How an Oregon construction company makes space for workers’ mental health

On a particularly busy workday in spring 2023, Michael Vincent was taking a short break from operating a forklift when he glanced down at his phone and noticed an alert from his bank flagging some suspicious activity. He logged into his account to find both his checking and savings account had a zero balance. On the phone with his bank, he learned he was a victim of fraud and would need to file a police report.

Later that day, back on the forklift, he began screaming obscenities at a job site carpenter who kept leaving objects in his way. After a Hoffman Construction superintendent asked Vincent to collect himself, he retreated to a small space called the Moment Room and moved the sliding sign on the door to “occupied.” He sat down and took some deep breaths.

In the years since, Vincent, 55, has used the Moment Room often as a space to calm himself while working on the Oregon state Capitol renovation project in Salem. The room, housed in a single-wide trailer, has sound-resistant walls and two red leather chairs flanking a side table with a dimly lit lamp. It is the only space on the 250-person site where someone can be alone — a rarity in the construction industry, where workers are normally forced to seek privacy in their cars.

The Moment Room is next to another trailer, which houses a second, much larger space called the GUTS Room, an acronym for Get Us There Safe. The workplace safety campaign is unique to Hoffman Construction and is deployed to minimize on-the-job injuries. Inside, there are couches, tables, arcade games, a pool table, a foosball table, darts and video game consoles. On the walls are posters with QR codes to videos, where construction workers talk about their struggles with mental health, along with a larger banner that reads: SELF-MEDICATING PUTS US ALL IN DANGER.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the construction industry has a disproportionate rate of drug overdose deaths and one of the highest suicide rates in the country. Hoffman Construction Vice President Dave Garske is keenly aware of this reality: He lost his brother, Greg, to suicide in January 2022. Greg, a superintendent with more than 28 years in the industry, was one of three Hoffman Construction employees who died by suicide that year.

Dave Garske said the loss prompted him to start talking openly about mental health challenges in the industry and the need for a space where people could speak candidly about their feelings. A few days after his brother’s death, Garske hosted a meeting with more than a dozen coworkers. “We talked for hours, only to find out other people were struggling and looking for a place to talk,” Garske said. “I think God put me in a position to not drown in my sorrow but to take that energy and turn it into something positive.”

At the time, the GUTS and Moment Rooms were being built, but the spate of suicides prompted a sense of urgency for these spaces. Thanks to a community effort, the company’s first GUTS and Moment Rooms opened in August 2022 at the Salem Capitol worksite. Subcontractors donated items such as couches, a pool table and arcade games. A company employee donated two red leather chairs to the Moment Room, and a superintendent hired an artistic relative to paint a mural of mountains. Today, the GUTS Room sees near-constant use — workers meeting, eating lunch, playing pool during a break, and hanging out after work.

“When guys get together after work, it’s either to go to a bar or go to the GUTS Room,” said Vincent, a Hoffman Construction project manager. “If you don’t want to drink or do drugs, going to a bar isn’t a good place to be hanging out.”

Vincent said he has been sober for nine years, ever since getting arrested and charged with felony drug possession. Occasionally, he oversees a substance abuse recovery group in the GUTS Room. Attendance varies from three to 12 people. One morning last summer, Vincent opened the meeting with the serenity prayer and listened to a 37-year-old demolition laborer talk about his experience getting sober a month before.

During his shifts, Vincent will often take short breaks to use the Moment Room. When his father died unexpectedly last year, Vincent visited any time he found himself crying on the job. After his stepdaughter died of a fentanyl overdose later that year, he used the room to grieve. Facing high medical costs following his son becoming paralyzed, Vincent dropped by the Moment Room to sit down and take some deep, calming breaths on numerous occasions.

In addition to Vincent, the Moment Room gets other frequent visitors. Project manager Doug Vanderpool says the company’s creation of the space was “perfect timing” for him. In mid-2022, Vanderpool was at the peak of his alcohol abuse — a habit he’d picked up under the stress of the COVID 19 pandemic — and his relationship with his family was suffering. Facing a possible divorce and estrangement from his children, Vanderpool knew he needed a change.

Vanderpool started using the Moment Room to check in with his wife during lunch breaks. He also started making weekly virtual therapy appointments, taking his sessions to the Moment Room, with his laptop perched on his lap and his coffee thermos on the side table. Now, he said, he is sober and his anxiety is under control “through therapy, through church, and through my wife’s constant support and affirmations.”

There are many reasons behind the high rates of suicide and substance abuse in the construction industry, said Dwight Holton, chief executive officer of Lines for Life, a Portland-based nonprofit focused on suicide and substance abuse prevention. Among them, a “rugged culture of individualism” that doesn’t allow for openly sharing your emotions, Holton said. Also, the migratory nature of the industry, where construction workers move from one construction company and work site to the next, “so you don’t have the work and economic stability that comes from another model of job,” Holton said.

More than a dozen workers milling in and out of the GUTS Room throughout one workday were asked if they had ever seen a space like the GUTS and Moment Rooms at other construction company work sites; all said they had not.

Today, GUTS and Moment Rooms are found on seven Hoffman Construction worksites, including another project: the renovation of Portland International Airport. It was there in January 2023 that the company’s Chief Executive Officer David Drinkward spoke to a room of more than 900 construction workers about the GUTS and Moment Rooms available on site.

Holton, who was in attendance, recalled Drinkward telling the crowd: “We created these spaces for you because we care about your mental health. We want you to use them.” Thinking about it “gives me goosebumps,” Holton said. “Because that kind of commitment and open embrace and that importance on mental health is completely cutting edge.”

Last summer, a 33-year-old ironworker died in an accident involving a forklift while working on a construction site at Benson High School modernization project under the direction of a different company. When those on the Salem Capitol site heard the news, Vincent said there was a palpable sadness among workers.

“We know our job is dangerous and any moment it could be your last,” Vincent said, adding that he saw more people than usual going in and out of the Moment Room in Salem. “I am certain that day, the Moment Room got a lot of use.”

— Deborah Bloom, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, help is available. Call or text 988 for 24-hour, confidential support, or visit 988lifeline.org.