Research

60% of comms and marketing professionals said that mental health is a bigger problem in the industry now, than two years ago.

Every few years, we endeavour to conduct a survey of 1000 PR, marketing and comms professionals to explore their experiences of mental health in the workplace.

Our first survey, in 2022, revealed alarming results with half of respondents reported having experienced severe stress, anxiety or burnout in the last twelve months – up to three times on average.

Almost eight in 10 respondents who reported their mental health challenge to their employer went on to feel discriminated against by colleagues.

Nearly nine in ten who reported their mental health challenge to their company were not happy with the changes that their employer put in place.

3/4 didn’t believe their company’s formal policies are sufficient to deal with mental health challenges.

Our latest survey, in 2025, has sadly revealed that the mental health challenge in the industry continues to worsen, despite positive progress by employers.

64% of us have experienced extreme stress of burnout at work in the last 12 months – an increase from 51% from the inaugural study carried out in 2022

And 60% say the intensity of their role - in-house and in agency - in terms of workload and pressure has increased over the last 12 months – a 13% increase from the inaugural study.

However, the findings also reveal progress in the industry in key areas since the study was last carried out:

  • The majority (71%) of people agree that their company’s approach to mental health has improved over the last two years, with more than two thirds (69%) now rating it as being either very good or quite good.

  • Just under half (48%) said that their company has formal policies in place around mental health and that these are sufficient – an improvement versus the survey two years ago, when only 20% said the same.

  • Although more people have taken time off work due to mental health difficulties not related to work, they report greater comfort in explaining and talking about this to their employers (59% in 2024 vs 48% in 2022), with just over a quarter (27%) feeling uncomfortable to do so.

A CLEAR REQUIREMENT TO

MOVE BEYOND POLICIES

& PROVIDE

PROACTIVE SUPPORT

TO ALL

While it’s evident that the conversation around mental health is opening up, it’s also clear more needs to be done to re-energise the conversation and affect change.

State of Us was created to do just that – to bring agencies and in-house professionals together to help the industry forge more supportive environments and enable people to thrive.

Read the full report here.

Does this resonate?

Do you have anything you would like to share?

Tell us what you think of these findings: hello@stateofus.co.uk

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