Just 5% of employees would approach their line manager if they were struggling with their mental health, and new research from Vitality suggests that the consequences of this silence are landing squarely on the balance sheets of UK employers and the claims books of insurers.
According to the research, 41% of workers have considered taking time off due to stress, burnout or poor mental wellbeing, a figure that climbs to 53% among Gen Z employees. Together, the findings challenge a foundational assumption of workplace wellbeing strategy - that employees will ask for help when they need it.
The macro-level picture is stark. The Health and Safety Executive found that 22.1 million working days were lost in 2024-25 due to mental ill health, a sharp increase on the previous year, with nearly one million workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety.
That figure represents more than a 100% increase since annual records were first collected in 2001-02. Research from Deloitte placed the cost of poor employee mental health at £51 billion per year, with presenteeism alone accounting for around £24 billion of that figure annually.
Meanwhile, the reluctance to speak up is not simply a matter of personal reticence. Research by Mental Health First Aid England found that 45% of employees feel uncomfortable discussing mental health concerns with their manager, fearing negative repercussions.
Among younger workers, the trend is worsening. The Mental Health UK Burnout Report found that the proportion of 18-to-24-year-olds comfortable opening up to a line manager about stress fell from 75% in 2024 to just 56% in 2025.
Employee assistance programmes (EAP) have long been positioned as a first line of defence, but utilisation data tells a troubling story. The PAM Group Health at Work Report 2025 found that demand for workplace mental health counselling rose from 45% in 2021 to 57% in 2025. Yet over the same period, actual access fell, pointing to a widening gap between what employees want and what they feel able to use.
The commercial opportunity is not lost on the market. Aon's UK Benefits and Trends Survey 2025 found that mental health was among the most commonly cited areas for planned new investment, with neurodiversity support, stress and resilience training, and line manager mental health training ranking as employers' top three priorities for the next 12 to 18 months.
AXA Health data, meanwhile, found that 72% of UK workers aged 18 to 24 consider mental health benefits an important factor in deciding whether to stay with their employer, a retention risk that employers can ill afford to overlook.
Arun Thiyagarajan, CEO of VitalityHealth, said the findings pointed to a structural problem in how support is currently delivered.
"If support depends on waiting for people to escalate serious concerns, too many people will fall through the cracks," he said. "Businesses that move to a proactive and visible model of support can make it easy for employees to access help independently and at an earlier stage - whether that's digital tools, structured self-help, or access to therapy - all without unnecessary barriers or delays."
