Deadly UPS Plane Crash, Construction Labor Shortage and Smartphone Detox: What I’m Reading This Week

It’s been a difficult week for me. Still, I’m trying to show up for myself and for others. That can look different each day, but I’m constantly reminding myself to practice self-compassion and patience. I’m trying to listen what my body is telling me, including resting with a cozy book and blanket on the couch.

I know that this too shall pass, and that fall is a great reminder that things will change and that’s just fine. I look forward to seeing the brilliant red leaves of my maple trees even though it means lots of leaves to rake, sweater weather even though it means there's a chill in the air and all things pumpkin even though the summer crops are no longer in season.

If you’re in a challenging phase of life, I hope you can still reflect and find some beauty in all of it. There usually is something.

Until next time, be safe, be well and be kind to others who may also be struggling.  

Deadly UPS Plane Crash

I have been watching in horror as more details from the UPS cargo plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, emerge. As of this writing, 13 people were killed and nearly 20 others injured. There are a handful of people who are still unaccounted for, though there is no hope of finding survivors.

The plane crashed and burst into flames shortly after 5 p.m. on November 4. The plane’s left wing caught fire and an engine fell off just after takeoff; the cargo plane was headed toward Honolulu. The plane exploded over several businesses, including one Kentucky Petroleum Recycling. The debris field stretches for about half a mile.

I’ve heard the firsthand reports of restaurant patrons who were narrowly spared.  But I keep reflecting to something Justin Hicks of Louisville Public Media said in an interview on NPR’s “All Things Considered”:

“…[I]t’s really fortunate this plane did not crash in an area full of houses. But of course, UPS is the largest employer in Louisville. So everyone here is affected in some way. Just about everybody knows somebody who works there or has to drive near this crash site.”

UPS’s Louisville hub—the company’s largest package handling facility—employs more than 20,000 people.

The National Transportation Safety Board is on-site, though it will likely take investigators more than a year to determine the cause of the fire and why the engine fell off.

Read more about the crash and ongoing investigation from the Associated Press.

Construction Labor Shortage

EHS Today has reported extensively about the labor shortage in the construction industry that, along with many trades, have seen a steadily decreasing labor pool as more emphasis has been placed on college degrees.

The latest cause for concern for construction workers is being detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on their way to, from or at the jobsite. A survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of American this summer found that 92% of construction firms struggle to fill positions. What’s more, 28% of those surveys said they have been affected by immigration actions in the past six months:

• 5% said ICE agents visited a jobsite,
• 10% said they lost workers due to actual or rumored ICE raids, and
• 20% said those concerns caused subcontractors to lose staff.

Sergio Barajas, head of the National Hispanic Construction Alliance told NPR, that even though the actual number of ICE raids is low, the anxiety felt among all Latino workers is high. "That in and of itself is resulting in crews not showing up or a reduced number of persons on a given crew showing up," he says.

I don’t want start talking politics. Instead, I want to draw your attention to a well-reported article that details how, for at least the last 25 years, construction employment trends have been changing—and what the future looks like in this current trajectory.

To put it bluntly: Prices will go up because contractors will be vying for a smaller number of available workers and their talents. As Nik Theodore, director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois, Chicago explains, “we’re not just losing workers—we’re losing workers who know how to drywall, lay flooring. There are real skill gaps.”

I highly recommend you read the rest of the story here.

Smartphone Detox

As I type this, my iPhone is mere inches away from my keyboard, but I’ve been concerned about my dependency ever since Apple first unveiled the screen time tracking functionality. I bookmarked Brittany Shammas’ piece about ditching her smartphone for a month, but it took me a few weeks to work up the courage to read it. I’m glad I did.

I don’t know if I would have the courage, and Shammas was certainly right about needing to prepare for her experiment. While I don’t long for the days of printing out MapQuest, maybe I could bust out my Garmin instead. Or maybe delete Facebook from my phone.

Because, honestly, a pledge to: …[t]rade dopamine for daylight, doom scrolls for detours, pixels for paper maps. Here's to boredom, to wrong turns, to fruitful friction. To shared growth, spontaneous encounters, and life beyond the screen"  sounds kinda great.

Maybe that’s why the 1990s and early 2000s have been such a source of inspiration for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and a source of nostalgia for millennials (aka Gen Y) and Gen X lately.

I highly encourage you to read Shammas’ observations here. And, if you’re interested in learning more about the rise of smartphones and efficiency as well as decline in idleness, I encourage you to read Celest Headlee’s book “Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving.”