By Pauline Alonso, Workplace Wellness Expert at ClassPass
We have made huge progress in how we talk about mental health at work; conversations that would once have been difficult or uncomfortable are now a much more accepted part of workplace culture, with employers investing in mental health support, wellbeing platforms, training and employee benefits.
But I think there is a danger that, somewhere along the way, workplace wellbeing has become too focused on what the employee needs to do. Look after yourself. Set boundaries. Take a break. Exercise. Switch off. Protect your peace. Make time for self-care.
All of which is well-intentioned advice, but it raises a bigger question: are we genuinely changing the way people experience work, or are we simply giving employees more tools to cope with it? And that distinction matters, because wellbeing is not something that starts when an employee opens a wellbeing app or books a counselling session. It is shaped by the thousands of small decisions, behaviours and pressures that make up an ordinary working week.
How long do we spend sitting? How often do we get away from our screens? Do we have time to move? Can we take a proper lunch break? Do we have enough space between meetings? Are we expected to be constantly available? Do we have the energy left at the end of the working day to do the things that make us feel good?
These questions are particularly important when we consider that 70% of workers say their work routine reinforces sedentary behaviour, according to our recent research, while 51% say workload and lack of time prevent them from moving enough at work. We already know that people are struggling to find time for healthy behaviours. Yet our response can still be to tell them to make more time; which to me, feels like the wrong direction.
Research context: the UK arm of the YouGov Work is Health survey covered 1,000 private-company employees, with fieldwork from 25 February to 6 March 2026. Hussle’s published methodology says results were weighted to represent employed adults aged 18 and over. These are self-reported findings.
Make healthier routines possible
There is a growing cultural conversation around "protecting your peace", setting boundaries and using movement as part of self-care. It is a sign that people increasingly understand the connection between how they spend their days and how they feel.
But we should be careful not to turn this into another expectation placed on employees. Someone who is already overwhelmed does not necessarily need another reminder to meditate, exercise, or switch off. They may need a working environment that makes those things possible.
Someone who spends their entire day in meetings does not necessarily need to be told that movement is good for them. They may need a culture where taking ten minutes to walk between commitments is not viewed as being less productive.
“They may need a working environment that makes those things possible.”
Pauline Alonso, workplace wellness expert at ClassPass, writing in this contribution
And someone working remotely does not necessarily need another wellbeing resource. They may need their employer to recognise that flexibility can bring its own challenges, from blurred boundaries to increasingly sedentary routines and less incidental movement throughout the day.
This is why I think we need to stop treating mental and physical wellbeing as two separate workplace agendas. That does not mean suggesting that exercise is a solution to mental ill health. It isn't, and we should never reduce complex mental health challenges to simply being more active.
But physical activity, movement, routine and social connection can all form part of a wider picture of wellbeing. A walk can create space between meetings. A fitness class can provide social connection. Moving away from a screen can create a genuine break in the working day. Building activity into a routine can give people something that belongs to them rather than to their employer.
These things matter because work increasingly shapes so much of our daily behaviour. For many people, work determines when they wake up, when they eat, how long they sit, when they take breaks and when they stop for the day. If we accept that work has this much influence over people's routines, it makes little sense to treat wellbeing as something that sits separately from the working experience. This is also becoming increasingly relevant to how employers attract and retain people.
Build wellbeing into the working day
The modern employee proposition is no longer just about salary. Flexibility, culture, purpose and wellbeing all play a role in how people judge an employer. But there is a difference between offering wellbeing as a benefit and creating a culture that genuinely supports it.
The next stage should be about making healthier choices easier and more normal within the working day, rather than asking employees to find additional time for them outside it. That could be as simple as encouraging people to move between meetings, normalising proper breaks, creating opportunities for social activity or giving employees genuine flexibility around when and how they work. It could mean rethinking whether every meeting needs to be an hour, whether every interaction needs to happen on screen or whether productivity should always be measured by how long someone is visibly at their desk.
None of this is revolutionary, but perhaps that is the point. We have spent years talking about the importance of workplace wellbeing. The next challenge is to make it less of a conversation and more of an everyday reality.
World Mental Health Day gives employers an important opportunity to talk about mental health, but it should also prompt a more uncomfortable reflection.
If we keep telling employees to look after themselves without examining the working conditions they are expected to look after themselves within, are we really supporting wellbeing?
Mental health awareness has moved us forward enormously. But awareness alone does not change the conditions people are working in.
If employers want healthier, happier and more sustainable workforces, they need to look beyond the wellbeing benefits they offer and start thinking about the working lives they are creating.
Image: editorial illustration created for Onrec. Contribution supplied by ClassPass via Action Group.
