Men face unique mental health challenges shaped by stigma, social norms, and workplace culture. This article explores why that matters—and what HR leaders can do to help.
In the workplace and at home, men’s mental health is still difficult to talk about. The signs are often easy to miss, and the environments around them weren’t built for disclosure. Instead of making space for emotional expression, many situations reward men for signaling that they’re fine, even when they’re not.
At the same time, expectations for emotional fluency at work are on the rise. Managers, many of whom are men, are being asked to lead with empathy, respond to team stress, and cultivate psychological safety. Yet the support structures around them often focus solely on performance, leaving them without the tools to address their own mental health—let alone support it in others.
For employers, HR leaders, and managers, this is a structural issue. When men’s mental health goes unsupported, the effects can domino into team dynamics, retention, leadership pipelines, and organizational culture writ large. Addressing it clearly and systemically is not only possible—it’s overdue.
Cultural expectations around masculinity continue to shape how men interpret and express psychological distress. From an early age, many men are socialized to value traits like stoicism, control, and self-reliance—qualities that can serve well in certain settings but can also become barriers to care when mental strain sets in.
These norms discourage open expression of emotions like fear, sadness, and confusion and can cast seeking help as a weakness, sometimes subtly and sometimes directly. The result isn’t just silence but a kind of internalized resistance: many men struggle to see stress as something legitimate, let alone something worth addressing.
Data reflects this disconnect. In the U.S., only 13.4% of men received any mental health treatment in the past year, compared to 24.7% of women. Women were also nearly twice as likely to use medication or attend therapy. This gap underscores how stigma, structural barriers, and social conditioning continue to limit men’s access to care.
“We’re still living with a cultural script that tells men to minimize their emotions or push through them,” says Dr. Clifton Berwise, Clinical Strategy Senior Lead at Modern Health. “That can make it harder not just to ask for help, but even recognize when something is wrong.”
Signals of distress in men can take on forms that may not match common expectations of what struggling looks like, which can increase the risk that real distress is misread or dismissed. At work, that can include behaviors such as:
Because these behaviors are often misread as performance problems, men are more likely to be managed than supported.
What can look like a personal issue at first glance often becomes a workplace one, affecting performance, trust, and long-term retention. Men experiencing distress may still show up to work but struggle to contribute at full capacity (a phenomenon known as presenteeism).
Gallup research shows that employees with “fair” or “poor” mental health miss an average of 12 workdays per year—nearly four times more than those with good mental health. Even when present, they’re less likely to feel engaged, increasing the risk of turnover and burnout.
The financial impact is significant. In the U.S. alone, depression and anxiety contribute to $51 billion in lost productivity annually due to absenteeism and presenteeism.
And because men’s signs of strain—like overwork or withdrawal—are often overlooked, they may go unsupported until distress escalates. Over time, this can result in more sick days, higher health claims, and lasting disengagement, especially in environments where men feel pressure to perform but not to speak up.
Leaders are not immune. When male managers suppress their own distress, they may struggle to show up for their teams. This can erode psychological safety and trust—both essential for a healthy workplace culture.
The stakes are even higher in male-dominated industries like construction, agriculture, and mining. A systematic review found elevated depression rates in these sectors, driven by long hours, solitary work, job insecurity, and persistent stigma.
Leaders today are expected to model empathy, respond to team stress, and foster psychological safety. But for men in these roles, those expectations can clash with the same stigma and silence they see in their direct reports.
Dr. Berwise encourages male leaders to share personal experiences with stress or seeking support—especially in trusted, appropriate settings. These moments can help reframe vulnerability as strength, not liability.
Still, modeling vulnerability without institutional support isn’t sustainable. Leaders need access to the same care they’re being asked to champion—or they risk burnout themselves.
“We can’t expect vulnerability from leaders if we don’t support it structurally,” explains Dr. Berwise. “When men in management are navigating their own stress without tools or language, they’re less likely to be able to respond to it in others.”
Supporting men’s mental health doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your well-being strategy—but it does require intentionality. Here are key ways employers can create a more responsive, inclusive approach:
When men’s mental health goes unsupported, the costs reverberate across productivity, trust, retention, and culture. But when men are given space to speak up safely—and when organizations know how to listen—everything changes.
Support doesn’t need to look the same for everyone; men are not a monolith. What matters is that care is accessible, trustworthy, and designed to meet people where they are. When men can engage with support on their terms, the impact reaches far beyond the individual. It builds stronger teams, deepens trust, and helps create a workplace where everyone can thrive.
Throughout this guide, we use the term men to indicate gender expression, which includes all people identifying as men.
Explore how your employees could engage with care—from coaching to therapy to digital tools.
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