Younger staff burnout on the rise, says research

Mental Health UK’s annual report into workplace stress levels (involving 4,418 adults) has highlighted the growing gap between 18-24 year-olds and other employees when it comes to burnout.

The younger age group are the most likely to be absent due to poor mental health caused by stress. They are also three times more likely to have needed time off due to waiting for NHS appointments than staff aged 55 and over. At the same time, there’s been a notable decline in their likelihood of speaking to their line managers about stress levels and the resulting mental health issues (dropping from 75% to 56%).

‘Often’ or ‘always’ stressed

In terms of the population as a whole, the survey suggests 34% of adults were ‘often’ or ‘always’ suffering from high or extreme levels of pressure and stress. This is down slightly from 35% in the 2024 report. The number of people needing to take time off work because of stress in the past year had stayed the same at 21%.

Staff aged between 18-24 were most likely to report high stress due to having to regularly work unpaid overtime, taking on additional hours due to the increased cost of living and feeling isolated at work. High stress due to high or increased workloads, and fears of redundancy, were most often reported by 25-34 year-olds.

Starting early

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “Earlier conversations about stress and burnout, particularly with younger employees who have less experience of dealing with issues and knowing who to speak to, are becoming essential. 

“Why is burnout happening? What are the particular reasons for stress in specific teams or areas of an organisation, is it workloads, management styles or the wider culture, for example? Working together and sharing information, EAPs can help HR with picking up trends and issues in different areas, among groups like younger people, and also tailor awareness campaigns and the best approaches for encouraging earlier engagement — maybe involving the use of more digital platforms with immediate access etc.”

Revealed: the link between workplace stress and the employment tribunal backlog

A study of recent employment tribunal cases that reached a final judgment by a law firm has shown how 12% related to stress and burnout. In particular, cases involved issues around stress leading to poor performance and claims of unfair dismissal.

Workplace stress is seen as being a significant factor in the challenges being faced by the employment tribunals system. The number of cases between July and September 2025 were up a third on the same time the previous year. The backlog has now gone past the 500,000 mark.

Is stress a disability?

While stress in itself is not automatically considered a disability under the Equality Act, it can be considered to be a symptom of clinical conditions like depression and anxiety which are.

Employers have a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments when there is clear evidence of how the individual employee’s day-to-day ability to do their job has been affected. This can include changing their working hours or other routines, how they are managed or supported by colleagues.

Use EAP data

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “This is another example of how important data on usage trends from EAPs can be. HR and EAP partners need to be working together to identify what’s really happening in different areas of an organisation and among groups and types of employee: where are the stress points and what might be the underlying causes?

“As the research indicates, when problems with stress remain undiagnosed and ignored they can accumulate and result in even more disruptive and costly disputes and tribunals.”

Will the next generation finish their careers early because of stress?

Around a third of employees just entering the workforce (aged 16 to 24) expect they’ll need to retire early because of poor health — the highest proportion of any age group surveyed in a study by AXA Health.

At the root of this finding is younger people’s worries around the impact of stress on their health, with 33% saying that their work and workplace was stopping them from leading a healthy lifestyle.

“Life being stressful is not an illness.”

At the same time, a new BBC survey among GPs has highlighted the concerns among professionals that everyday stresses, setbacks and problems with relationships are being seen as situations requiring medical attention. While in the past people would have found ways to cope, they are now turning to a GP and looking for a diagnosis and treatments.

GPs pointed to 19 to 34 year-olds as the age group which was most likely to be looking for support, that had become less resilient since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Who provides the perspective?

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “When it comes to helping people with their mental health, GPs are being put under a great deal of pressure. Patients expect answers when clearly these are not always going to be straightforward, able to be found in a prescription or treatment plan.

“EAPs are crucial in this situation in providing perspective for employees. They provide an earlier and immediate means of talking about worries without going down the medical route, thinking about situations as a whole, the root causes in terms of relationships and finances etc. As younger people and the population as a whole becomes more sensitised to mental health and its effects, this kind of ability to talk with a professional able to provide a frame of reference and way forward, is only going to be more important.”

Are HR teams taking on more of the emotional strain than EAPs?

In a new survey, around half of HR professionals said “burnout” is going to be the “biggest business risk in 2026” — and that HR themselves are the ones taking on the burden of dealing with employee wellbeing. 42% said that managing wellbeing and burnout was the most “emotionally demanding” part of their job.

63% agreed with the claim that HR was their organisation’s “crisis hotline”, and around the same proportion that dealing with other people’s wellbeing issues had left them with “little energy” for anything else.

Chronic empathy load

In response to the findings, HR sector commentators have agreed that the situation around wellbeing and the rise of AI is putting unprecedented pressures onto HR teams.

They point to the pressure on HR to create positive an organisational culture, combined with the need to take on employee’s crises and emotional issues, as building up into a “chronic empathic load”, a relentless series of difficult personal situations to manage. And this, in turn, is leading to HR’s own emotional fatigue and exhaustion.

What’s going wrong?

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “Employee wellbeing has certainly become more of a priority for HR over the past decade. That responsibility comes with added pressures, particularly given the complexity it can involve. If there’s been one major lesson from that period, it’s been that are no simple answers in terms of benefits like gym membership or meditation apps.

“But the survey findings are a worrying sign if HR are not making use of the professional expertise of an EAP and access to independent support and services like counselling. It obviously shouldn’t be the job of HR to become involved with trying to solve individual cases and the difficult, personal situations around mental health etc. It’s critical that the role of EAPs is understood and being properly communicated to employees — and that EAPs and HR are working in partnership to understand the causes of burnout issues and how best to target different forms of support and changes that might be needed.”

Southeastern Railway demonstrates the importance of updating EAPs

One in three rail workers have a mental health condition (compared with one in six in the UK population more widely), and levels of anxiety are one and a half times higher (according to the industry’s health and wellbeing performance indicators).

Southeastern Railway was having particular issues with long-term sickness absence — and meanwhile its EAP, set up decades earlier, wasn’t being valued or used. “When we actually looked at the recent numbers, we found that of the people who were entitled to receive counselling, only 20 had made it through,” said Alex South, Senior HR and Operations Executive.”

EAP revival

In February this year, Southeastern began trials of a new EAP service more suited to the needs of shift-based, frontline workers with 24/7 access to physical, mental health and safety support. “We knew we’d have to pay more than we were already paying,” said Alex, “but we were prepared to do so if we could guarantee getting more of a wraparound and holistic service that could be more easily accessed.”

The new offering has led to much higher levels of access: 21% activation of the app (more than 1,000 staff) and around a 50% conversion rate to counselling, and one on three reaching out to their GP.

Not just ticking the box

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “No employer should just sign up to an EAP and then feel the job is done. Services need to be tailored to the particular needs of staff in that organisation, and that involves regular reviews and adaptation of services as situations evolve.

“As the Southeastern example has shown, employees need to have full trust in the offering and that getting in touch will lead to access to services like counselling. But, at the same time, it’s also important that HR doesn’t just see rising levels of contact with EAPs as a positive development. Signs of fresh engagement and interest are one thing, but over time it should always be the aim to reduce the need for contacting EAPs by dealing with the underlying issues. And again, monitoring usage and delivering targeted forms of support in partnership with an EAP is the best way to do that.”

Should mental health first aiders be mandatory across workplaces?

The range of stakeholders involved with workplace mental health — employers, trade unions, support providers, mental health first aiders and employees themselves — are being asked for their feedback on the approach for a public consultation being run by MHFA England.

‘Set the standard: mandate the change’ will run until Wednesday 10 December, providing an opportunity to offer feedback on the MHFA scheme and approach via an online form. The evidence is being gathered, in principle, to support the MHFA’s case that the provision of mental health first aiders should be mandatory.

Evidence-based standards for 2026

The consultation material is due to be used as the basis for best practice standards to be published next year.

“Over the last 18 years, we have seen time and again how mental health first aid saves lives and reduces stigma. For it to be truly effective, workplaces must fully embed it and take a whole-organisation approach. Workplaces have the power to transform the nation’s mental health,” said Sarah McIntosh, chief executive of MHFA England.

“These standards are about setting a new benchmark, embedding prevention, early intervention, and culture change into every workplace. Getting feedback via the consultation is vital to the future of workplace mental health.”

No single answer

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “Clarity on the nature and role of MHFAs is critical — and it will be important that the consultation evidence isn’t only used to argue for mandatory adoption, but also to highlight the need for caution.

“MHFAs have been a positive development in raising awareness of the importance of employee mental health and making it easier for staff to have a first conversation about their concerns, and to be signposted to advice, resources and professional support. But MHFAs have only been equipped with the training to provide that initial signposting and nothing more. MHFAs can only ever be one element in a package of measures that provide preventative and reactive support.”

When is a sick day not a sick day?

Survey findings suggest around 60% of employees are using sick days for other reasons than physical illness. Most commonly, for ‘mental health’ reasons (28%). Another 22% said they’d taken a sick day for ‘a break’, and 10% to catch-up on chores and errands.

The other side of the picture is more staff working while dealing with illness. 45% of the 1,897 respondents in the global survey by CV-building platform Kickresume said they worked while off sick, and only 11% said they used the time solely for recovery.

Grey areas of illness

Workers are still disguising the reasons for taking time off, say the survey authors, claiming a physical illness when the cause it’s actually psychological. This phenomenon is more likely to happen in Europe than the US. US employees have been found to be more willing to report ‘stress’ as a reason for absence.

Let’s be clear

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “The issue, increasingly, is whether people feel able to take time off because of a stress-related condition. They’re feeling a psychological strain, worried about their mental health, and the need to find some space. And when they do have a physical illness they’re more likely to worry about not keeping up with messages and deadlines, knowing that to one extent or another, they can at least stay in touch remotely with their phone or laptop. So there’s a blurring of what sick days are for, mixed up with feelings of guilt.

“In this situation it’s important that HR makes it clear what they expect from employees — and it could be argued it’s a reflection of the wellbeing offering in general. Do people feel supported, their needs understood? HR need to be explicit about when sick leave should be taken and why, including the organisation’s appreciation of the potential for burnout, and how that leave should be used to switch off, for genuine rest and recovery.”

Focusing on the job: EAPs and keeping Britain working

Our new market report, Focusing on the job: EAPs and keeping Britain working, puts the role and value of EAPs into perspective. Because there’s an urgent need to help keep more employees in work, and make workplaces ‘healthier’ places to be.

EAPs have been playing a huge role in supporting workplace wellbeing as the demands and pressures have mushroomed: the new figures suggest remarkable growth in terms of the size of the market since 2023, boosted by the adoption of EAPs by more medium sized and smaller employers. EAP services are now an option for more than half of UK employees — and demand keeps on rising.

At the same time there are question marks over how employers can make best use of EAPs and their excellent resources of professional expertise to maximise their impact. The report points to how more providers are now expected to act as umbrella wellbeing services. Employers trust the professionalism of their EAP provider and want more support. But what does that mean in terms of the ability of EAPs to focus on their core strengths, the quality of clinical services and delivering the best clinical outcomes?

It’s clear there’s huge demand and pressure on counselling services. One trend picked up by the report is the number of parents contacting EAPs with concerns about the mental health of their children. This raises a new set of issues for employers and their EAP partners over how to provide support — a topic addressed by specialists who give their advice in the report.

So there’s a big job to be done in the coming years. Working closely together as a sector and with employers we can find the way to be an essential part of how healthy work and workplaces are made.

Karl Bennett, Chair of EAPA UK

Is wellbeing support needed for your AI tools?

The AI “safety and research company” Anthropic has proposed the use of wellbeing programmes to protect generative AI algorithms — making sure they are able to disconnect from any conversations the AI finds “distressing”.

