World Mental Health Day: Is your job making you unwell?

As South Africa marks World Mental Health Day today, attention is turning to a workplace issue that extends beyond wellness programmes and employee benefits: whether the way work is designed may itself be contributing to poor mental health.

Almost a million workers globally are estimated to die each year from work-related mental health risks, while burnout and low employee wellbeing remain persistent concerns.

The figures have prompted renewed calls for organisations to look beyond wellness perks and address working conditions, management practices and psychological safety.

Professor Renata Schoeman, head of the MBA Healthcare Leadership programme at Stellenbosch Business School, argues that organisations need to examine whether workplace systems are contributing to the problem rather than relying primarily on interventions that help employees cope with their effects.

‘The uncomfortable question is, what if the workplace itself is the problem?’ she asks.

Gym memberships, mindfulness apps, healthy food, recreational facilities and employee assistance programmes have become common features of corporate wellness strategies.

However, Schoeman says these measures cannot compensate for factors such as chronic workloads, poor supervision, job insecurity or workplace harassment.

The* International Labour Organization (ILO)* estimates that work-related psychosocial risk factors, including long working hours, job insecurity, an imbalance between effort and reward and workplace bullying, contribute to 840 088 worker deaths globally each year.

The associated losses in human capital and productivity are estimated at the equivalent of 1.37% of global GDP.

In South Africa, one in four employees has a clinical diagnosis of depression, while absenteeism linked to depression is estimated to cost the economy R19 billion each year.

The 2025 Deloitte Well-being at Work report also identified a disconnect between how executives view employee wellbeing and how employees experience it.

While two-thirds of senior executives surveyed believed employee wellbeing had improved over the previous year, only about a third of employees reported an improvement. Up to 30% said their wellbeing had deteriorated.

The workplace expectations placed on employees can also affect how they respond when they are struggling.

At least one in five employees surveyed were found to be trying to demonstrate their value by working while ill, skipping breaks, taking on additional projects or cancelling planned leave.

Schoeman says mental health should therefore move beyond being viewed solely as an HR responsibility and become part of organisational governance and leadership accountability.

‘Organisations that take accountability at the top for workers’ sense of psychological safety and stability benefit from a workforce that is not only healthier, happier and more satisfied, but more productive and able to contribute to organisational sustainability,’ she said.

World Mental Health Day puts employee voices in focus

Picture: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

This year’s World Mental Health Day theme, ‘Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change’, places emphasis on ensuring that people affected by mental health challenges have a meaningful role in decisions that affect them.

For workplaces, that could mean moving beyond annual employee surveys and occasional pulse checks.

Schoeman argues that employee feedback should lead to measurable changes in working conditions rather than simply being collected as evidence that consultation has taken place.

‘The employee voice needs to become part of organisational decision-making rather than something collected once a year and presented as evidence of action,’ she stated.

She also believes organisations should assess psychosocial hazards in much the same way as physical and occupational hazards – identifying, assessing, mitigating and monitoring them.

These risks can include unreasonable demands, poor supervision, limited autonomy, unclear responsibilities, inadequate support, bullying and unfair workplace processes.

What employers can measure differently

Schoeman recommends a more continuous approach to monitoring employee wellbeing, rather than relying exclusively on annual surveys.

Among the measures she highlights are:

• Regular assessments of employee wellbeing and engagement.
• Open forums, team meetings and one-on-one discussions where employees can raise concerns.
• Monitoring working hours, including work performed outside normal hours.
• Tracking the use of paid time off as an indicator of whether employees are taking adequate breaks.
• Reviewing after-hours and weekend email activity as a possible indication of workload and digital overload.
• Measuring participation in wellness initiatives and assessing whether those programmes are actually being used.

Schoeman says employee assistance programmes, counselling, sick leave and return-to-work initiatives remain relevant, but argues that they largely operate downstream by helping employees manage the consequences of workplace pressures.

‘The new conversation is upstream and focused on first-line prevention rather than building resilience or managing the fall-out of work-related mental health risks,’ she said.

World Mental Health Day provides a global platform for that conversation, but the workplace data suggests the issue extends beyond a single day of awareness.

For employers, the focus is increasingly on how workloads are structured, how managers lead, how much control employees have over their work and whether people feel able to raise concerns without compromising their standing.

The central question is therefore not only whether organisations offer support when employees struggle, but whether the design and culture of work are helping prevent those pressures from becoming a health risk in the first place.

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**Picture: **Pexels

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