Is Work Making Us Sick?

When performance is everything and people are disposable,

what exactly are we working for?

Work is not supposed to be effortless. But it was never meant to erode us either. For many people, the workplace has become a site of quiet harm, where stress is normalised, dysfunction is tolerated, and wellbeing is treated as a personal responsibility rather than a structural one.

We are told to build resilience, find balance, and practise self-care. But when systems reward overwork and ignore instability, no personal practice is enough to protect people from the emotional toll. The line between effort and damage has blurred, and it is now costing more than just energy. It is costing people their health, their focus, their confidence, and in some cases, their careers.

This is not about blaming work itself, it is about questioning what work has become. Because when experienced professionals are leaving, entire sectors are haemorrhaging staff, and mental health referrals keep rising, it is time to stop saying, “It’s just a tough time,” and ask what the environment is doing.

If the cost of working is increasingly illness, financial, emotional, and physical, then we need to stop romanticising burnout and start asking better questions about what we are building.

The Current Landscape

Workplaces today are saturated with language around growth, agility, and performance. But behind the values posters and leadership emails, many people are experiencing a version of work that is inconsistent, unclear, and psychologically exhausting.

One of the most overlooked sources of harm is management. A poor manager does not just block progress, they often shape the entire emotional climate. Research shows that 75 percent of employees say the most stressful part of their job is their immediate boss. When leadership lacks emotional regulation, communication skills, or basic psychological safety, the impact cascades through teams.

Another silent strain is pay. In sectors where people are expected to carry significant emotional and cognitive load, such as therapy, care, and support work, wages remain disproportionately low. Experienced professionals with decades of training regularly earn less than staff in retail or logistics. In one UK charity role, a therapist with 25 years of experience was paid less than £17 an hour, while starting rates at major supermarkets are now reaching £14 and above. It is not about comparing professions, it is about asking how society values care, responsibility, and emotional labour.

Add to this the pressure to stay connected at all times, the quiet expectation to share personal updates on professional platforms, and the rise of unpaid emotional expectations (team WhatsApps, forced social bonding, oversharing framed as culture), and it becomes clear: this is not just about hard work, it is about silent strain that builds up with no off switch.

The Hidden Cost of Working

The impact of workplace-related stress is measurable, and growing.

According to Deloitte, poor mental health among employees costs UK employers an estimated £51 billion a year. Broader figures from AXA and the Mental Health Foundation suggest that the cost to the UK economy may now exceed £100 billion annually, once factors like presenteeism, turnover, and lost productivity are included.

These are not abstract numbers, they reflect real-life outcomes: more sick notes, more disengagement, and more people operating in survival mode. They also point to a system where people are seen as resources, not humans.

Wellbeing strategies are often reactive, rolled out only after visible signs of burnout or crisis. Some workplaces offer mindfulness apps or mental health days, but leave the core pressures untouched. Others publicly promote mental health awareness while privately expecting staff to absorb unrealistic workloads.

This creates a culture where people do not speak up until they are already unwell, and when they do, the system is often too slow, too overstretched, or too defensive to respond meaningfully.

And so the cycle continues. Quiet burnout becomes the baseline. People keep showing up, but switch off inside. Energy is managed through detachment, not recovery. Support becomes conditional, only offered once someone proves they are already at risk.

What Are the Red Flags?

A toxic work culture does not always announce itself. It often hides behind ambition, “fast-paced environments,” or what is sold as strong leadership. Some of the most telling red flags include:

• People are afraid to raise concerns or question decisions, and complaints are ignored or dismissed

• Policies exist but are only enforced when convenient

• Micromanagement replaces trust

• Absenteeism, presenteeism, and quiet quitting are widespread

• Mistakes lead to blame, not support

• “We’re like a family here” is used to justify boundary violations

• Team WhatsApps, mandatory socials, or emotional sharing are treated as part of the role

• Opting out of personal exposure is seen as disengagement

• Feedback only happens when something goes wrong

• Managers are untrained, reactive, or emotionally inconsistent

This is not just inconvenient, it is harmful, and over time, it shapes how people see themselves: as replaceable, too sensitive, or somehow not cut out for work that is making everyone quietly unwell.

What Better Looks Like

A healthy workplace does not need to be perfect, but it does need to be coherent, consistent, and safe. The strongest environments are not the ones with the flashiest wellbeing offerings. They are the ones where people can work without performing a version of themselves that fits.

Signs of a more grounded workplace include:

• Boundaries are respected without question

• Emotional support is available early, not just in crisis

• Managers are trained, supported, and held accountable

• Flexibility works both ways

• Feedback is regular, useful, and handled with care

• People are allowed to rest without guilt or performance metrics

• Pay reflects skill, responsibility, and impact, not just margin

• Silence is not expected in exchange for stability

People do not burn out from working hard, they burn out from working without clarity, respect, or space to be human.

The Bigger Picture

Work is one of the dominant structures in adult life. If workplaces are quietly eroding wellbeing, that impact goes far beyond the office.

People bring that exhaustion home, relationships shrink to recovery, sleep suffers, and creativity disappears. Families feel it, health suffers. Entire sectors begin to lose experienced staff because staying is no longer viable.

And it is happening across most industries, including healthcare, education, mental health. Some of these are the very sectors designed to support others are struggling to support their own people.

Telling individuals to build more resilience while leaving the systems untouched is not a solution. It is a deflection, and over time, it erodes not just trust, but the possibility of recovery at scale.

We already know what better looks like, we just need more people willing to build it.

What Needs to Change

This is not about free fruit, wellbeing webinars, or motivational emails. It is about redesigning systems so that people do not have to choose between working and staying well.

That means:

• Early, structured support that does not require disclosure to access

• Leadership that models psychological steadiness

• Workloads that are ambitious, not excessive

• Pay that allows people to live without anxiety

• Cultures where recovery is not earned, but expected

• Tools that help people reflect and plan, not just patch themselves up between breakdowns

We do not need more people pushing through. We need more systems that stop pushing people to the edge.

MindMotive

Digital partners, psychologically grounded and quietly effective, because support should feel like support, not another performance.

MindMotive

Structured Tools for Complex Thinking

Psychologically grounded digital partners, designed for individuals, teams, and organisations who want intelligent support that scales.

Sources:

1. Deloitte – Poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion a year https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/about/press-room/poor-mental-health-costs-uk-employers-51-billion-a-year-for-employees.html

2. Mental Health Foundation – Poor mental wellbeing costs employers £42–45 billion annually https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/statistics/mental-health-work-statistics

3. MHFA England – Work-related mental health issues cost UK economy £57.4 billion per year https://mhfaengland.org/mhfa-centre/blog/key-workplace-mental-health-statistics-for-2024/

4. AXA UK Mind Health Study – Poor mind health costs UK economy £102 billion in 2023 -  https://www.axa.co.uk/newsroom/new-research-shows-poor-mind-health-in-the-workplace-costs-the-uk-economy-102bn-a-year/

5. The Guardian – Hidden cost of UK workplace sickness rockets to £100 billion a year - https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/31/hidden-cost-of-uk-workplace-sickness-rockets-to-100bn-a-year-report-finds