Beyond Burnout: Why Corporate Wellbeing Isn’t Working (And What Conscious Companies Need Next)
- Abigail Rogers
- Jun 11
- 8 min read
We have a question: have you noticed the crisis in Corporate Wellbeing?
With all the resilience training, mindfulness sessions and coaching programmes conscious organisations have in place...
Why is it that poor mental health is still costing UK employers up to £102 billion a year?
Why are we seeing burnout rates rising, trust declining - and talented people walking away from roles they once cared deeply about?
If we’re offering more wellbeing resources than ever, why does the data still look like this?
Mental health-related absences have increased by 39% in five years (HSE, 2023)
1 in 6 workers experiences anxiety or depression every week (Mind, 2023)
Presenteeism costs employers over £60 billion a year - the hidden price of people pushing through when they’re not okay (Deloitte, 2022)
And only 9% of employees believe their workplace offers adequate mental health support (Mental Health at Work, 2023)
Ouch.
Now, we’re not here to criticise. Many businesses are doing their best - and it’s clear that leaders care.
But it’s also abundantly clear: something is still missing.
The Hidden Cost of Surface-Level Support
Most current corporate and workplace wellbeing strategies fall into a few key categories:
Reactive support (like EAPs, Mental Health First Aid or sick leave)
Wellness perks (like yoga, meditation apps, mindfulness sessions or ‘wellbeing weeks’)
Coaching and resilience training (focused on mindset and self-awareness)
Each of these can be valuable, absolutely. But they don't do anything to address the real problems and create happier, more resilient (and more productive!) humans in the longer-term.
Yes they can help people cope (for a time).
And they can help people grow - IF they're already in a psychologically safe and regulated place, without underlying trauma, mental health or identity issues.
But they don’t help people unless they're receptive, ready and able to engage.
They never truly solve the underlying issues.
And they can unwittingly put more pressure on people who already feel overstretched, unable to cope, and isolated from their peers and colleagues.
That can mean:
Burnout is perpetuated - or worse, exacerbated, rather than resolved
Anxiety goes unacknowledged and unaddressed - becoming an unhealthy driving force for people who feel they have to overachieve just to keep up, and creating stress, tension and emotional disengagement
People feel more isolated and alone in being 'the only one' who feels this way, as they see everyone else coping and wonder why they're still struggling in such a supportive workspace
Identity misalignment, imposter syndrome and trauma responses remain hidden, creating friction within teams, causing communication issues and fostering an underlying culture of suspicion, scarcity and defensiveness
High performers quietly tread water, 'perfoming' to please, hiding behind their professional 'face', feeling disengaged - and never quite accessing their full potential
We’re putting sticking plasters on deep internal cracks, and trying to build skyscrapers on quicksand.
What we need to do instead - is build firm foundations - so that happy, healthy, high-performing humans can thrive, and businesses can benefit from the natural confidence, clarity and connectedness that brings.
Why Traditional Coaching Isn’t Designed for This
Coaching has become a go-to solution for leadership and performance - and rightly so. It's a powerful tool and has the potential to create wonderful change and insight, done well.
But here’s the catch:
🔹 Coaching works best when someone is already emotionally regulated, resourced and consciously able to reflect, without their subconscious response set hitting the brakes
🔹 It’s not designed for people experiencing nervous system dysregulation, trauma loops, chronic anxiety, internalised perfectionism, or identity-level subconscious misalignment (reputable coaches will tell you as much)
And in today’s high-pressure, personal and professional environments?
That’s most people.
The leaders quietly trying to breathe their way through panic attacks in the loos (yes, more often than you know).
The despondent guy who stares at his screen for hours on end rather than having that 5 minute conversation that would make all the difference.
The touchy colleague everyone treads on eggshells around, because you never quite know how they're going to react.
The resident mood hoover, who's off more often than they're in - and when they're in, distracts everyone else with their latest updates.
Even senior leaders, founders and high-performers often carry:
Hidden imposter beliefs
Deep fear of failure, judgment or rejection
People-pleasing patterns masking poor boundaries
Unprocessed personal and professional stress
Chronic nervous system overload
These aren’t 'mindset issues'. Many people aren't even aware of them.
They’re identity-level patterns rooted in the subconscious and nervous system.
And until we go there and address those issues, people can have all the coaching, apps, training and gym memberships in the world - and still feel like they’re quietly falling apart.
The Stats Are Trying to Tell Us Something
Let’s take a closer look at what the data is saying:
📊 56% of UK employees have experienced at least one symptom of burnout (Mental Health UK, 2023)
📊 78% of Gen Z workers say they’ve struggled with mental health at work (McKinsey, 2023)
📊 Presenteeism now accounts for 60% of mental health-related costs to employers (Deloitte, 2022)
📊 UK businesses lose over 100 million working days per year to mental health-related absences (HSE, 2023)
📊 And despite years of investment in wellbeing, more than half of employees say they wouldn’t feel comfortable disclosing a mental health issue at work (Mind, 2023)
To answer our initial question - this isn’t a crisis of effort. It’s a crisis of depth.
We've hit workplaces with a barrage of tools for ‘coping’, performance and feelgood, fuzzy initiatives.
But what people really need is the space - and specialist, trauma-tackling, emotional-stability building, personalised therapeutic support - to shift how they feel, think, show up and lead from within.
Isn't it Just About Resilience?
Most often, people are told they need to "learn resilience strategies" or "be more resilient human beings" - but unfortunately, that's just not how this thing works.
Resilience isn't something you can put on when you're feeling challenged. But it IS a natural resource we all have - and it can become our default, through building a happy, healthy, peaceful internal landscape and a sense of control and agency.
