Addressing anxiety, stress and burnout in the propane industry
In 2025, a young retailer and friend of LP Gas, Seth Dimacchia of Acorn LPG, told us that he had been dealing with anxiety.
I first met Dimacchia in 2024, shortly after I started at LP Gas, when I interviewed him about his life and how he became the owner of Acorn LPG at such a young age amid his father’s battle with dementia.
Dimacchia was the first person I’d heard in the propane industry talk openly about mental health. In fact, it was his story that inspired me to start this series.
“Anxiety is the main thing that I personally deal with,” says Dimacchia, noting that he hasn’t been professionally diagnosed with the condition.
“Anxiety has got to be very, very common in this industry, just because it’s such a sensitive industry in terms of safety,” he believes. “So I’d imagine a lot of people feel how I do.”
▶ Managing anxiety and stress
Dimacchia notes that his anxiety can come from several places, including work, but he’s developed strategies for dealing with it.
“The way I deal with anxiety is … I don’t like to sit around and kind of worry and worry and worry,” Dimacchia explains. “I let myself do that for maybe five, 10 minutes, and then I’ll start to evaluate an actual thing that’s making me anxious. I start to ask, ‘Well, is this rational? What can I do? And how can the worst-case scenario be prevented?’”
This strategy helps Dimacchia focus on what he can control and helps mitigate some of his anxiety about what he cannot control.
Dimacchia also credits his support system with helping him manage anxiety.
“It mainly consists of my mother,” he says. “She’s the strongest woman I know. She deals with the same anxiety, and in some senses, more so than me. So, she has drilled into my brain since I was a kid, that mantra of, ‘Let go of what you can’t control and only focus on what you can.’”
For Dimacchia, focusing on what he can control means tackling his problems head-on. “You have to go through it. It’s the only way,” he says. “The only way forward is through.”
Of course, every employer wants its team to come to work with a clear head and good attitude. But, as Dimacchia notes, when working with a hazardous material like propane, that becomes even more important.
“You want all your employees to be on their best, clearest mindset,” he explains. “You don’t want them depressed or anxious or overwhelmed or anything. You want them focused, because one small mishap or issue by an employee could be detrimental.”
Dimacchia maintains an open dialogue with his company’s single employee.
“I’ve talked to him for hours on end,” he recalls. “Him telling me all the problems in his life. I’m happy to sit there and listen.”
Dimacchia wants to be there for his team, but he also wants to provide help where he can.
“He called me – his transmission was out,” Dimacchia says. “He was stressed out. And I said, ‘Look, we have a perfectly good pickup truck at the plant. … Go ahead and use that until your car is done getting fixed. It wasn’t only important for him to have that vehicle to get to work. It was also important for him to have that vehicle so that he can be in a clear mindset.”
When an employee is stressed and preoccupied with something, whether it’s an issue at work or a problem at home, that’s inevitably going to affect their performance on the job. To Dimacchia, that stress is something that a leader should mitigate when possible.
▶ Employer strategies
That’s one retailer’s story.
But how can other propane industry employers address the mental health needs of their employees in the workplace? For that, LP Gas sat down with Kelly Bosak, chief people officer of Lettermen’s Energy.
Bosak has spent her propane industry career working in human resources. From her experience, many of the mental health issues in the industry revolve around burnout due to long hours, especially during the busy winter season.
▶ Building trust early
When it comes to discussing mental health in the workplace, and just in general, society has come a long way.
“I think improvement has been made,” Bosak explains. “I feel like there’s still some taboo about it, though.”
Keeping an open dialogue is important. “It starts with having a psychologically safe environment and culture where people feel safe to say what’s on their mind, when it’s on their mind,” Bosak says. “Let them know that my door is always open.”
According to Bosak, many employees approach their managers first when they’re struggling, so the manager must be ready to provide support and handle the responsibility that comes with that role.
“Our leaders have to stay close to their employees,” she says. “Make sure that they’re checking in with them; make sure they’re OK each morning to get to work a 12-hour day.”
At Lettermen’s, that kind of openness is built on trust – employees must trust their managers to have their backs and support them.
“The manager has to work to build that trust,” she says. “I would suggest that the manager set up a one-on-one meeting with a person, just to understand who they are and how to answer any questions they might have and set an expectation – like we all should be setting expectations – about how employees should perform their job upfront.”
But when expectations aren’t being met, that doesn’t mean it’s time to overreact.
“In any business, whether it’s propane or finance or health care, wherever you’re at, life can cause a lot of stress, just in general,” Bosak says. In those moments, she adds, a manager should be attentive to their employees and start a conversation.
Bosak’s advice centers on giving employees room to be human. She says that when someone shows up late or seems emotional, leaders should not become judgmental.
“Open up the conversation,” she says. “I don’t think we give people enough grace.”
Bosak says leaders should explain that they are there to help and ask, “What can I do to remove any barriers for you today?” She says that mindset can uncover stress from work, family life or other personal issues and can help leaders respond in a constructive way.
These strategies – building trust, asking questions, listening – are keys for employers who want to support their employees through mental health struggles. Whether a team member has an official anxiety diagnosis or is just having a stressful day, employees need to know they have the support of their managers and can get help when it’s needed.
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