myHR: May 6, 2026

Looking Ahead to Mental Health Awareness Month

May is one of the busiest times on campus and in your personal lives. In times like these, caring for your well-being matters most.

Penn’s Mental Health Awareness Month programs help you focus on this essential part of your well-being. Whether you’re looking to strengthen everyday resilience, feeling overwhelmed, or curious about tools that can support you, there are resources and opportunities available to you—this month and throughout the year.

Below, you’ll find ways to connect, get support, build skills, and learn more about emotional well-being resources.

Confidential Support with Penn’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Penn’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides eligible faculty, staff, postdocs, and their families access to free, confidential, 24/7 counseling and referral services for personal and professional life issues from any location. EAP services are available by phone, email, video, and through face-to-face sessions. EAP counselors will connect you with the right experts at the right time: masters level clinicians, work/life specialists, and legal professionals. 

Contact

Call: 1-888-503-2380
Email:  support@curalinc.com 
Visit: penneap.com; group code Penn for family members 
Schedule with an EAP intake counselor using Penn Cobalt 

Behavioral Health Care Through Your Medical Plan

Penn’s medical plans include behavioral health coverage for you and your enrolled dependents. Specific coverage depends on your medical plan. For information about providers in your network, visit the Behavioral Health Coverage webpage.

Learn and Connect with May Events

Resilience Series: Joy Multiplier
May 7, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
This virtual session, led by Dr. Karen Reivich from Penn’s Positive Psychology Center, will explore communication styles that build trust. Discover how to strengthen our relationships by responding with authentic engagement to other people’s positive experiences.

Supporting Mental Health at Work and Beyond: Recognizing, Responding, and Connecting
May 14, 12 p.m. to 12:45 p.m.
This virtual session, led by the Penn Employee Assistance Program, will help you recognize signs of mental health concerns and emotional distress in the workplace. Learn how to initiate supportive conversations and connect coworkers to appropriate resources and services while maintaining confidentiality and respect.

Cognitive Flexibility
May 19, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
This interactive workshop explores how greater mental agility can lead to clearer communication, better decision-making, and more grounded responses to ambiguity and conflict. 

Mental Health Awareness Wellness Walk
May 20, 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Movement is a powerful way to support emotional well-being. Join the Penn Healthy You team and the Department of Finance Engagement Committee for a simple, low-impact activity that helps reduce stress, boost mood, and clear your mind. Every step is a step toward better mental health.

Everyday Tools to Support Your Well-being

WebMD Resources for Your Well-being

Mental health is an essential part of your overall well-being. Penn Healthy You and WebMD offer an abundance of information, activities, and tools that offer guidance and support to help you feel better and thrive.

RethinkCare
RethinkCare videos and courses, available on the WebMD platform, give you access to expert support and practical tools to help you succeed at work and at home. Enjoy a vast video library with information on how to sleep better, reduce daily stress through meditation, add more movement to your day, and build habits that support your physical, mental, and emotional health. To access the collection, visit the WebMD platform. You can also attend a monthly webinar.

Health Coaching
WebMD offers health coaches to help you make progress on your well-being journey. Whether you want to sleep better, lose weight, or get help managing stress, these coaches can give you support and guidance. The sessions are free and totally confidential. To schedule an appointment, call 1-800-493-5980. You can also chat with a health coach online using Coach Connect. To get started, visit the WebMD platform. From the homepage, select Coaching from the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner.

Build Sustainable Habits, One Step at a Time

Daily Habits
Log into the WebMD platform. Start a plan to build daily habits that will improve your health. The first step is to select 1-3 plans to achieve your goals. For example, if you would like to build a stress management plan, click on the Stress Less, Live More tile. Click Start This Plan, then answer a series of personalized questions to build the plan. Once your plan is set up, click View to-do Page for a series of questions that will help keep you on track daily.

Side Quests
Side Quests allow you to take specific adventures at any time during the 2025-2026 Be in the Know campaign year, such as Mindful minutes and Quality sleep. On a quarterly basis, you can earn 25 reward points when you start and another 50 points when you achieve your wellness quest by June 30.

To get started, visit the WebMD platform. From the homepage, select Side Quests from the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner. From the Side Quests page, select the Choose Your Own Adventure tile and click Create.

Content Hub
WebMD’s Content Hub provides expert information on stress management, depression, and other wellness topics. From articles and videos to podcasts and tips, this centralized library helps you explore wellness topics at your own pace. To access the hub, visit the WebMD platform. From the homepage, select Content Hub from the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner.

