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Insights · For employers

A quarter of UK workers say their job is harming their mental health

By the VYVE team · October 2026 · 3 minute read

The CIPD’s Good Work Index 2026, its annual survey of UK working life, was published in July. Based on 5,074 employees surveyed by YouGov between December 2025 and February 2026, it gives a clear picture of how work is affecting people’s health.

The headline findings

  • 25% of employees say work has a negative impact on their mental health.
  • 24% say it has a negative impact on their physical health.
  • 30% say their workload is too high.
  • 20% feel under excessive pressure always or often, and 25% feel exhausted at work always or often.

Workload is the clearest link

Among people whose workload is too high, 47% say work is harming their mental health and 38% say it is harming their physical health. For mental health, that is nearly double the overall figure.

It matters for absence too. The CIPD’s 2025 health and wellbeing research found average sickness absence had reached 9.4 days per employee, the highest in more than 15 years, with mental ill health the leading cause of long-term absence.

What employers can do

The honest lesson from the data is that wellbeing support cannot make up for work that is badly designed. The biggest levers sit with how work is organised and managed:

  • Talk about workload. Make it normal for managers and teams to review priorities and say when something has to give.
  • Equip managers. Managers are often best placed to notice pressure building. Training them to have early, supportive conversations helps.
  • Measure what is happening. Look at absence, turnover and engagement together, and by team, so pressure points show up early.
  • Offer support before people are struggling. Everyday support for sleep, stress, movement and connection helps people stay well while the bigger changes take effect.

Where VYVE fits

VYVE cannot fix workload or job design. That is the job of leaders and managers, and no app should claim otherwise.

What VYVE can do is support the people doing the work. Members get daily check-ins, breathwork and meditation, sleep guidance and training plans, access to counsellors and group therapy, and communities that make it easier to switch off. Employers see anonymised, grouped trends over time, which can help show where pressure is building, while every individual’s data stays private to them.

Used alongside good work design, that is how we see our part in the mission: helping people stay well before they reach breaking point.

See VYVE for employers or try the ROI calculator.

Sources: CIPD, Good Work Index 2026; CIPD, Health and wellbeing at work 2025.

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