Men’s Mental Health at Work: What Every Leader Needs to Know
This week (15–21 June) is Men’s Health Week 2026, and this year’s theme is “See your GP”, encouraging men to visit their doctor or seek support early, before problems become a crisis.
That message applies just as much inside the workplace as it does at the doctor’s office. For a lot of Australian men, work is where the warning signs first show up, and where they’re most often ignored.
The numbers on men’s mental health at work
The data paints a clear picture:
Nearly one in five (18%) Australian men aged 16–85 experienced a mental illness in the past 12 months, and 42% will experience one at some point in their life.
40% of men say it would take thoughts of suicide or self-harm before they’d seek professional help
78.1% of people living with mental illness report experiencing stigma or discrimination related to their employment in the past year
Why men don’t speak up at work
Three things tend to compound inside workplaces:
Stigma. With nearly 8 in 10 people reporting employment-related discrimination around mental illness, many men reasonably conclude that disclosing a struggle is a career risk, not a relief.
Conditioning. Decades of “toughen up” messaging mean a lot of men have never built the vocabulary, or felt the permission, to say “I’m not coping.”
Leadership silence. If leaders never talk about their own stress, workload or mental health, the unspoken rule becomes: neither should you.
A word from our Founder and Mental Health Coach, David Shillington
“One of the best lessons I learned from sport was a simple saying: Be the person other people want to play with.
It was never about being the most talented person on the field. It was about being someone who listened, took responsibility, worked hard, supported teammates, and showed up when things got tough.
The people others want to play with are the people who create trust. They make others feel valued, respected and like they belong. That’s what mateship looks like in action.
I’ve come to realise that’s not just a sporting principle — it’s a life principle. The strongest teams, workplaces and communities are built when people choose to be the kind of person others want beside them.”
Why this is a leadership issue, not a personal one
Under Safe Work Australia’s Code of Practice for Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work, leaders carry a legal duty of care to identify and manage psychosocial risks — and a culture where men feel they can’t speak up is itself a psychosocial hazard.
This is also a safety issue in the most literal sense. Men accounted for 96% of workplace fatalities in 2024, a reminder that risk-taking, stoicism and “we’ll be right” attitudes have consequences that go well beyond mental health.
The research is consistent: building resilience is one of the most effective ways to reduce the likelihood, severity and duration of stressful workplace interactions.
But resilience isn’t something individuals build alone. It’s shaped by the culture leaders create.
Building a workplace where men feel safe to speak up
A few starting points for leaders:
Model it first. If you want your team to talk about stress and workload, talk about yours.
Normalise check-ins. Make “how are you, actually?” a routine part of one-on-ones — not a crisis response.
Train leaders to spot the signs. Most managers have never been taught what early-stage burnout or distress looks like in practice.
Build resilience proactively. Don’t wait for a crisis to start the conversation.
This is exactly the gap our psychosocial safety training program, Be Buoyant, is designed to close.
This Men’s Health Week
This Men's Health Week, the question worth sitting with is simple: would the men on your team feel safe enough to speak up before things got serious, and would your workplace notice either way? It takes proactive strategies — built in long before anyone needs to ask for help.
Frequently Asked Questions
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A mix of stigma, conditioning, and workplace culture. Nearly 8 in 10 people with a mental illness report employment-related stigma or discrimination, and many men have been conditioned to see asking for help as a weakness rather than a normal response to pressure.
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Yes. Under Safe Work Australia’s Code of Practice for Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work, PCBUs have a legal duty of care to identify, assess and manage psychosocial risks — including those related to workplace culture, stigma and mental health.
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Often behavioural rather than verbal: withdrawal from colleagues, irritability, presenteeism (being physically present but disengaged), a drop in work quality, or the opposite: overworking to avoid dealing with what’s going on. Because many men mask symptoms, changes in behaviour are usually a stronger signal than anything said directly.
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Model openness about workload and stress, normalise regular check-ins as routine (not just crisis response), train managers to recognise early warning signs, and build resilience proactively — before a crisis, not after.
