The Wellness Façade: When Organisations Mask Dysfunction with Mental Health Language

In today’s workplace, mental health is part of the corporate vocabulary. Employers talk about resilience. Wellness webinars are hosted. Mental health leave is offered. On the surface, it appears progressive and on-trend; a step toward more human-centred leadership.

But beneath the polished language lies a troubling pattern: Wellbeing is being used to mask dysfunction and not to resolve it. This is not care. This is containment.

Unsplash: Nik

When ‘Care’ Becomes a Shield

It starts with good intentions:

• “Let’s check in with staff.”

• “Let’s run a mental wellness series.”

• “Let’s give people space.”

And yet, no one names what’s actually draining people.

The emotionally erratic manager who creates anxiety? Still there.

The unclear reporting lines that force people to guess who’s in charge? Still a mess.

The passive-aggressive dynamics? Still being minimised as “personality clashes.”

Instead of addressing these systemic issues, staff are subtly told to be more resilient: to adjust, breathe, meditate, journal, or speak to someone… as if the root problem lies in their mindset, not the organisation’s culture.

The Xavier Effect: Not a Burnout Problem, a System Problem

Consider the story of a young professional in his first job. Let’s call him Xavier.

After two years in the role, he feels exhausted. Disengaged. Less capable than when he started. At one point, he begins to wonder if something is wrong with him. Is this depression? Am I underperforming? Do I need therapy?

What Xavier doesn’t realise, until someone names it for him, is that what he’s experiencing isn’t internal failure. It’s chronic disempowerment. A lack of mentorship. A hostile work design. A leader who never took time to understand how to develop new talent.

Xavier isn’t unwell. He’s just been poorly led.

When this was reflected back to him clearly, the relief was instant. He stood taller. His posture shifted. And for the first time in months, he said: “I think I can leave now. I’m not broken. It's just a bad fit.”

Wellness Can’t Be a Substitution for Courage

What makes this pattern so insidious is that it sounds like compassion.

Mental health is now on the agenda but only when it’s safe to discuss without implicating those in power.

The moment a staff member says, “I’m burning out because of how I’m being managed,” the tone shifts. The real conversation is avoided. Feedback loops are closed. HR offers support options but not solutions.

Why? It's simply because acknowledging that leadership behaviour, emotional inconsistency, or system design is contributing to mental distress would require a kind of courage most organisations don’t incentivise.

Instead, the organisation gently nudges the employee toward counselling, resilience workshops, or time off. All of which can be helpful but only if paired with structural action. Without that, it becomes a form of pacification.

The False Binary: Either You’re Fragile, or You’re Fine

When mental health is positioned as an individual concern, it creates a binary:

• You’re either coping, or you’re “not well.”

• You’re either resilient, or you need help.

There’s no space in that framework for naming the collective emotional labour required to survive a dysfunctional system; one where decisions are unclear, expectations shift weekly, and approval is dictated more by mood than merit.

This is not about fragility. This is about fairness.

When people spend their energy second-guessing their roles, smoothing over leadership mood swings, or working around unresolved team dynamics, well, of course they burn out!

Wellness That Works Starts with the System

True wellness is not about bubble baths and breathing apps.

It begins with:

• Clarity over who makes decisions and why.

• Consistency in leadership behaviour and emotional tone.

• Boundaries that protect both time and trust.

• Accountability for the impact leaders have on team energy and performance.

Anything less isn’t wellness. It’s a façade. It's a way to keep the machine running while blaming the parts that break down.

If your workplace is hosting mental health webinars but avoiding tough conversations about how power is exercised, feedback is ignored, or stress is systemically generated, be careful. No amount of resilience training will protect staff from the harm of unmanaged power. You might be standing in an environment where wellness is language, but not leadership.

If You Recognise This, Here’s What You Can Do

If any of this feels familiar, you’re not alone and you’re not imagining it.

You may be operating in a system that has taught you to question yourself, downplay your exhaustion, and frame your stress as a personal failing. But your self-awareness is not weakness. It’s clarity.

Here are a few steps to consider:

1. Stop internalising what’s systemic.

Burnout is not always about your coping capacity. Sometimes it’s about misaligned values, unclear leadership, or emotional weight you were never meant to carry. Don’t let a broken system redefine your worth.

2. Name it, even if privately.

If it’s not safe to speak up yet, start by naming the patterns to yourself. Write them down. Acknowledge what’s really going on. Clarity starts with recognition, not confrontation.

3. Seek clean mirrors.

Talk to people outside the system. A coach, a peer from another organisation, someone who will reflect your experience without normalising dysfunction. You don’t need more advice. You need perspective.

4. Protect your energy, even if you can’t leave yet.

Boundary-setting doesn’t always require an exit. Sometimes, it starts with not volunteering for emotional labour, not absorbing someone else’s inconsistency, or simply doing your job — not everyone else’s.

5. If you are in a position to influence change, use it wisely.

Don’t be the leader who hides behind wellness language. If you’re in the room where decisions are made, ask the hard questions. The silence you disrupt may be someone else’s lifeline.

Wellness begins when we stop asking people to be resilient in systems that refuse to be responsible. If you feel heavy, it may be because you’re carrying what was never yours to hold.