The problem is, most of us have learned, through no fault of our own, to feel disempowered and disconnected from our natural resilience - through education, home situations and other workplaces/organisations.
We've learned that we need to constantly be in 'fight and flight' mode, 'feeling the fear' and 'faking it' to achieve - and that that's the best strategy to handle life's challenges.
But in reality, it's exhausting to our nervous systems and drives anxiety and burnout.
What we need isn't more tools. It's more self-belief - and proper, targeted, solution-focused support that teaches us to cope with whatever challenges life brings our way.
Let's take a deep breath - and imagine something different.
What if, instead of offering surface-level support when the emotional sh!t hits the fan, or resilience tools they can scramble for (if they remember and aren't too utterly overwhelmed) you could give your people access to...
An easy default setting of presence, focus and creativity
A calm, resilient nervous system that's in control and ready for anything
Deep clarity and alignment with their purpose, personal power, and leadership ambitions
Freedom from the hidden self-sabotage, confidence issues, anxiety and imposter feelings that stand in the way of their potential solutions
A sense of deep trust in themselves, their decisions - and the organisation and people around them
Wouldn't that be better?
This is all entirely possible - it's what humans look like when their inner world finally feels like it's on their side. And it's what we champion here, at The Better Brain Company.
Peak Performance for your People
The truth is, there’s a huge opportunity for next level culture, leadership and performance available to forward-thinking organisations right now - organisations that are willing to stop pretending it's all ok, step up, and invest in truly supporting their people to thrive.
So if you're tired of seeing your people struggling along and you really do want to put happy humans first and foremost - then we've got the solution.
At The Better Brain Company, we offer a transformative framework that blends neuroscience-informed therapy, trauma integration, performance psychology and solution-focused coaching and mentoring - to support leaders and professionals at the very deepest level and get them performing at the best.
SHIFT stands for:
🔹 Stability - Nervous system regulation and emotional grounding
🔹 Healing - Addressing the root of trauma, stress and self-sabotage
🔹 Identity - Reprogramming limiting beliefs and building internal alignment with desires, ambitions and the external world
🔹 Focus – Replacing self-doubt with calm, confidence and clarity of thinking
🔹 Trust – Creating psychological safety and self-trust to further personal growth and support natural resilience
It’s not coaching - but it often opens the door to existing coaching support working even better and helping your investment go further!
Nor is it 'therapy' in the traditional sense - we won't be asking your people to talk in any depth about their problems, or asking them to bare their soul.
And we certainly won't be asking them to discuss anything they're not absolutely on-board with.
This is personal. It targets the deep, hidden issues that many of us don't want to even face ourselves, without having to talk about or analyse them, or even think about them too hard.
It's Solution-Focused, through and through - our focus is on getting to a better place that's in line with our client's best hopes for who they want to be. And that's why it works so well!
But What’s the ROI?
We get it - that’s what everyone asks. Of course they do. This is business.
And while it’s tricky to directly quantify the impact of identity-level healing and integration in financial terms, here’s what we can tell you from - oh, oodles of studies that have been done and hundreds of people we've supported:
✅ Performance improves when people feel safe, clear and calm
✅ Creativity unlocks when survival mode shuts off
✅ Collaboration deepens when trust and self-worth are present
✅ Retention rises when people feel fulfilled (not just employed)
✅ As does real presence, as opposed to presenteeism...
✅ Happy nervous systems lead to reduced instances of chronic pain and other stress-based physical symptoms. They also help with hormonal regulation for people going through pregnancy, perimenopause and other hormonal issues.
✅ Likewise, emotional regulation and reduced anxiety helps neurodivergent individuals to adapt more easily to different environmental demands, advocate for themselves and maintain better executive functioning
✅ Culture strengthens in a positive snowball-effect, when leadership is emotionally grounded
These aren’t abstract ideas.
They’re things we see time and time again. And they're the foundation of any resilient, high-performing, future-focused organisation.
Next Steps
You’re already investing in your people, or ready to make that move. That tells us a lot!
We love to work with organisations that really get it, put their humans first and want to make a real difference to the world - starting with their people. Our SHIFT Corporate Solutions include:
SHIFT Peak Performance (1:1) - our signature emotional resilience and mind optimisation programme for leaders and ambitious individuals who want to transcend hidden barriers, leave the inner critic in the past, and unleash their true, untapped potential
SHIFT Evolution (1:1) - designed to help leaders enhance their ability to inspire, support, manage their teams effectively and get the best out of their people
SHIFT Solutions (1:1) - on-demand, personalised therapeutic support to help your people overcome their personal subconscious barriers to being a successful, fulfilled, confident and happy human.
They may want to overcome more generalised anxiety and frustration in their lives; to work through specific conditions such as PTSD, stress-linked physical reactions, relationship difficulties, wellbeing issues, burnout & fatigue and body confidence - or to help them manage compulsive behaviours, handle the challenges associated with neurodivergence, and facilitate emotional and physical decluttering - for example.
The Happy Human Audit - our in-depth mindset & mental wellbeing checkup! It's designed to make sure everything's running as smoothly as it can be - and to identify any areas you could be supporting your people to feel better and show up more powerfully.
Lunch & Learns, Workshops & Training - interactive, practical, bespoke sessions to support wellbeing, emotional intelligence & performance - via Zoom or in-person (location-dependent).
We're always happy to discuss your organisation's needs and provide tailored solutions for your people - so whether it's a comprehensive 'Better Brain Training' day (or just some regular guided relaxation with people who really know what they're doing), let's have a chat and see what's possible.
Because possibility is what we do.
And we’d love to show you what that looks like for you and your organisation. We offer free consultations to understand your organisation’s needs - and help you find the right-fit support to help your people truly thrive. So, if this has landed - let’s talk!
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