Most companies we talk to have done “something” for mental health. There is a meditation app in the benefits portal. There is an Employee Assistance Program number on the intranet. There might even be a wellness week every October.
And yet, when you ask people what actually shapes how they feel at work on a Tuesday afternoon, they rarely mention the app. They mention their manager. Who answered the late-night message. Who noticed they were quiet in the meeting. Who said “take the afternoon” and meant it.
This World Mental Health Day (October 10), we want to make a simple case: mental health at work is not only an HR program. It is a management skill. And the good news is that it does not require a big budget. It requires small, repeated behaviors that any manager can start on Monday.
Why it matters: the manager is the real well-being program
The numbers are hard to ignore.
- According to the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, an estimated 12 billion workdays are lost every year to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy nearly US$1 trillion (WHO & ILO, 2022).
- In the same guidance, WHO recommended manager training for the first time, to build managers’ capacity to prevent stressful work environments and respond to workers in distress (WHO & ILO, 2022).
- Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report found that 40% of employees globally experienced a lot of stress the previous day, and only 20% were engaged (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, 2025 data).
- Gallup estimates that 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager (Gallup, 2022, updated 2024).
- In a UKG Workforce Institute survey of 3,400 people across 10 countries, managers had as much impact on employees’ mental health as a spouse or partner (69%), and more than doctors (51%) or therapists (41%) (UKG Workforce Institute, 2023).
That last finding cuts both ways. A manager’s influence can protect people, or quietly wear them down. There is one more detail worth noticing: Gallup reports that manager engagement itself fell from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025 (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026). We are asking managers to carry more, while they are running on less.
So this is not about adding another task to a manager’s list. It is about changing how they already lead, in ways that protect their team and themselves.
An important boundary before we start: managers are not therapists, and they should not try to be. A manager’s role is to notice, to ask, to listen, and to signpost: point people to professional support such as your Employee Assistance Program (EAP), occupational health, or a licensed professional. The five habits below are about creating healthier working conditions, not diagnosing or treating anyone.
The framework behind the five habits
In 2022, the U.S. Surgeon General published the Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being. It is built around five essentials: Protection from Harm, Connection and Community, Work-Life Harmony, Mattering at Work, and Opportunity for Growth, with worker voice and equity at the center.
It was written for organizations. But when you read it closely, almost every essential lives or dies in a manager’s calendar. Here is how each one translates into a habit you can practice this week.
1. Protection from Harm: make the workload (and the “always-on” culture) visible
Harm at work is rarely dramatic. More often it looks like a normal week: three urgent projects, a chat channel that never sleeps, and an unspoken rule that the fastest reply wins.
The manager’s job here is not to remove all pressure. It is to make pressure visible and discussable. When workload is invisible, people assume they are the only ones struggling. When it is on the table, the team can prioritize together.
Take a common situation. A manager at a multinational in Istanbul sends messages at 11 p.m. because that is when she finally has time to think. She never expects a reply. Her team does not know that. So they reply.
Try this: In your next team meeting, agree on a simple after-hours norm. For example: “Messages sent after 7 p.m. or on weekends can wait until the next working day unless marked URGENT.” Then use your tool’s “schedule send” feature so your own late-night thinking lands at 9 a.m. And once a month, ask: “On a scale of 1–5, how sustainable does your workload feel right now?”
2. Connection and Community: open your 1:1s with a real check-in
Many 1:1 meetings begin with “How are you?” and move on before anyone answers. It is a greeting, not a question.
A two-minute check-in changes that. It tells people that you see them as humans first, and it gives you early signals, long before stress turns into disengagement or an empty chair. Connection starts with a conversation that is allowed to be honest.
Try this: Start your next 1:1 with: “How are you, really? Give me a number from 1 to 10.” Then ask one follow-up: “What would make it one point higher this week?” Listen, do not fix everything, and do not push for details people do not want to share. If someone signals they are going through something heavy, thank them for telling you, adjust what you can at work, and remind them of the EAP or other professional support available.
If you lead a team in Türkiye from abroad, this matters even more. Remote teams lose the hallway moments where managers usually pick up signals. A consistent, low-pressure check-in ritual can build more trust than an occasional big engagement survey. Keep the ritual the same every week so it feels safe, not like an inspection.
3. Work-Life Harmony: show flexibility in the calendar, not just in the policy
Almost every company says it values flexibility. Far fewer calendars show it.
If your team’s days are wall-to-wall meetings, a flexible-work policy on paper does not help much. And if the manager never takes a break, never logs off and never takes leave, people read the real rule very clearly.
Try this: Protect two things in your team calendar this month. 1. Focus blocks: at least two 90-minute blocks per week where no internal meetings are booked. 2. A meeting-free window: for example, Friday afternoons, or one morning a week.
