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Unlike on the popular TV series Severance<\/em>, most people don\u2019t get to disconnect from what\u2019s happening in the rest of their lives when they arrive at work each day. <\/p>\n While employees can take steps to manage their stress and anxiety, it\u2019s also imperative that employers have their backs\u2014and foster a work environment that prioritizes mental health.<\/p>\n The constant barrage of unsettling news headlines, economic uncertainty, and concerns about job security create a heavy cognitive load for many American workers that\u2019s only made worse by an \u201calways-on\u201d hustle culture, which also causes burnout. <\/p>\n To address this systemic exhaustion, the best leaders are those who practice sincere vulnerability and show compassion for their stressed-out workforces, according to experts on workplace mental health.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you care about your bottom line and you care about your employees, you should be making mental health a priority,\u201d Bennett Porter, chief of staff for Calm, said during a discussion at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW<\/a>. \u201cWe have to realize that there is a cost to businesses that actually don’t take care of their employees in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n For those employees who are particularly stressed out, putting on a mask to suggest that everything is fine at work isn\u2019t sustainable, added Ruchika T. Malhotra, CEO of Candour Global and author of the 2025 book Uncompete: Rejecting Competition to Unlock Success<\/em>. \u201cA bubble bath or like a short vacation or whatever it is, isn’t going to fix chronic burnout.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, workers need a manager who has their back and recognizes the signs of burnout and takes tangible steps to alleviate some of workplace stressors, Malhotra said. And those leaders who understand the importance of psychological safety and model vulnerability can go a long way in helping, she added. <\/p>\n In addition to fostering leaders who demonstrate genuine compassion, companies must be a bit more ruthless about eradicating the causes of burnout in the first place, which include chronic overload, not enough resourcing, and toxic leadership, said Laura Hambley Lovett, an organizational psychologist, author, and podcast host.<\/p>\n \u201cToxic leaders cause chronic harm,\u201d she said, adding that their behaviors hurt worker engagement, productivity, and well-being.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s about hiring the right people into leadership, training them, giving them the resources so that they can help people thrive and not basically kill people through burnout,\u201d Lovett said.<\/p>\nHOW MANAGERS CAN HELP<\/h2>\n