How is the mental health of workers in 2026?
I often ask that question, but I don’t often see the results of studies in my feed in the same week. This week, however, was different.
It’s not all bad news, but if you’re looking for good news, you’ll be hard-pressed to find it.
First:
You may ask why they are merely surviving? There are highlights here:
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Managers Are Struggling: More than half (54%) say the role has negatively impacted their mental health — and nearly half have thought about leaving their jobs. Managers are absorbing their team stress while receiving little support themselves.
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Caregiving Is Straining Workers:Â Nearly half of working parents supported a child or dependent with mental health needs this year. Among those caregivers, 60% report burnout, and over one-third say their productivity or focus at work declined.
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The Neurodivergence Gap:Â While 91% of benefits leaders say neurodivergent support is a priority, 54% of employees struggled to access timely neurodivergent-informed care. Nearly half also worry that disclosing a diagnosis could hurt their career.
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AI Is Both Productive — and Stressful: Nearly half of employees say AI makes them more productive, while 44% worry about potential job losses.
The world we live in is stressful, our workplaces are stressful, and there’s only so much resiliency to be had. What this study is seeing is employers who offer mental health benefits that are not enough to meet the needs. There’s also some underlying sense that using the resources will come at a cost to your career, which immediately lessens the positive impact they could have on employees.
The second study was the annual NAMI workplace mental health poll:
Here, again, we see some postiives. I’m seeing a disturbing trend, though, especially around these results:
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A majority of employees report feeling comfortable discussing mental health with a colleague they consider a friend (83%), their teammates (61%), and their manager (57%).
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On the other hand, level of comfort is significantly lower when talking to Human Resources (39%) or senior/C-suite leadership (30%) about their mental health.
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Although many employees feel their managers care about them (78%), only 54% feel their company as a whole makes mental health a priority.
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More employees believe their direct managers or supervisors (84%), Human Resources (83%), and senior/C-suite leadership (75%) are responsible for cultivating an environment of comfort with mental health at work.
Do you see the trend? Many of us have gotten more comfortable talking about mental health with people we trust. We do not trust corporate leaders. And, why should we? How many people do you know who’ve been laid off in recent years, not because they weren’t meeting the requirements of the job, or the company was losing money, but because the stock price needed a nudge? It’s impossible for employees to trust that you care about their mental health when you’ve watched them cut staff and make it more difficult on those left behind over and over again.
Supporting your workers’ mental health requires them to feel a sense of safety. That no longer exists in most workplaces.
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