Then model it. Block your own lunch. Say out loud, “I am stepping away for 30 minutes to reset.” When you take leave, actually be off, and name a backup. For hybrid teams across time zones, rotate meeting times so the same people are not always joining at 8 p.m.
4. Mattering at Work: recognize small wins, specifically
People want to know that their work matters and that they matter. The Surgeon General’s framework puts this at the heart of well-being at work, and it is one of the easiest habits to overlook.
Recognition does not need a budget or a ceremony. What it needs is specificity. “Great job, team” is pleasant. “Your summary of the client call saved us two days of rework, thank you” tells someone exactly how they made a difference.
Try this: Start a Small Wins ritual. At the end of each week, write down three specific contributions you noticed, and share at least one of them, either in the team channel or in person. Rotate so that, over a month, every team member is named. Pay special attention to invisible work: the person who onboarded a new colleague, fixed a process, or calmed a tense meeting.
5. Opportunity for Growth: talk about growth before the annual review, and make mistakes safe
Growth is a well-being factor, not only a career factor. People who feel stuck often feel stressed. And people who are afraid to make mistakes rarely learn fast.
Two things help. First, move growth conversations out of the annual review and into the rhythm of normal work. Second, build psychological safety: the shared belief that it is safe to ask a question, admit an error or suggest an idea without being punished or embarrassed.
Try this: Once a quarter, replace one regular 1:1 agenda with a growth conversation built on three questions: “What energized you most this quarter? What drained you? What do you want to learn next?” And in your next team retrospective, go first. Share one mistake you made recently and what you learned. When the manager goes first, everyone else feels safer to follow.
The Happy Work Studio perspective: from mental health to results
At Happy Work Studio, we have long described the link between mental health and business results as a simple chain: Mental Health → Happiness → Loyalty → Profitability. When people feel well, they are more likely to feel good about their work. When they feel cared for, they are more likely to stay committed. And committed teams perform better.
The data above supports the direction of that chain: disengagement and poor mental health carry real costs, and the manager sits at the center of both. That is why our 2025 methodology is aligned with the five essentials of the U.S. Surgeon General’s framework. We use it as a lens to design culture, leadership and well-being programs, such as our Happiness at Work workshop and Being a Resilient Leader in the New Era, that help managers build these habits in real teams.
Our approach is simple: Human First, and practical. We do not believe a single app, poster or awareness week changes a culture. Rituals do. Five small habits, repeated every week, are a ritual.
Frequently asked questions
1. What can managers do to support employee mental health at work? Managers can shape the everyday conditions that affect well-being: keeping workload visible and realistic, setting after-hours norms, checking in genuinely during 1:1s, protecting focus time, recognizing contributions specifically, and making it safe to learn from mistakes. They should also know how to signpost people to professional support, such as an Employee Assistance Program.
2. Are managers responsible for their team members’ mental health? Managers are not therapists and are not responsible for diagnosing or treating anyone. They are, however, responsible for the working conditions they create. Their role is to notice, ask, listen, adjust what they can at work, and point people to professional help when needed. WHO’s 2022 guidelines recommend training managers for exactly this role.
3. What is the Surgeon General’s framework for workplace mental health? Published in 2022, the U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being outlines five essentials: Protection from Harm, Connection and Community, Work-Life Harmony, Mattering at Work, and Opportunity for Growth. It centers on worker voice and equity, and gives organizations a practical structure for building healthier workplaces.
Start on Monday
You do not need to do all five at once. Pick one habit, practice it for four weeks, and then add the next. By the end of the quarter, you will have built a management rhythm your team can feel.
If this was useful, share it with a manager who could use it this week.
And if you would like to bring these habits to your leadership team, we would be happy to talk about a manager mental-health session for your team. You can reach us through our contact page. No pressure, just a conversation about what your team needs.
This article is for general information and does not replace professional medical or psychological advice. If you or someone on your team needs support, please contact your Employee Assistance Program or a qualified professional.
Happy Work Studio Team
Sources
- World Health Organization & International Labour Organization (2022). WHO and ILO call for new measures to tackle mental health issues at work. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-09-2022-who-and-ilo-call-for-new-measures-to-tackle-mental-health-issues-at-work
- Gallup (2026). State of the Global Workplace 2026. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
- Gallup (2026). State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Global Data Summary. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/697904/state-of-the-global-workplace-global-data.aspx
- Gallup (2022, updated 2024). How to Engage Frontline Managers. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/395210/engage-frontline-managers.aspx
- UKG Workforce Institute (2023). Mental Health at Work: Managers and Money (press release, January 24, 2023). https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230124005390/en/Managers-Impact-Our-Mental-Health-More-Than-Doctors-Therapists-and-Same-as-Spouses — report: https://www.ukg.com/learn/resources/white-paper/mental-health-work-managers-and-money
- U.S. Surgeon General (2022). Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being. https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/reports-and-publications/workplace-well-being/index.html