What Data Shows About Building Supportive Workplace Cultures Featuring Brit Wanstrath

NAMI released its third annual workplace mental health poll yesterday. In this episode, NAMI CEO Daniel H. Gillison Jr. is joined by Brit Wanstrath, manager of workplace mental health for NAMI. As they explore the key findings from the poll release, listeners will find out what makes employees feel comfortable talking about mental health at work, the scale of burnout impacting American workers, the importance of mental health workplace trainings, and more. With the information from this year’s NAMI-Ipsos Workplace Mental Health poll, companies can begin making plans for increased support for their employees. 

Learn more at nami.org/MentalHealthAtWork2026

Find the new NAMI StigmaFree workplace training, You Can Ask by NAMI, online now. 

NAMI’s new workplace training, You Can Ask by NAMI, helps teams learn how to:

• Prepare for a conversation about mental health 
• Empathize with your colleagues 
• Sustain supportive conversations 
• Find their workplace’s mental health benefits 

When your teams finish You Can Ask by NAMI, they’ll confidently be able to support their coworkers – and your company will be one step closer to becoming free from stigma.

You can find additional episodes of this NAMI podcast and others at nami.org/podcast.

"Hope Starts With Us" is a podcast by NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It is hosted by NAMI CEO Daniel H. Gillison, Jr. 

Co-executive produced by Traci Coulter and Connor Larsen.

