01/16/2026
H.R. 2262 and the CEO Standard (Paid Training Is Workforce Infrastructure)
I’m the CEO of a veteran-owned company, and I want to address H.R. 2262 (the “Flexibility for Workers Education Act”) in the most practical way I know how: as an operator responsible for building capability, retaining talent, and protecting the dignity of the people who do the work.
I’m pro-training. I’m pro-upskilling. I’m pro-degree completion.
But I’m not willing to pretend that shifting job-related education into unpaid, “voluntary” after-hours time is a win for working people.
Because in the real world, “voluntary” can quietly become “expected.” It becomes the thing you have to do to keep pace, to be eligible for promotion, to stay in the good graces of a manager, or simply to avoid falling behind. And when that happens, the cost doesn’t disappear—it just gets transferred.
Time is not free. It is the scarcest asset most working families have.
At Wellness Croft, even in our smallest state, we cover training. We pay for it. And we pay our people for the time it takes to do it. Massachusetts has programs that can sometimes offset the cost of professional development, and we’re grateful to operate in a state that understands workforce investment. But the commitment is ours either way.
We also provide health and dental benefits to our employees. And as we scale, it is our intention to introduce both a primary and a secondary pension alongside career development—because long-term stability is not a “perk.” It’s part of what makes a workforce strong.
Here’s the CEO-grade standard I’m advocating for—regardless of politics:
If training primarily benefits the employer, the employer should fund it. That means funding the tuition or program cost, and also compensating the time.
That’s not charity. It’s how you build a high-trust culture that attracts the kind of people every serious company says it wants: flexible, committed, mission-driven professionals with a fire in the belly.
I’ve been fortunate to work for leaders who understood this. People like Dr. Joseph Kvedar at Partners Healthcare, Kwa Nguyen President and CEO of Ezenia! and Robert C. Haggerty President and CEO at Polycom—leaders who treated people as the core asset, not a line item to squeeze. Their organizations performed because the workforce believed leadership meant it.
If we want to re-industrialize America and compete in a world where skills change every few years, we should be raising the floor—paid training time, tuition reimbursement, benefits, retirement security—not normalizing new ways to push the burden onto workers.
I’m genuinely curious how other operators are approaching this:
