Key facts
- Decent work is good for mental health.
- Poor working environments – including
discrimination and inequality, excessive workloads, low job control and
job insecurity – pose a risk to mental health. - 16% of working-age adults were estimated to have a mental disorder in 2023.
- Globally, an estimated 12 billion working days
are lost every year to depression and anxiety at a cost of US$ 1
trillion per year in lost productivity. - There are effective actions to prevent mental
health risks at work, protect and promote mental health at work, and
support workers with mental health conditions.
Overview
Almost 60% of the world population is in work (1). All workers have the right to a safe and healthy environment at work. Work can protect mental health. Decent work supports good mental health by providing:
- a livelihood;
- a sense of confidence, purpose and achievement;
- an opportunity for positive relationships and inclusion in a community; and
- a platform for structured routines, among many other benefits.
For people with mental health conditions, decent work can contribute to recovery and inclusion, improve confidence and social functioning.
Safe and healthy working environments are not only a fundamental right but are also more likely to minimize tension and conflicts at work and improve staff retention, work performance and productivity. Conversely, a lack of effective structures and support
at work, especially for those living with mental health conditions, can affect a person’s ability to enjoy their work and do their job well; it can undermine people’s attendance at work and even stop people getting a job in the first place.
Risks to mental health at work
At work, risks to mental health, also called psychosocial risks, may be related to job content or work schedule, specific characteristics of the workplace or opportunities for career development among other things.
Risks to mental health at work can include:
- under-use of skills or being under-skilled for work;
- excessive workloads or work pace, understaffing;
- long, unsocial or inflexible hours;
- lack of control over job design or workload;
- unsafe or poor physical working conditions;
- organizational culture that enables negative behaviours;
- limited support from colleagues or authoritarian supervision;
- violence, harassment or bullying;
- discrimination and exclusion;
- unclear job role;
- under- or over-promotion;
- job insecurity, inadequate pay, or poor investment in career development; and
- conflicting home/work demands.
international agreement for promoting the rights of people with disabilities (including
psychosocial disabilities), including at work. WHO recommends three interventions to support people with mental health conditions gain, sustain and participate in work:
- Reasonable accommodations at work adapt working environments to the capacities, needs and preferences of a worker with a mental health condition. They may include giving individual workers flexible working hours, extra time to complete
tasks, modified assignments to reduce stress, time off for health appointments or regular supportive meetings with supervisors.
- Return-to-work programmes combine work-directed care (like reasonable accommodations or phased re-entry to work) with ongoing clinical care to support workers in meaningfully returning to work after an absence associated with mental
health conditions, while also reducing mental health symptoms. - Supported employment initiatives help people with severe mental health conditions to get into paid work and maintain their time on work through continue to provide mental health and vocational support.
Create an enabling environment for change
Both governments and employers, in consultation with key stakeholders, can help improve mental health at work by creating an enabling environment for change. In practice this means strengthening:
- Leadership and commitment to mental health at work, for example by integrating mental health at work into relevant policies.
- Investment of sufficient funds and resources, for example by establishing dedicated budgets for actions to improve mental health at work and making mental health and employment services available to lower-resourced enterprises.
- Rightsto participate in work, for example by aligning employment laws and regulations with international human rights instruments and implementing non-discrimination policies at work.
- Integration of mental health at work across sectors, for example by embedding mental health into existing systems for occupational safety and health.
- Participationof workers in decision-making, for example by holding meaningful and timely consultations with workers, their representatives and people with lived experience of mental health conditions.
- Evidence on psychosocial risks and effectiveness of interventions, for example by ensuring that all guidance and action on mental health at work is based on the latest evidence.
- Compliancewith laws, regulations and recommendations, for example by integrating mental health into the responsibilities of national labour inspectorates and other compliance mechanisms.
WHO response
WHO is committed to improving mental health at work. The WHO global strategy on health, environment and climate change and WHO Comprehensive mental health action plan (2013–2030)
outline relevant principles, objectives and implementation strategies to enable good mental health in the workplace. These include addressing social determinants of mental health, such as living standards and working conditions; reducing stigma and discrimination;
and increasing access to evidence-based care through health service development, including access to occupational health services. In 2022, WHO’s World mental health report: transforming mental health for all,
highlighted the workplace as a key example of a setting where transformative action on mental health is needed.
The WHO guidelines on mental health at work provide evidence-based recommendations to promote mental health, prevent mental health conditions, and enable people living with mental health conditions to participate and thrive in work. The recommendations cover organizational interventions, manager
training and worker training, individual interventions, return to work, and gaining employment. The accompanying policy brief by WHO and the International Labour Organization, Mental health at work: policy brief provides a pragmatic framework for implementing the WHO recommendations. It specifically sets out what governments, employers, organizations representing employers and workers, and other stakeholders can do to improve mental health at work.
- World employment and social outlook – Trends 2022. Geneva: International Labour Organization; 2022 (
<li>Women and men in the informal economy: a statistical picture. Geneva: International Labour Organization; 2018 (
