Inspecting the Fifth Wire: Winning the War on Lineworker Suicide

Lineworkers confront daily risks many can’t imagine – arc flashes, falls, electrocutions and more. Yet there’s a silent, insidious threat currently claiming more lives in the electric utility industry than any physical injury.

We’re talking about suicide.

Safety professionals dedicate their careers to mitigating risk and preventing harm, understanding that serious injuries and fatalities devastate lives and ripple through the workforce. But what if the most devastating injury of all is one largely overlooked in traditional safety programs?

Industry employers already deliver traditional safety training to employees and outfit them with personal protective equipment as their last line of defense against harm. These companies aren’t waiting for a physical injury to occur before providing the necessary tools and training.

It makes sense to ask, then, what’s stopping utility organizations from providing workers with tools and training to prevent self-harm?

Because suicide is arguably the greatest of all personal injuries, it demands levels of training and attention that match or exceed those invested in preventing other types of physical injuries. Fortunately, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We simply need to extend the logic of our existing safety principles.

Consider this: We wouldn’t dream of sending a brand-new apprentice up a pole with only a brief classroom explanation about how to climb it, plus a phone number to call or an app to download for climbing instructions. Yet this is often the industry’s approach to mental health. We direct employees to resources, but are we also actively training them to recognize warning signs in themselves and their peers? When is the last time we practiced our intervention skills or worked to destigmatize the act of seeking help?

Just as we train utility crews to inspect every visible wire on a pole, we are also morally obligated to teach them to inspect the invisible one – what we refer to as the “fifth wire” – that connects them as human beings.

Stark Stats
The 2023 national suicide rate among the general population was 14.1 per 100,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (see www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/data.html). Per the 2023 Annual Report on Suicide in the Military, the rate per 100,000 active service members was 35.9 for the Marine Corps, 34.8 for the Army, 22.5 for the Air Force and 21 for the Navy (see www.dspo.mil/Portals/113/2024/documents/annual_report/ARSM_CY23_final_508c.pdf).

The data is even starker for those serving our industry. Among construction workers in 2022, there were over five times more suicide deaths than fatal work injuries (see www.cpwr.com/wp-content/uploads/DataBulletin-September2024.pdf); CDC data from 2021 paints an equally disturbing picture (see https://cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7250a2.htm).

These statistics are a clarion call demanding that we stop overlooking the invisible fifth wire that connects the human crews who keep our lights on. But recognizing that call alone isn’t enough. Utility safety and operations leaders must actively promote a community of belonging within their organizations, equipping the workforce with simple, practical, effective tools – just as they do for physical safety purposes.

A sense of belonging is a critical driver of safety and performance in high-stakes environments like line work. According to a 2019 Harvard Business Review article, “When people feel like they belong at work, they are more productive, motivated, engaged and 3.5 times more likely to contribute to their fullest potential …” (see https://hbr.org/2019/02/the-surprising-power-of-simply-asking-coworkers-how-theyre-doing).

Put simply, maintaining cohesive peer networks is a fundamental need and strategy in the war on lineworker suicide.

Battle Formation: Shield, Sword and Armor
Winning the war requires each of us to employ three critical items to protect ourselves from making destructive choices: the shield of vulnerability, the sword of stigma obliteration and the armor of peer networks. 

The Shield of Vulnerability
Lineworkers make electrical connections every day. As leaders, we must help them connect with each other. This is the basis of the Sweethearts & Heroes Fifth Wire Program, which was founded on one simple, field-tested process built for life’s realities: Circle. One of the world’s oldest human connection practices, stretching back 400,000 years, the Circle process fosters a sense of belonging and purpose among group members, establishes positive social norms, builds networks of support, and develops critical skills for personal and collective well-being.

Vulnerability is encouraged in Circle, nurturing an environment in which individuals are more likely to reach out for help before they reach a crisis point. The act of being vulnerable also provides opportunities for us to share the hope we all carry with everyone else in the group.

