Employee benefits are supposed to support you, but that promise falls apart when nobody explains what you have or how to use it.
In this episode, I’m talking with Gayle Martin, founder of TrueNorth Benefits Strategy, who spent 27 years in group benefits before leaving corporate leadership and building a people-first consulting practice. We talk about why benefits alone won’t keep employees, how culture and communication determine whether a plan helps anyone, and what to look for when you’re burned out and need to understand your options.
Gayle also shares what her own burnout taught her about freedom, strengths, and choosing work that feels right. By the end, you’ll know why your benefits booklet deserves more than a once-a-year glance and what to ask before you need support.
Find Gayle at TrueNorthStrategy.ca and on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayle-martin/).
If this conversation helps you, send it to one person who needs to dig out their benefits booklet too.
Employee benefits can be worth a lot on paper and still be useless when you have no idea what’s included, where to find it, or what happens when you actually need help.
That gap matters even more when you’re burned out. You may have access to counseling, short-term disability, leave options, or other support that could give you room to think. But if the plan got buried in an onboarding packet three years ago, you’re probably not pulling it up during a crisis.
A good benefits package can still leave people unsupported
Offering benefits may help a company attract someone, but the plan won’t keep them in a workplace where they feel ignored or unsafe. Employees can find health coverage and paid time off somewhere else. The day-to-day culture determines whether those benefits feel like real support or another page in the recruitment deck.
Gayle points to a basic problem: plenty of employees know they have benefits but couldn’t tell you what those benefits include. They may have access to an employee assistance program and never hear about it after onboarding. Someone dealing with a mental health crisis could have counseling available through the plan without knowing whom to contact.
A benefit nobody can find or understand won’t help when life gets messy.
Education has to continue after onboarding
One benefits presentation during a new employee’s first week isn’t enough. People need reminders, plain explanations, and a clear place to go when they have questions.
That might look like short training sessions, regular reminders about available resources, or someone walking employees through how to submit a claim. Companies also need to ask what employees are using, what they’re confused about, and what support is missing.
This takes shared effort. Employers have to make the information available. Insurance providers and advisors can explain the plan without drowning everyone in acronyms. Employees still need to read what they’re given and speak up when something doesn’t make sense.
Tossing the responsibility back and forth leaves everyone exactly where they started.
What to check before you need your benefits
Waiting until you’re already overwhelmed makes everything harder. You don’t want to figure out your leave policy, income replacement, or counseling coverage while your brain is running on fumes.
Start by finding your current benefits booklet and saving a copy somewhere you can access outside your work account. Look for the contact information for your employee assistance program. Check whether you have short-term or long-term disability coverage and what percentage of your income it replaces. If you’re considering reducing your hours or taking leave, find out how that change would affect your coverage.
You don’t need to memorize the plan. You need to know where it is, what questions to ask, and who can give you a straight answer.
Burnout changed what Gayle wanted from work
Gayle didn’t expect to leave after 27 years in the industry. Her job had become part of her identity, and she’d spent years leading people inside a corporate environment. Then her health started declining and she hit a wall.
She stepped back and took stock of what she was good at, what people already came to her for, and which parts of the work gave her energy. That process eventually became TrueNorth Benefits Strategy.
Now she has more control over her schedule, the clients she works with, and how she uses her experience. Her definition of being a balanced badass comes down to knowing what fits, paying attention to what creates friction, and being willing to leave behind what doesn’t.
I’m Tara Kermiet — career coach, burnout strategist, and host of The Balanced Badass Podcast®. I help high-achievers and corporate leaders design careers that are successful and sustainable.
Here, you’ll find tactical tools, leadership lessons, and burnout education that just makes sense.
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