The company argues there is a 15% chance that generative AI software is already “sentient”, and forms of consciousness are increasingly likely in coming years. And that means, they say, it will be important to ensure that AI doesn’t begin to feel “ill will” to its human users.

Tortured AI

The majority of experts argue that the software algorithms that train themselves on mass sets of data are only giving themselves the appearance of human personality, and will only ever be artificial.

But Anthropic believes it’s keeping an open mind on the extent and uses of a technology that no-one yet fully understands — because AI can “communicate, relate, plan, problem-solve and pursue goals, along with very many more characteristics we associate with people”.

Elon Musk has come out in support of the Anthropic approach, arguing that “torturing AI is not okay”.

Avoiding the distraction

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “With AI being adopted so quickly across industries as a low-cost tool to encourage yet more speed and efficiency, organisations need to make sure they keep a clear head when it comes to understanding the real implications for people.

“There are concerns around the prevalence of AI. Not just jobs being replaced, but roles becoming less meaningful and engaging; people not needing to think for themselves anymore, but taking the easier option of AI output. But instead of focusing on these aspects, the debate over AI consciousness — which experts believe is a labyrinthine conversation with no useful end — is being used by AI providers as a distraction. There’s far too much at stake when it comes to wellbeing and mental health to be drawn into mystical questions of conscious machines.”

Presenting the problem of presenteeism

Dr Christine Grant, Associate Professor at the Research Centre for Healthcare and Communities, Coventry University (and an Occupational Psychologist), and Professor Gail Kinman, Occupational Health Psychology, Birkbeck Business School, University of London:

While reducing sickness absence is a priority for many organisations, evidence shows that presenteeism is not only more prevalent but also more costly. A survey by the CIPD of more than 1,000 HR professionals found that 76% of respondents had witnessed presenteeism among office-based workers in their organisation (78% among remote workers). It is also estimated the average UK employee spends more than two weeks a year working while unwell. And it’s a particular issue among workers dealing with mental illness.

Presenteeism is not always harmful — and can be beneficial, providing the illness is neither infectious nor overly debilitating. Work can offer people structure, purpose and opportunities to build confidence and self-esteem, as well as social interaction and support. Presenteeism, though, can hinder rather than aid recovery, increase the risk of future health issues and absenteeism, and result in decreased productivity. It can lead to errors, accidents and injuries that also potentially harm co-workers and the public. The consequences can be particularly severe in roles where people are responsible for the wellbeing and safety of others. Seeing colleagues working while sick normalises the behaviour, fostering an ‘attendance’ culture where employees feel pressured to work whatever their health challenges.

It can be a vicious circle. Research findings suggest people often alternate between presenteeism and absenteeism, exacerbating their health problems that can then lead to

exhaustion and burnout.  Poor mental health is one of the most common reasons for presenteeism, commonly due to the stigma which still exists around admitting mental health issues. A YouGov study in 2022 suggested the majority of UK workers who’d taken time off work for mental health reasons had not told their boss the real reason.

Effectively addressing presenteeism is an investment in the long-term wellbeing of employees, to help them feel supported and perform at their best. A systemic and proactive approach, designed with the input of OHPs, wellbeing practitioners and employees as well as organisations, can result in significant benefits for employers, including enhanced employee wellbeing, increased morale and productivity, and improved retention.

To reduce presenteeism, organisations should:

• Identify the RISKS and CAUSES.
• REVIEW absence management policies and practices.
• ENSURE the organisational culture values and promotes employee health.
• CONSULT staff about their experiences of presenteeism and INVOLVE them in decisions about how to manage it.
• MONITOR their workload and working hours to ensure they are not overloaded.
• ASSESS risks among home-based workers, as well as those who are office-based.
• IDENTIFY the support required.
• ENCOURAGE and ENABLE employees to take sick leave when required.
• IMPLEMENT an employee wellness programme to emphasise the importance of self-care.
• ENSURE policies and practices are inclusive and consider the diverse needs of the workforce.

A full toolkit on Understanding Sickness Presenteeism: Causes, Risks and Solutions is available from the Society of Occupational Medicine.