We no longer shut down our laptops. Our minds no longer shut down either.
Rest is a waste of time. Rest is not allowed.
While Instagram influencers post aesthetic pictures of “slow living”, LinkedIn posts reflect the reality of corporate employees achieving accolades as well as struggling to keep up with the price of success.
Corporate wellness reports globally have begun to show a startling pattern: even the most engaged employees are struggling emotionally. People are no longer burning out from overwork alone — they’re burning out from their own dreams and goals. The race to live everything is coming at the cost of mental, emotional, and physical health.
The Unpaid Overtime of the Mind
Can organisations ignore signs of fatigue? Should they have systems in place that help employees restore their health and well-being?
Most employees work 10 hours a day, minimum. That’s 50 hours a week spent in the office at least. The real count is much higher once you include overtime as well as the invisible hours — checking emails at midnight, replying to messages on weekends, carrying mental to-do lists on vacation.
We’ve normalized this. We even glorify it.
But beneath the “hustle” and “high performance” lies a chronic depletion that no bonus can fix. The irony is that the very people who drive company growth are the ones closest to emotional collapse.
According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 report, only 21% of employees worldwide are engaged at work — the rest are either struggling or completely disengaged. Stress levels have hit a record high, with nearly 44% of professionals reporting daily stress, and burnout being cited as one of the top reasons for mass resignations.
In fact, the World Health Organization now classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon, linked directly to chronic workplace stress. In the UAE and many growing economies, rising incidents of heart attacks among professionals under 45 have been traced back to anxiety, lack of rest, and emotional exhaustion — not just lifestyle choices.
So when employees are praised for “pushing through,” what we’re really celebrating is survival mode. And survival mode, when sustained long enough, breaks even the strongest performers.
Beyond Yoga Mats and Fruit Bowls
Wellbeing initiatives can no longer be treated as add-ons. Wellness Wednesdays aren’t going to cut it anymore. Real change requires systems that protect people before they break.
The solution isn’t more surface-level perks — it’s deeper cultural rewiring.
Employees don’t just need stress-relief sessions; they need emotional tools, boundaries, and permission to be human. They need safe spaces to talk to professionals when things get too heavy. HR heads and teams are not safe spaces. In fact, HR is a complete conflict of interest zone when employees need to share work struggles. They have too many egos, policies, and orders from the top to juggle.
Employees need access to confidential help with professionals and leaders who model balance instead of exhaustion. When leadership normalizes help-seeking behavior, the ripple effect is immediate. A manager who openly works with a coach signals to their team that mental well-being is not weakness — it’s strategy.
Mental health needs to be accessible, not aspirational. It needs to be a way of life and not just a workshop organised once every few months.
From Hustle Culture to Human Culture
The next phase of corporate evolution won’t be defined by digital transformation — it will be defined by emotional transformation.
Leaders need to recognize that empathy is no longer optional; it’s a business competency. Managing a team today means managing energy, not just output. It means understanding that productivity peaks when people feel balanced, not when they’re stretched thin.
A Call to Action for Leaders
If you’re a decision-maker, ask yourself: Do my employees feel safe saying, “I’m struggling”? Do we measure well-being as seriously as we measure performance? Do we reward recovery, not just resilience?
It’s time to create environments where people don’t just survive their careers but actually feel alive in them.
The future of work is human. And the organizations that understand this will not only retain their best talent — they’ll build cultures that others aspire to join.
The UAE has made it clear that happiness isn’t just a personal goal — it’s a national priority. But for the country to truly rise on the global happiness index, organisations must play their part. Emotional well-being cannot remain an individual responsibility.
If companies genuinely want to contribute to the UAE’s vision of a happier, more resilient workforce, mental health support must be treated as a core employee benefit, not an optional perk. Access to coaches, counsellors, and therapists should sit right alongside medical insurance and annual leave.
Because a country’s happiness is built in its workplaces — one emotionally healthy employee at a time.
