R U OK? Day fell on Thursday 10 September this year. No speeches and no posters in the boardroom. Two managers, a car boot full of smiley face doughnuts, and a lap of the Sydney sites to ask the crews one question.
Demolition and civil work is hard on bodies and it can be hard on heads. Long days, time away from home on regional jobs, and a culture where a lot of blokes would rather talk about anything else. R U OK? Day exists to make that one question easier to ask. This is what it looked like across Perfect Group in 2026.
Sydney: doughnuts on the footpath
Two of our Sydney managers started the morning with boxes of yellow smiley face doughnuts and a list of sites. First stop was a demolition job in Redfern, where the excavator kept working behind the fence while the crew came out to the footpath for ten minutes. Then a second site across town, where the pair in the boom lift basket got a wave and a doughnut sent up. What was left went back to the Marrickville office for whoever was in.
It sounds small. It is small. That is the point. The doughnut is an excuse to stop for a minute and ask how someone is going, and to listen to the answer instead of walking off.
A lunch room, one sign, no organising
On another site the crew ran their own version without any help from the office. One R U OK? sign, a lunch room, and the whole team sitting down together for a break. That is the version we like best, because nobody organised it.
Brisbane: pulled into a get together
Our Brisbane crew found out it was R U OK? Day when the head contractor called them over for a get together on the job. Pizza and a check in with the other trades. Nobody had it in the diary. They still turned up and sat down, which is the whole idea.
Bathurst: checking in at 4am
The crew on our Bathurst hospital job is living away from home for the duration. At 4am on the Friday, two of them sent a selfie from the gym with the caption "We R OK in Bathurst". The office reply was a question about whether anyone out there ever sleeps. Living away is one of the harder parts of regional work and the group chat is often the first place anyone notices when someone has gone quiet, so that photo mattered more than it looks.
The four steps, for the next toolbox talk
R U OK? keeps it to four steps, and they hold up on a job site as well as anywhere else.
- Ask. Pick a quiet moment, keep it relaxed, and start with what has been going on for them.
- Listen. Do not interrupt, do not rush it, and take what they say seriously.
- Encourage action. Ask what they have tried and how you can help. If it has been going on a while, suggest they see a doctor or a professional.
- Check in. Come back to it in a week or two, or sooner if they are struggling.
Supervisors and leading hands are usually the first to notice when someone on the crew is not themselves. The four steps are on the R U OK? website with more detail, and they are worth five minutes at the next toolbox talk.
Why we bother
We treat this as part of safety, not a separate feel good day. Psychosocial hazards sit in the WHS codes of practice, and in NSW those codes became legally binding on 1 July 2026. Looking after how people are going at work is now part of the same duty as scaffolds and dust control. You can read how we run safety across the group on our safety page, and what the day looked like a few years back in our R U OK? Day 2022 post.
If you need to talk to someone now
MATES in Construction helpline, 24 hours a day: 1300 642 111
Lifeline, 24 hours a day: 13 11 14
If someone is in immediate danger, call 000.
Thanks to everyone who stopped, sat down and asked the question this year, and to the crews who answered it. Any day is a good day to ask. If you want to talk about working with us, the contact page has the numbers for both offices.
Perfect Group acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Traditional Custodians of the country on which we live and work. We pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians and Elders past, present and future, and honour their connection to the land and ongoing contribution to society.