kind of got used to that. That was just the norm. And it is the norm. So I will say there are times where you have to ramp up or you have a major milestone, uh maybe a new definable feature of work coming. And it is expected during those times, but you can't maintain that pace forever. Construction, the the problem is the culture treats that burnout like a character flaw sometimes, and it's not. Like if you're tired, you must be soft. Or if you're overwhelmed, you're just not cut out for it. Or somehow, if you're struggling, you got to toughen up. That belief system costs lives, though, not metaphorically, sometimes literally, when people are exhausted. The best safety managers know when crews are overworked and overtired, it's time to call it quits for a little bit. Give the guys a weekend off. Somebody's gonna get hurt. Construction has one of the highest suicide rates of any industry. And that is not because construction workers are weak. We know that. It's because they're isolated. They work long hours, they move from job to job. It's hard to build a stable community. They don't really talk about what they're carrying. But isolation is way more dangerous than stress. In mental health, it doesn't improve with posters or a week or even a month focusing on it. It improves with constant presence. It improves when your leaders are asking real questions. And when people are allowed to be human, when they say things that maybe you just don't want to hear, but they gotta let it out. It improves when rest is normalized and silence is noticed. Or when someone says, you don't have to carry that alone, and they mean it. They don't say it as a catchphrase. So if if you're a leader out there, you set the tone. Your leadership sets that tone, not policies or memos. Leaders, they help mental health when they regulate themselves and don't panic. They leave when they say they're gonna leave. They ask, how are you? How are you really doing? Like I said, press in. And they notice who goes quiet. You don't you don't need to be a therapist. You just need to be present. That's a life lesson. So if you're listening to this and thinking, this feels uncomfortably accurate, you're not broken. You're responding normally to prolonged pressure. You don't need to quit tomorrow. You don't have to make a dramatic change or blow your life up. You just need support. And your support system is your strength. The podcast exists because silence kills people. Not all at once and not dramatically, but quietly over time. And honestly, if this episode keeps one person from feeling alone, I think I've done my job. So if you're in construction and you're struggling, talk to someone. Reach out to me. A lot of you guys know my background. If you don't, look on my LinkedIn, listen to previous episodes. This is part of my life. Talk to me, I'll listen. If you're a leader, create space for people. And if you're a vet, and I don't care how long you've been out, and you're in this industry, you're not failing. This is the Construction Veteran Podcast, where we tell the truth even when it's uncomfortable. I'll see you next week.