Transcript

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Leadership sets the tone. 78% of people do feel that their manager cares about them. Only half believe their C-suite cares about them. If you depend on your managers to keep your workforce productive. You need to model the behaviors that will keep your managers healthy. Setting those clear expectations. Having honest communication and you yourself maintaining a healthy work life balance so that they can see that that's something that you value. Welcome to Hope Starts With Us, a podcast by NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. I'm your host, Dan Gillison, NAMI's CEO. NAMI started this podcast because we believe that hope starts with us. All of us. Hope starts with us talking about mental health. Hope starts with us making information accessible. Hope starts with us providing resources and practical advice. Hope starts with us sharing our stories, and hope starts with us breaking the stigma. If you or a loved one, is struggling with a mental health condition and have been looking for hope, we made this podcast for you. All starts with all of us. Hope is a collective. We hope that each episode with each conversation brings you into that collective so that you know you are not alone. Now, I'd like to introduce our guest for today, Brett Wanstrath. They are a Manager of Workplace Mental Health and a key team member driving our workplace mental health initiative, NAMI StigmaFree. They have a background studying post-trauma stress and pain and use their keen partnership building and data analysis skills to support NAMI's workplace mental health initiatives. Today's episode is an opportunity to explore fresh data about mental health support employees are looking for from companies. NAMI's third annual Workplace Mental Health Poll conducted by Ipsos was released yesterday, March 17th. The poll was conducted between the 27th of January and February 2nd, and collected 2153 responses from full time employees at companies with at least 100 employees. Brit, before we dive into these new poll results, can you tell--would you tell our audience more about yourself and why talking about mental health in the workplace is so important? Yes, absolutely. So, Dan, as you mentioned, I originally come from research, but I got really interested in workplace mental health after I experienced some really severe burnout at a previous job. I had been in a position where I was doing a lot of work. I was working a lot on the weekends, and I was also just isolated in my lab. I was alone most of the time, and I really just didn't have the resources I needed to be able to feel like I was doing my best work. And after a few years of this happening, I just started to feel really cynical about my job, and it was really disturbing to me to experience how detached I was and how I was getting really forgetful and just, you know, fogging out during meetings. It got so bad that eventually I ended up quitting that job because of the impact on my mental health. And, you know, that brought on this whole new set of problems, financial challenges, not having my routine, which was really important to managing my depression. And it was just a really difficult cycle to pull out of. But thankfully, now I work at NAMI, so I actually get to help people who are going through similar challenges, and I still get to flex those research skills. And that's why I'm here today to talk about workplace mental health. Because for about 160 million of us, US adults, your job is a major part of your life. You know, it's your routine. It's your financial security, it's your community. It's all of the people around you. I was actually reading a report recently that found managers have more of an impact on respondent's mental health than their therapists, and about the same amount as their spouses or partners. So, Dan, you were saying to us earlier, you are a self-confessed nerd, so I know I have to bring you the numbers. Last year's Gallup report on the global workplace found that lost productivity alone cost the world economy$438 billion. So when your work is really at odds with your mental health, that impact, it's not just felt by you, it's felt by your family, your friends, your neighbors, your community, and really the whole global economy. You know, this is fantastic, Brit, what you're sharing. And before we get into the key findings, I just want to go back to some of the things that you said that would love for our audience to hear. So you talked about severe burnout. You talked about you did not have the resources and that you were working weekends and you felt overworked. You felt isolated and detached and that was significant in terms of how you were navigating your mental health at the time, or it was navigating you. And you also mentioned something that I thought was very interesting, and that work becomes your community, because it's where you spend the most time. And you also talked about the dynamics of a manager and how important they are to your mental wellness in terms of them versus, you know, the others that you may interact with from a mental health standpoint. So you have given us some nuggets already and really appreciate it, and I know that we can talk about that some more. And, I appreciate you starting off this way. And then the other thing is I am a data nerd, so I love the I think it was it 438 million dollars of lost productivity? Billion, actually, yeah.$438 billion of lost productivity. The other thing is that you mentioned that we're talking about 160 million US workers, 160 million US workers, people that come to work every day to make a difference where they are and what they do. And I think this 438 billion goes into this other concept of something called presenteeism, where the employee comes to work, their physical self is there, they are present, but they're not connected. That's presenteeism, almost like absenteeism, but they're present but they're not engaged. So it's very interesting. And I can't wait to hear more from you about all of that. So why don't we start with the key findings from this year's workplace mental health poll? Would you give us the top three that you think are crucial for companies and leaders in workplace mental health to hear? Yeah, absolutely. So I've got all my numbers. I brought up earlier how important managers are to your mental health. So to me, one of the most striking things we saw from our poll is that whether or not your manager has the proper resources to support the mental health of their direct reports, it's actually affecting their mental health, too. So 73% of managers who don't have the resources that they need reported feeling burned out last year, 73% and 41% at least considered quitting their jobs because of the impact on their mental health. So managers are really feeling that pressure from both their senior leadership and also that pressure to support their direct reports. So another thing we always ask, we have some questions to see if people are feeling that sense of belonging in the workplace, that community. And this actually made me really happy. We found that 78% of people do feel that their manager cares about them. So that's really great that they're really feeling the support that the managers are trying to provide. However, only half believe their C-suite cares about them. And that's a really interesting connection there, because mental health and perceptions of leadership, you know, people who feel comfortable discussing workplace mental health, employees that are companies that offer mental health training or companies that offer mental health benefits, those people are more likely to feel their leadership cares about them. So there's a really strong correlation there. Now, I know that if there are any business leaders listening that are thinking to themselves, well we've got great benefits. You know, employees, they feel great. One thing we also saw about, 1 in 4 employees don't even know what their mental health benefits are. They don't even know if their company offers them. So big thing you can do. HR can communicate more often about the mental health benefits that