Over the past few years, the world has experienced enormous turmoil and change. We've watched as long-standing systems and traditions have crumbled or been turned on their heads, and as our workplaces, careers and even the ways we live our lives each day have been transformed in ways we'd never have imagined just a few years ago.

During times like these, it can be valuable to try to put things in perspective, which often involves taking the long view. In this month's feature, "The rise of workplace wellness," we look back on the changing face of the workplace over the last 70 years. Through the lens of wellness, Cheryl Brown Merriwether takes us on a fascinating journey, from the post-war years of the 1950s, to the hard-drinking, chain-smoking office environment of the 60s, to the growing focus on work-life balance, nutrition and other emerging trends that have slowly made their way into our collective awareness in the years since.

BenefitsPRO editor-in-chief Paul Wilson