Keep Mental Health a Part of the Conversation

Penn Cobalt encourages us to work together to normalize the practice of prioritizing mental health, take care of ourselves and others, and support those living with mental health conditions.

On top of Penn Cobalt’s year-round events and content, they’ve created a Mental Health Awareness page with timely and topical media covering a range of topics from anxiety to insurance considerations to substance abuse.

Plan Ahead for Your Retirement

It’s something most of us look forward to: our retirement day. To help you prepare for that transtion, Penn is hosting its semi-annual Thinking About Retirement event in May and June.

Specially designed for Penn staff and faculty, Thinking About Retirement offers three different information sessions, each covering an important aspect of retirement benefits. You can register for any of the sessions by selecting the links below.

Thinking About Retirement, Spring 2026 Sessions

• At the Penn Benefits and Medicare webinar, Penn Benefits and Health Advocate will discuss what you need to know as you plan to become a retiree of Penn. Learn about the Rule of 75, healthcare benefits, how they integrate with Medicare, and more.
• At What You Need to Know about Social Security, a retirement plan counselor from TIAA will discuss planning for a Social Security benefit, including eligibility, applying, how the benefit is calculated, impact of starting benefits early, benefits increase if claimed after full retirement, and other strategies to consider.
• At Set Your Retirement Date, a TIAA presenter will discuss how to create an income plan that helps maximize savings throughout retirement, including how different sources of income work, how to build your strategy for lifetime income, and what to consider when planning withdrawals from retirement assets.

Benefits specialists from Penn Human Resources will be available at each online session to answer your questions about Penn’s retirement savings plans, health care benefits, and other aspects of retiree benefits for you and your dependents.

For more details and resources, visit www.hr.upenn.edu/thinkretirement.

Level Up Your Year-end Performance Meeting

Penn’s year-end performance reviews are underway and your conversation with your manager is the key step in the entire process. All managers and staff can take this opportunity to reflect on your achievements, track your present duties, and outline plans for the upcoming year during the conversation.

If you haven’t already completed this important step, be sure to discuss your self-review and your manager’s feedback in Workday. This is your chance to talk openly about your progress, strengths, position, and professional goals.

Make the most of your meeting:

• Review your manager’s evaluation in Workday in advance.
• Note your manager’s responses in the goal section, feedback questions, competency proficiency ratings, and overall performance rating.
• Pay close attention to areas where you align or diverge.
  

During your meeting:

• Listen carefully.
• Be open to learning and growing.
• Stay constructive and solution-focused.
• Work together to set goals and next steps.
  

After your meeting, you and your manager will acknowledge the review in Workday. This confirms the discussion, not that you agree with everything.

All review tasks must be completed by Sunday, May 31, although your school, center, or department may have earlier deadlines.

For process support, consult Workday’s tip sheets: Performance: Performance Management for Managers and Employees and Performance: Goals and Check-ins.

Visit Penn HR Learn & Grow pages to find professional development resources.

Thanks for an Engaging Take Our Children to Work Day

More than 1,000 children visited the Penn campus for Take Our Children to Work Day on April 23. Thanks to the creativity and generosity of schools and centers throughout the University, these young guests enjoyed a first-hand experience of life and work at our world-class campus. School and center hosts of the events and the Take Our Children to Work Day team received abundant praise from participating families.

To show our appreciation for the University’s generous Take Our Children to Work Day sponsors, here are some highlights from the day described by Penn community members:

“Each department took extra-special care and time to ensure that our kids had a fabulous experience. I think this was the best one yet! My little is already asking ‘When can I come back?’”

“I really value the opportunity to bring our children to campus—it’s such a special experience. There are so many activities, and the kids truly get to enjoy the day. Mine were actually counting down to it this year because they had such a great time last time. Beyond that, it’s also a wonderful chance to connect with colleagues across campus and build relationships I might not have otherwise had the opportunity to form.”

“Just a wonderful experience, the activities were very thoughtfully crafted and covered a wide range of interests. The ability to attend the Penn Relays was fantastic. We appreciated the discounts at Houston Hall.”

“Always such a fun day! Thank you for putting together so many educational and fun activities to share the Penn campus with our kids. The bio pond is always a favorite and we enjoyed making the trip over to Pennovation to build some tiny robots this year.”

“The events we attended were inclusive to all levels and kept everyone engaged….[My son] loved creating at the Biomimicry Engineering Event and eating at Houston Hall (plus snacking all over campus). He had such a great time getting his ID and shopping at the bookstore. His absolute favorite part of the day was the Recharge Zone at the Penn Women's Center; they were so warm and inviting that we ended up missing Bioblitz because I couldn't get him to leave. Thank you so much for the entire day, I loved sharing the Penn community with my favorite person!!”