you do offer. So, you know, not just during onboarding and open enrollment, but all throughout the year. That's just one of those little things that you can do that makes a huge difference. We know that people get the support they need, and we want them to actually feel comfortable reaching out to the people around them for mental health support when they don't know where to go. So, yeah, I guess that's my top three. Lots of interesting stats for leaders. Yeah. Thank you very much. And I love what you said about the sense of belonging. And 78% of the managers-- 78% of the employees that were polled here say that they believe that their managers do care about them. But then the flip of that is that 70 some percent of the managers don't have the resources, and 41% of those managers have considered leaving. So it is about how do our C-suite leaders retain their folks that they have invested so much to develop? So this is also about retaining your workforce. So really do appreciate what you shared. And I'd love to dig a little deeper now and ask you this, Brit. What did we learn about what causes some employees to feel uncomfortable talking about their mental health at work? And do you have any suggestions for companies to increase that comfort level? Yeah. For sure. So, you know, just as we think about creating community belonging, we really want people to feel like if they are struggling, they can talk to the people around them. But we are finding stigma is a huge deterrent. So 48% of workers said that they're worried they'll be judged for sharing mental health struggles with colleagues. So even though we have, it's about three and four people say they are--that it's appropriate to talk about mental health in the workplace. They say they're comfortable doing it. They're still afraid that they're going to be judged if they actually do open up. And this also is something that affects managers. 46% of managers are worried talking about mental health at work is going to negatively impact their career. So that's real consequences. So that right there, it's another big thing that companies can do. Leadership sets the tone. If you depend on your managers to keep your workforce productive, you need to model the behaviors that will keep your managers healthy. So setting those clear expectations, having honest communication, and you yourself maintaining a healthy work life balance, so that they can see that that's something that you value. But, you know, most of all, just really listen to what your managers say they need to support their direct reports. Again, those managers that don't have adequate resources, only 16% said they believe their company makes employee mental health a priority versus 74% of managers who have what they need saying the same thing. So that's a massive jump. Just whether or not a manager feels they can support their employees, it really changes the perception around what the company values. And those managers who do have enough resources, they're also way more likely to believe their senior leadership does actually care about them. So again, that's another thing. We want managers to feel like they are in this community, too, and that they're getting support. Only 74% of managers that have the support they need are saying, yes, our C-suite cares about us. Only 32% of managers without what they need are saying the same thing. So again, that's a 40% jump, whether or not managers have what they need, or they're just way more likely to feel like their senior leadership is better for them and supporting them. Yeah, this is fantastic. And you mentioned something about role modeling that. So, you know, employees, they hear what we say, but they watch what we do. So it's about the leaders also role modeling that work life balance. And, and the whole person concept, in terms of work. So, what does the data say about who employees feel is responsible for creating a workplace culture that supports mental health? Yeah, that's a great question. So actually, this is something that really brought me hope this year. We asked workers who is responsible for helping employees feel comfortable discussing mental health at work. You know, no surprise here. Top of the list. Direct managers. H.R., very close second. Now, senior leadership isn't off the hook. They came in third. But 58% said coworkers and teammates. So that actually is telling me that employees believe we all have a role to play in creating a workplace culture where we can be open when we need that extra support. And I actually think that's really empowering. It says to me that your teammates are actually ready to step up and be part of the solution. Yeah, it does say that. And that is fantastic. And that talks about community and the collective. And we spend so many hours of our work week or our week, excuse me, at work. So it is a community that you construct either by design or just by the fact that that's your, your, your work environment. So, yeah, that-- the community and peers and employees talking to each other is important. So, Brit, did we learn anything about the scale of burnout impacting employees through this survey? You mentioned burnout at the beginning in terms of your own experience. So did we learn anything in the survey about burnout? Yeah. We did. So burnout is actually holding pretty steady, unfortunately. You know, you mentioned before, this is the third year we've done this survey. So we are starting to actually build out some of that trend data. And burnout is averaging at 53%, which is about what it's been the last couple of years. You know, people are also feeling overwhelmed. That's 39% of people said that they felt overwhelmed by the amount of work they had to do, and it was impacting their mental health. So all of that's about the same, what we are seeing this year is that significantly more people are concerned about their stress levels, their physical and mental health, and their work-life balance. So it's a trend upward. It's small, but it is absolutely there. It is significant. So we are you know, we're watching that. We're also seeing a small but again, significant trend. More people are reporting that their mental health is poor this year. And, you know, all of those numbers, they feel very personal to me after my own experience with burnout, you know, having all of that brain fog and just feeling so low and like, I didn't have a lot of support or ability to even just grow or be my best self. You know, after experiencing how bad that felt firsthand, I'm just, I'm very concerned that over half of the workforce is feeling this way. So, you know, I'm really hoping that going forward this year, we can think of ourselves as a community and really all come together to make the workplace feel like it's that place where we can, you know, really flourish. That's excellent. That's excellent. And as you talk about that and flourishing in the workplace and really wanting to be productive in the workplace when an individual comes to work, they want to be productive, they want to make a difference. And, you know, you mentioned some things that I'll mention at the end, but I wanted to ask you, at the top of the episode, you mentioned that workplace trainings about mental health are a big theme that shines through in this data. Would you would you tell us more? What are the gaps? What are we learning that employees want based on this survey? Yeah. So that's actually a great question because education and awareness is something we know NAMI does really, really well. So we always ask about training. We see that as an area of great opportunity. And we found that even though four and five people say training on topics like burnout, mental health benefits, conditions, what to say to people who are experiencing challenges. Four and five people are saying that that would be helpful. Only 32% say that they have received any kind of mental health training at work. So, thinking about that impact of stigma around mental health conditions in the workplace, one area that we think NAMI can really make an impact is addressing the discomfort around actually having these conversations and starting, starting this