Circle is designed to build upon a group’s strengths. Sadly, however, vulnerability is often associated with weakness – and fear of appearing weak can paralyze us. Still, we overcome our struggles and build the strength we seek by finding the courage to talk about difficult topics. Winning the war on lineworker suicide requires us to acknowledge our shared humanity, to create psychologically safe environments in which it’s OK for anyone to say, “I’m not OK” – knowing their admission will be met with support, not judgment. By leading with personal stories of overcoming adversity, we inspire hope in others that they can successfully conquer their own challenges.

The Sword of Stigma Obliteration
Stigma isolates people in their pain. Many communities perpetuate a pervasive stigma around suicide, often reinforcing silence through cultural norms and misconceptions about weakness and resilience.

Under pressure to appear “fine” or maintain a facade of strength, individuals can suffer in secrecy, fearing judgment, alienation or punishment. Modern society’s reluctance to openly address suicide not only deepens the isolation of those struggling but deprives communities of the awareness and empathy needed to foster true healing and prevention.

The sword of stigma obliteration is our tool for tackling this formidable opponent, cutting through the silence and shame that allow hopelessness to fester. Engaging in open, honest conversations is the most potent way to wield it because discussion of complex subjects – especially tough ones like loss and grief – has an inoculating effect on us. When we candidly speak about an immense personal struggle, that act typically helps us and our listeners, piercing through isolation and offering a path forward.

We must actively create platforms and opportunities for these conversations among utility crews with the goal of making them routine and accepted – just like any other safety briefing.

The Armor of Peer Networks
Finally, we must equip ourselves with the armor of peer networks and foster a culture of mutual support and shared responsibility.

One crucial aspect of this is staying “left of bang,” a concept developed by Patrick Van Horne that emphasizes proactive intervention based on behavioral cues. Behavior is communication. When someone begins isolating themselves at lunchtime, giving away their tools or exhibiting sudden changes in mood – even nearly imperceptible shifts – these are warning signs. We must train the workforce to recognize and respond to these signs before “the bang” happens. Fortunately, each of us possesses a profound intuitive capacity in our connections with others, a powerful resource rooted in the subconscious mind that can be intentionally honed into a finely tuned superpower.

For instance, an auxiliary nurse working in a psychiatric facility may be more adept at predicting a patient’s suicidal ideations than a skilled clinician armed with standard evaluation tools. This predictive ability is not mystical; it is developed by consistently observing an individual. Through their interactions, the nurse establishes a baseline of the patient’s nonverbal cues and mannerisms, creating a deep-seated intuitive connection – one that makes subtle, critical shifts in behavior immediately apparent.

During his work with the U.S. Air Force on the Wingman-Connect suicide prevention program, Peter A. Wyman, Ph.D., director of the Network Health and Prevention Program at the University of Rochester, found that peers set the adaptive, healthy social norms for each other. That means whether it’s in the electric utility industry, among our children or in the Marine Corps, people look up to those with prestige and influence within their peer groups. Thus, we must empower these informal leaders – particularly those who have weathered their own storms – to champion mental well-being, model help-seeking behavior and actively support their colleagues.

Much like Wingman-Connect, the Fifth Wire Program has repeatedly demonstrated that strong social bonds within a cohesive group mitigate suicidal ideation and depression symptoms. Circle offers a simple, action-based, lifesaving practice for crew-level check-ins, providing crew members with time and space to inspect and maintain the invisible wire that connects them.

Conclusion
Line work is hazardous in more ways than most people realize. Today, we are losing far too many of our brothers and sisters in the trade by their own hands.

But while the challenge before us is immense, it’s not insurmountable. We can begin to turn the tide in the war on lineworker suicide by recognizing it as a grave personal injury and equipping the workforce with the mental health tools and training they need.

About the Authors: Tom Murphy is founder, CEO and resident superhero of the Vermont-based Sweethearts & Heroes. Reach him at tom@sweetheartsandheroes.com or 802-309-9539.

Brian McKeon is a content writer for Sweethearts & Heroes.

Editor’s Note: For more on this topic, listen to a recent interview with Tom Murphy on the Utility Safety Podcast, available at https://utilitysafety.podbean.com/e/what-is-the-fifth-wire-building-a-human-safety-net-in-the-utility-sector-with-tom-murphy/.