We look forward to celebrating Take Our Children to Work Day together and are already planning for next year. If your department is interested in sponsoring an event for Take Our Children to Work Day on Thursday, April 22, 2027, please contact the Work‑Life team at worklife@hr.upenn.edu or (215) 573‑2471 to learn more or schedule a conversation.

A User’s Guide to Balancing Work and Life

In today’s fast-paced and often unpredictable world, maintaining balance and effectively managing stress are essential for overall well-being. Radical Resilience: Ideas for Sustainable Life Balance, a virtual workshop on June 10 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., is designed to help participants build practical skills to navigate challenges and strengthen their capacity for resilience.

“At a time when the world is turbulent, dealing with stress and having tools to help us is critical for our health and well-being,” says Amma Napier, Senior Talent and Organization Development Consultant and workshop facilitator.

Napier will discuss enlightening terms such as “anti-fragile.” Coined by New York University professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb, anti-fragile takes the idea of resilience to the next level by asserting that there are conditions that allow us not only to bounce back from adversity, but to become even stronger as a result.

Workshop participants will be given tools to increase their ability to be super-resilient and learn the three areas that help create conditions for anti-fragility:

1. Permission to Be Human. This refers to the need to recognize emotions, whether anxiety or gratitude. We must embrace difficult emotions to feel the positive ones. When we reject negative emotions, they grow stronger and we block the positive ones. We can deal with the entire spectrum of our emotions by crying, if needed, writing about them, or talking to someone about them. “Giving ourselves permission to be human is to allow ourselves emotions, but also failure,” Napier adds. “It can be the seed for growth and learning.”
2. Dealing with Stress. What allows us to continue to be energized even in the face of stress is time to recover from it. This applies to both physical and emotional stress and its effect on our mental and physical health. You can become energized through recovery by doing simple things such as taking a walk to get away from a stressful situation, getting a good night’s sleep, or taking a day off.
3. Relationships. The Harvard Study of Adult Development, which followed 700 individuals for 75 years, found that the number one predictor of happiness and the number one predictor of health is relationships. These relationships can be with a partner, friend, extended family member, colleague, or someone else. Relationships should be close, intimate, supportive, and healthy. Forming and maintaining relationships virtually works, too, if the connections are deep, allowing each party to really talk about things that are important.

Participants will also learn the 3Rs of change that will help you become anti-fragile: Reminders, Repetition, and Rituals.

Register today for Radical Resilience: Ideas for Sustainable Life Balance and prepare to feel empowered and ready to move forward.

For more professional development programs, visit the Learn & Grow section of the Human Resources website.

Healthy Meals: Pasta Primavera with Veggies

Bring the vibrant flavors of the garden to your table with this effortless Pasta Primavera with Veggies recipe from Ramp Health. This colorful dish pairs al dente noodles with a medley of tender broccoli, zesty peppers, and succulent zucchini. Finished with a bright squeeze of lemon and a silky Parmesan glaze, it’s a refreshing, veggie-packed meal that feels both light and satisfying. Perfect for busy weeknights, it’s a true celebration of fresh ingredients in every bite.

Click here to send us your healthy recipes and tips.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces whole wheat pasta
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1 cup sliced bell peppers
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 small zucchini, sliced
• 1/4-cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Optional: fresh basil for garnish

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1/2-cup pasta water, then drain.
2. While pasta cooks, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds, stirring often.
3. Add broccoli, peppers, and zucchini. Cook 4 to 6 minutes until crisp tender.
4. Stir in cherry tomatoes and cook 1 to 2 more minutes.
5. Add cooked pasta to the skillet. Toss with vegetables, lemon juice, and a splash of pasta water to loosen the sauce.
6. Stir in Parmesan, season with salt and pepper, and garnish with fresh basil.

Meet With a Registered Dietitian Today!

• One-on-one, virtual sessions you can schedule at any time that works for you
• 100% covered under many insurance plans
• Available to spouses and dependents
• Fill out the Ramp Health Nutrition Counseling Sign Up Form or call 800-484-7720.

Did You Know: Benefits Open Enrollment Ends Friday, May 8 

Penn’s annual Benefits Open Enrollment ends Friday, May 8. Don’t miss your opportunity to make changes to your health plans, life insurance, and flexible spending accounts for the 2026-2027 plan year. You can enroll or make changes to your elections in the Benefits, Comp and Pay Hub in Workday. To learn more about your options, visit the Open Enrollment web page. You can also review the 2026-2027 Open Enrollment Benefits presentation.