Pull your socks up
Wellbeing has become the most popular topic in HR. Every conference, leadership away day and strategy document promises a stronger focus on mental health, resilience and psychological safety. Yet many employees return from the wellbeing seminar to exactly the same job, the same workload, the same targets and the same staffing shortages. Posters and mindfulness apps do not change that reality.
The intentions are genuine. But an uncomfortable question remains: is this genuine organisational change, or simply the HR topic of the moment?
The evidence is impossible to ignore
There are clear reasons why wellbeing has climbed the corporate agenda. Work-related stress, depression or anxiety accounted for over 875,000 cases of work-related ill health in the UK last year, and Deloitte estimates poor mental health costs UK employers more than £50 billion annually through absence, presenteeism and staff turnover.
At the same time, GPs are reporting a noticeable rise in requests for “fit notes” — up around 8% in the latest figures — as more employees seek formal time off when work feels intolerable. Increasingly, simply being unhappy at work is, rightly or wrongly, being framed as a wellbeing issue that justifies time away from the job. The rise in these requests shows something deeper: many people no longer separate their mental health from their work experience.
When finance directors start quoting mental health statistics, the conversation has moved beyond HR.
Cultural shifts reinforce the urgency. Younger employees speak openly about anxiety, burnout and work–life balance. They expect employers to listen and to act. And they increasingly expect that being overwhelmed at work is a legitimate reason to consult their GP — not a sign of personal weakness.
Not everyone is convinced. Some older members of the workforce still favour the shorter advice: “Pull your socks up.” The generational divide is now visible in many workplaces.
Posters don’t reduce pressure
Few sectors illustrate the contradiction more clearly than healthcare. The NHS talks frequently about staff wellbeing — and for good reason. Workforce shortages, long waiting lists, and high levels of burnout create enormous pressure on staff. Surveys consistently show employees feeling stressed and overwhelmed.
Yet the day-to-day reality on many hospital wards still reflects an older mindset: long shifts, dark humour, and an unspoken belief that if you cannot cope, perhaps you are in the wrong profession.
For employees, another wellbeing poster rarely changes anything. What they usually need is another colleague on the shift.
The credibility problem
Organisations have made progress. Many now train mental health first aiders. Employee assistance programmes are common. Flexible working is increasingly accepted. Some senior leaders speak openly about their own struggles.
These changes matter. Culture shifts slowly. But a familiar pattern often emerges: HR launches a wellbeing initiative, promotes it enthusiastically, leaders signal support — and then the performance targets arrive.
And targets almost always win.
Modern organisations remain obsessed with productivity: deliver more, work faster, do it with fewer resources. Technology is expected to bridge the gap. Artificial intelligence will remove the routine tasks. Digital systems will streamline processes.
In strategy documents, it sounds impressive. For employees doing the work, it feels very different. Many now experience work intensification: the work itself has not disappeared, it has simply been squeezed into less time with fewer people.
A wellbeing strategy may look good in a board report. Adequate staffing is usually more effective.
When resilience becomes the answer to everything
High-pressure environments highlight the gap between rhetoric and reality. When teams are understaffed, conversations about mindfulness and self-care can feel theoretical. You cannot practise breathing exercises while managing three urgent crises at once.
Resilience programmes can also send an unintended message: be stronger, be more mindful, download the wellbeing app. Meanwhile, structural problems — unrealistic workloads, poor management, staffing shortages, endless organisational change — remain unchanged.
It is far easier to run a resilience workshop than recruit 200 staff.
What real wellbeing would look like
None of this means the wellbeing agenda is misguided. The old culture of “toughen up and get on with it” caused enormous harm. People burned out quietly, left their profession, or struggled in silence. At least organisations are now talking about mental health.
But talking about wellbeing is not the same as protecting it.
If organisations genuinely want to improve wellbeing, three things matter more than posters or apps:
Organisations often talk about wellbeing as if it were an employee skill. In reality, it is often a management problem.
The real test for leaders
Wellbeing will remain fashionable in HR circles. In previous decades the big themes were engagement, resilience and purpose.
But this agenda will only endure if leaders treat it as more than the topic of the month. Otherwise employees will attend the wellbeing seminar, download the mindfulness app, and return to a job that still expects them to run a marathon every day — and many will end up at their GP’s door asking for a sick note.
Blair McPherson former Director author and blogger and blogger blairmcpherson.co.uk
