What Is the Real Link Between Poor Management and Mental Health at Work?

1. Do managers really have an impact on their team's mental health?

Montano, Reeske, Franke & Hüffmeier (2017) compiled studies published between 2000 and 2014 on the link between management and mental health, covering 112,532 participants.
The result: there is a strong correlation between good management and good mental health (attention paid to both people and tasks, a high-quality relationship with the manager, team management, a sense of recognition, are all factors associated with team well-being). Toxic management, on the other hand, is strongly correlated with its deterioration.

Taken on its own, however, this picture proves nothing: it measures an association, not causation. An exhausted employee is certainly more likely to judge their manager more harshly.

You may also have come across another figure: managers would have as much impact on mental health as spouses. It comes from a 2022 survey of 2,200 employees across 10 countries commissioned by an HR software company. There are too many biases and too much self-reporting to draw any real conclusions from it, but it is nevertheless interesting.

Prospective studies, on the other hand, address this objection because they measure exposure before the onset of symptoms.

Theorell et al. (2015), for example, reviewed 59 prospective studies on work and depressive symptoms.
Harassment and workplace stress significantly increase the risk of developing depressive symptoms. Conflicts, the social climate, and a lack of fairness at work also play a role.

Although it is difficult to conduct a bias-free scientific study on the subject, it is now fairly clear that management has a real impact on employees' mental health.

2. How many people in a team are affected?

If we take a low-end estimate, in a team of seven, one person per year experiences a depressive episode.

Indeed, 15.3% of employed people experienced a major depressive episode over the past twelve months (Santé publique France, 2024 Barometer). 1 in 7. Managers included.
But this figure is still a low estimate because it only counts cases of depression. Not anxiety disorders, burnout, or addictions. And it seems that 44% of the people concerned do not show up on the radar.

At the company level, for 1,000 employees, that means around 150 people affected each year. That's not insignificant.

3. But how can we take action?

Article L4121-1 of the French Labour Code requires employers to “protect the physical and mental health of workers” through actions to prevent occupational risks, information and training, and appropriate organization and resources. But what actually works?

The WHO made recommendations on the subject in 2022 and ranked them by level of impact. In increasing order of impact, they include:

• Interventions addressing psychosocial risks within the organization.
• Individual stress management programs.
• Manager training.

On the ground, awareness initiatives and individual programs are disappointing. Fleming (2024) compared, across 233 British organizations, 46,336 employees who had or had not taken part in this type of program (resilience training, mindfulness, mental health apps). Across several well-being indicators, participants did not fare better. The study is cross-sectional and selection bias remains possible (those who sign up may already be doing worse), but according to the author: these programs do not provide the resources employees need to cope with the demands of their work; they do not address the root cause of the problem.

Indeed, what matters for preventing mental health problems at work is: a manageable workload, a good atmosphere with colleagues, tasks suited to people's skills and personalities, recognition, etc.

Yet the manager controls many of these levers: setting priorities, assigning responsibility, recognition, conflict management, task allocation, etc.

The manager is therefore currently the best lever for reducing psychosocial risks at work.

Nevertheless, training a manager on this type of topic is not straightforward, and the WHO notes significant variation in the impact of management training focused on mental health risks.

4. What is the impact of traditional training?

Gayed et al. (2018) brought together 10 controlled trials on mental health training for managers. After training, managers knew more, displayed less stigmatizing attitudes, and reported more supportive behaviors. However, there was no significant effect on employees' psychological symptoms.

Indeed, saying is not doing. Morgan, Ross & Reavley (2018) analyzed 18 controlled trials, involving 5,936 participants. Immediately after training, the intention to help increases. Six months later, it is still there. However, the actual help provided does not really improve. Knowing that you need to act does not mean knowing how to act, and even less so actually being able to act.

Traditional training has a real impact on managers' knowledge, raising their awareness, and that is already a good thing. Nevertheless, these training programs show no significant effect on teams' mental health.

5. Why is the impact so limited?

Because difficult situations are all different, emotionally charged, and never resemble the exercise.

Most of the time, when a difficult situation arises, months have passed since the last training session, and the situation does not resemble the case study discussed in the classroom.

