May is Mental Health Awareness month, which calls us to prioritize well-being and break the stigma surrounding mental health issues.
Bosak
According to a 2024-25 poll by the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Ipsos, about 15 percent of working-age adults globally live with a mental disorder, and depression and anxiety alone cost roughly 12 billion workdays – translating to approximately $1 trillion in lost productivity annually.
According to a 2025 Mind Share Partners poll, 48 percent of U.S. employees have left a job for reasons tied to their mental health, and two-thirds of those departures were voluntary.
Employees who work at a company that supports their mental health are twice as likely to report no burnout or depression. Despite the near-universal prevalence of mental health challenges, 46 percent of workers worry about losing their jobs if they talk about their mental health at work. Over 40 percent of employed adults fear retaliation if they take time off for mental health, even though most know how to access care through work – suggesting culture, not access, is the primary barrier.
Employees who fear retaliation if they take time off for mental health are likely working in an organization where the culture lacks trust. Without trust, employees do not feel psychologically safe to talk about their mental health. A Harvard Business Review study found that compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies reported 74 percent less stress, 106 percent more energy at work and 29 percent more satisfaction with their lives.
Since trust begins with each of us individually, decide how you show up in meetings, during times of conflict, in hallways and parking lot conversations, on virtual calls, in policy decisions and in performance reviews. How you show up is critically important because 55 percent of your message is conveyed through body language or non-verbal behavior.
As people leaders, we should be asking our team members, “How can I be better for you?” knowing the answer may be tough to hear. This question is powerful because you will likely receive useful feedback from your team members, and you are modeling a behavior that tells your team members they can ask you for feedback.
The chance of mental health situations showing up in the workplace is high because one in five Americans will have a diagnosable mental health condition sometime in their life. It is important to realize that employees may not feel comfortable telling you the truth about how they are feeling because they don’t feel psychologically safe.
As a leader, conversation is critical. Effective conversation is a subtle art that requires nurturing and developing. The way in which you interact with your employees every day is important. You might not even be aware of the outsized influence you, as a leader, have on your employees’ mental health.
A 2023 study by the Workforce Institute at UKG found leaders have just as much of an impact on people’s mental health as their spouse (both 69 percent) and even more of an impact than their doctor at 51 percent or therapist at 41 percent.
When you notice an employee’s behavior seems different and you are not sure what is going on, lean into your curiosity and ask the employee what is going on. Remember to show up more like a coach in conversations by asking open-ended questions. Questions that start with how, what, when or where are best to avoid blame, which creates defensiveness.
If your employee shows up late for work, ask them what happened this morning and hold space for them to answer without judgment. You might learn that they were up late last night because their dog passed away and they overslept, or because their youngest kid woke up in the middle of the night and got sick. Life happens and can impact how we show up at work. Let’s do our best listening to understand and not diagnose or rescue. “Tell me more” is a powerful follow-up question.
Whether you lead a team of two or 200, you have the ability to shape a culture where people feel safe, seen and supported. That is a gift worth giving. Mental health matters – and so does how we show up for each other every day.
For a catalog of mental health resources available, please visit cdc.gov/mental-health/caring/index.html.
Kelly Bosak is the chief people officer at Lettermen’s Energy, where she leads a small but mighty HR team supporting Lettermen’s employees nationwide. Kelly can be contacted at kelly.bosak@lettermensenergy.com or 816-679-1105.
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