dialog. So we just put out You Can Ask. It is a brand new on-demand training about how to have conversations around mental health in the workplace. We've been working on it for a couple of years now, so I'm very excited to finally see it out in the wild. This training goes over some of the basics on what a mental health condition is and where to go for support. But my favorite part is that it really emphasizes that no conversation is ever going to be perfect. You don't have to say the exact right words. It's really just about coming into the conversation with compassion for the other person. You know, authenticity around what you're saying and making sure the words are real for you. And then also just making sure you're really they're willing to listen. So the website is YouCanAsk.NAMI.org. Check it out. It is free. It's available to anyone at any level. I think anybody is going to find something that is going to be really helpful there. Best of all, it is so short. It only takes a half hour of your time. And I actually think it's very engaging. I'm really happy with it. Brit, that's fantastic. And repeat the website again. Yeah. It's YouCanAsk.NAMI.org. YouCanAsk.NAMI.org. Yeah, we're trying to make it make it really feel like you can actually talk to your employees, and talk to your, your colleagues. So you can ask if somebody is not feeling well. Yeah. This is this is that social construct of well, you know, as a manager, it's about addressing the discomfort. I wrote this down as you were talking and put it in quotes, addressing the discomfort of talking about mental health in the workplace and being authentic. And there was something you also said, education and awareness. And then you've been talking about this word, care. You can demonstrate to your, employees that you care without it disrupting productivity. You can care about both. You want productivity. They have a role in terms of the scope of their work. But you can also care about the employee at the same time and say it's both and it's not either or. So I think that this is very important and I love the idea of this website and learning from that website, because I do think that there are managers there that want to address it. They don't know how and they don't know to what extent they can or they should. The other thing you mentioned is that only 32% of the folks that were polled said that they had had any training about mental health. That shows us that we have, what, 68% gap in knowledge awareness about assets and tools to be able to talk about mental health in the workplace. As far as also knowing what different employers offer to their workforces. So this is a wonderful opportunity for the needle to get moved in a very positive way. So, Brit, before we wrap up, are there any additional findings you would like to highlight for our listeners today? Yes, I'm very glad you asked because this year we also really dove into the experience of working caregivers. We know that this is an area where there needs to be a lot more support. Caregivers are under so much pressure at home and at work. And I'm sure any caregivers listening right now are probably not surprised to hear burnout and stress levels are significantly higher with caregiver populations, especially caregivers who are in that sandwich generation, which is, you know, kind of the colloquial term for people who are taking care of kids. And then also some of their older relatives. So that's, again, just more and more pressure. But what we really want leaders to hear is that 95% of caregivers, so nearly unanimous agreement, say that flexible scheduling is important for their mental health. Being able to actually leave early if they need to bring a family member to a doctor's appointment, or being able to, you know, log on a little later, you know, more in the evening if that's just kind of where their schedule ends up lining up or being able to change shifts. So any room that you have for flexibility in your schedule, you know, that's super important for caregivers, not just for their family, but for themselves. And also, 86% of caregivers say that a caregiver support group or an employee resource group is important. So, again, no matter your role at work, if you're a colleague or a manager, everybody can make a difference in how mental health is treated in the workplace. Brit, thank you very much. And these, these two statistics are incredible. 95% of caregivers are saying they need flexibility. Whether that's to take a loved one to a medical appointment or something like that, to be able to do that. And 86% of caregivers said that they would, would really love a support group. Whether that be an employee resource group, an ERG, or some other kind of a group for caregivers to connect. Because as we say at NAMI, we want to make sure people know they're not alone. And a caregiver can feel like they are so alone because of the stress, because of the special care they have to give and all that they're navigating. So to know that you have other people that peers that are navigating similar situations, and that support group, that employee resource group is really cool. The other thing I want to mention is that years ago, within the C-suite, there was this thing that CEOs would go to their boards and they would say, you know, I'd really love to get this funding to build out a LEED certified building. It's going to reduce our carbon footprint. It's going to do this, it's going to do that. And it was really advocating and lobbying for funding for a LEED certified building. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a CEO say that I want to create a stigma-free workplace, just like the, lobbied and advocated for a LEED certified building? That's where we're going. That stigma-free workplace and, our, our programs that we have for stigma-free workplace can really help build that. So and you are a manager leading that initiative. So really appreciate, your work and one of the things I wanted to ask is a closing question that we ask every one of our podcast guests, the world can be a difficult place, and sometimes it can be hard to hold on to hope. And that's why in each episode, we dedicate the last couple of minutes of our podcast to a special segment called Hold On to Hope. So would you tell us what helps you hold on to hope, Britt? Yeah. You know, when I think about where I was, you know, even just five years ago when I was just so burned out, there were days where I would go to bed thinking about, you know, I just I didn't even care if tomorrow came. But tomorrow did come. It always does. And in my case, it brought a lot of new experiences. So, you know, new friends, you know, a new job. This was a big career pivot for me that I didn't see coming. New hobbies and interests. Just so many things that I could have never predicted. Especially in those times when I was just feeling so low. So I guess for me, you know, when I think about those darkest days for me, when it's hard to imagine those good things coming, what really brings me hope is just knowing that I am very bad at predicting the future. This is fantastic. Britt, and we're so appreciative of you and the work that you do, and the work that you're doing to help so many. So we very much appreciate it. And, just wanted to say thank you. And, as we, as we close the podcast, I want to wrap up and just say this has been Hope Starts With Us, a podcast by NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. If your workplace might be interested in the new training about discussing mental health at work, You Can Ask by NAMI reach out to stigmafree@NAMI.org today to learn more. To dive deeper into this year's Workplace Mental Health poll results, visit NAMI.org/mentalhealthandwork2026. If you are looking for mental health resources, you are not alone. To connect with the NAMI HelpLine and find local resources, visit NAMI.org/help. Text NAMI to 62640 or dial (800) 950-6264. Or if you're experiencing an immediate suicide, substance use, or mental health crisis, please call or text 988 to speak with a trained support specialist or visit 988lifeline.org I'm Dan Gillison your host. Thanks for listening and be well.