Yet we know what helps managerial behavior improve: practice, feedback, and iteration (see our article on the 10% myth).
Traditional training lacks practice. It transfers knowledge but does not transform behavior. Yet to have a real impact on team mental health, managers need to concretely adapt their behavior.

The training programs that really work are those that create cognitive friction, involve practice, and allow managers to test solutions themselves in order to find the keys that work for them.

6. What does a manager actually need to be able to do?

The WHO describes what is expected of a manager: knowledge about mental health and psychosocial risks, early identification of distress and how to respond to it, referral to other sources of support, and communication and active listening skills. Translated into concrete actions:

• Identify. Distinguish between a bad day and a genuine change in behavior.
• Open the conversation. Without making a diagnosis, and without closing the door just because the person answered “I'm fine.”
• Refer. Occupational physician, GP, employee assistance or listening service if one exists.
• Adjust the work. Workload, priorities, deadlines.
• Prepare for returns. After sick leave, organize the return to work.

All these actions can be learned and embedded through practice.

7. So where should a company start?

• Count. Headcount × 0.15 to estimate the annual number of people experiencing a depressive episode. Then look at your own data, starting with long-term sick leave: it accounts for only 9.4% of absences, but 63.8% of absence days.
• Invest. The best way to reduce psychosocial risks in your company is to train your managers — provided they have the time and tools they need.
• Select. As explained in this article, the training programs that work are those that are heavily practice-oriented. Knowledge improves quickly; behaviors improve slowly.
• Measure. Analyze results by looking at behaviors rather than satisfaction. An immediate evaluation tells you whether people enjoyed the training. What matters is what the manager does six months later.

Conclusion

There is a real link between poor management and mental health problems.

Training managers on mental health is not a false good idea: it is a strong recommendation from the WHO.
But not all training programs have the same impact. Knowledge improves quickly, and so does intention. Behavior, on the other hand, improves slowly, and the effect on teams often remains too weak.

What works best, and this is supported by evidence, is training grounded in practice.

At YouMight, we are building a platform to de-risk management transitions: a simulated organization where a manager can practice identifying an employee who is struggling, opening the conversation, and adjusting the work.

Sources

• Malakoff Humanis (2026), annual study on absenteeism, based on data from 3.8 million private-sector employees and 300,000 compensated long-term sick-leave cases
• INRS (2026), launch of the 2026–2030 Occupational Health Plan
• Santé publique France 2024 Health Barometer, prevalence of major depressive episodes and use of healthcare
• Government (2025), *info.gouv.fr*, extension into 2026 of the national mental health priority
• Montano, Reeske, Franke & Hüffmeier (2017), *Journal of Organizational Behavior*, meta-analysis on leadership and team mental health
• Theorell et al. (2015), *BMC Public Health*, systematic review of prospective studies on work and depressive symptoms
• Nyberg et al. (2009), *Occupational and Environmental Medicine*, WOLF study on managerial behavior and ischemic heart disease
• Verkuil, Atasayi & Molendijk (2015), *PLOS ONE*, cross-sectional and longitudinal meta-analysis on workplace bullying and mental health
• The Workforce Institute at UKG (2023), *Business Wire*, self-reported survey mentioned but not used as evidence
• Fleming (2024), *Industrial Relations Journal*, individual-level well-being programs and employee well-being
• French Labour Code (current 2026 version), Article L4121-1, obligation to protect physical and mental health
• World Health Organization (2022), *WHO guidelines on mental health at work*, strength and level of evidence of recommendations, including manager training
• Takao et al. (2006), *Journal of Occupational Health*, randomized trial on one hour of manager training and employees' psychological distress
• Gayed et al. (2018), *Occupational and Environmental Medicine*, meta-analysis of mental health training for managers
• Milligan-Saville et al. (2017), *The Lancet Psychiatry*, randomized trial on manager training and sick leave, authors' institute press release
• PSSM France (2025), PSSM as the French adaptation of Mental Health First Aid
• Morgan, Ross & Reavley (2018), *PLOS ONE*, meta-analysis of Mental Health First Aid training