Positive Health Online

When people seek psychiatric support because work has become unmanageable, they rarely use terms such as “psychosocial risk”. They are more likely to describe a growing sense of dread before the working week or a loss of confidence in a role they may once have managed well.

Although these experiences are often framed as individual mental health difficulties, the environment in which somebody works can contribute significantly to the onset and persistence of psychological distress. Pressure becomes harmful when expectations remain unrealistic, employees have little influence over their work and concerns are allowed to continue without appropriate intervention.

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Credit: Seth Falco

When Workplace Pressure Becomes Harmful

Treating workplace mental health entirely as an issue of personal resilience risks overlooking these wider causes. Clinical treatment may help somebody manage their symptoms, but it cannot correct a culture in which excessive pressure has become normal. When work is contributing to ill health, employers must examine the conditions surrounding the individual rather than placing responsibility for recovery solely on them.

Findings from the Mamedica Health & Work Index demonstrate how closely health and employment are connected. Nearly a quarter of people, 23%, have considered leaving or have already left a job because of health problems, while one in five have previously left employment because of an ongoing condition. A further 18% have reduced their working hours, suggesting that many people are being forced to reshape their professional lives around health needs that are not being adequately accommodated.

The Career And Financial Consequences

The career impact can continue even when somebody remains in work and one in ten respondents said health-related absence had prevented them from progressing in their career, while 9% were working in a lower-paid role because of their symptoms. Among those who had taken health-related time off during the previous 12 months, 19% cited mental health or anxiety-related issues. The wider impact is reflected in Office for National Statistics figures showing that 148.8 million working days were lost because of sickness or injury in 2025, with mental health conditions accounting for 8.9% of sickness-absence occurrences.

Financial pressure can make recovery considerably more difficult. Especially since almost a quarter of respondents, 23%, said they had felt compelled to return to work while still experiencing ongoing health problems because they could not afford to remain absent. Returning before somebody is ready may worsen their condition and increase the likelihood of further absence, leaving both the individual and the organisation dealing with the consequences.

Moving Beyond Visible Wellbeing Initiatives

A genuinely supportive workplace therefore requires more than visible wellbeing initiatives. Employee assistance programmes can offer useful support, but their value is limited when the underlying working conditions remain unchanged. Employers must consider whether workloads are sustainable, whether managers respond appropriately to health concerns and if employees can request support without fearing damage to their careers.

Managers should not be expected to diagnose mental illness, but they should be equipped to notice significant changes and respond without immediately treating them as evidence of poor commitment. A constructive conversation followed by appropriate adjustments can help prevent a temporary period of ill health from becoming a lasting professional setback.

Accessing Individualised Care Without Stigma

For those who do become unwell, care should be based on their individual clinical needs and may involve different forms of specialist support. In my work at Mamedica, this includes assessing people with complex or treatment-resistant conditions and considering cannabis-based medicinal products where they are clinically appropriate. Medical cannabis is not suitable for everybody, and no treatment can compensate for a workplace that continues to cause harm. Its relevance lies within a broader principle: employees should be able to access legitimate, individualized healthcare without stigma, while employers take responsibility for reducing avoidable workplace risks.

The most useful question is not simply why an individual is struggling to cope, but whether their working environment is making recovery more difficult. A healthy workplace should ultimately be judged by whether people can perform their roles without sacrificing their health or limiting their future prospects.