This Overlooked Mental Health Issue Is Affecting How You Work (& Most People Don't Know They Have It)
Most people who are struggling at work don't look like they're struggling. They show up, meet deadlines, and answer emails.
But a large-scale longitudinal study1 tracking over 18,700 working adults found that even moderate psychological distress, the kind that doesn't have a name or a diagnosis, affects how people perform at work. The impact isn't sudden.
It shows up as tasks taking longer than they should, focus that's harder to sustain, and effort that feels disproportionate to the work in front of you.
About the study
Researchers used data from eight rounds of the Australian survey collected between 2007 and 2021, covering 70,973 observations from 18,729 working adults.
They measured psychological distress using the Kessler 10 scale, a questionnaire that asks how often people felt nervous, hopeless, exhausted, or restless over the past month. Participants were grouped into low, moderate, or high distress based on their scores.
The researchers then tracked three workplace outcomes:
- How often people missed work due to illness
- Whether they showed up while unwell (presenteeism)
- Whether they were working fewer hours than they wanted to.
Moderate distress, measurable productivity loss
You might assume that psychological distress only starts affecting your work when things get really bad.
The data tells a different story.
Workers with moderate distress (not high, just moderate) were already missing more work due to sick days and more likely to show up to work while unwell compared to their low-distress peers.
Workers with high distress showed even steeper numbers across both measures.
- Sickness absence: Workers with moderate distress missed more days due to illness than their low-distress peers, and those with high distress missed even more.
- Presenteeism: Workers with moderate or high distress were significantly more likely to show up while physically or mentally unwell, a pattern that drains output without ever appearing on an absence record.
- Underemployment: The primary analysis didn't find a significant link between psychological distress and working fewer hours than desired. A secondary analysis suggested a possible connection, particularly among workers aged 25 to 54 with high distress, but the researchers note this should be interpreted with caution.
The financial toll adds up fast. Workers with high psychological distress incurred an estimated AUD 3,656 more per year in presenteeism-related costs compared to those with low distress, and that's just from showing up while struggling.
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Why presenteeism is the part we miss most
Of the three measures, presenteeism is the sneakiest. It doesn't show up in absence records or trigger a conversation with a manager. But can eroding focus, decision-making, and work quality in ways that are easy to attribute to something else.
Many people with moderate psychological distress don't think of themselves as struggling. They're functioning. They're showing up. But functioning and thriving aren't the same thing, and this research makes that gap a lot harder to ignore.
The subtle signs psychological distress is affecting your work
Psychological distress doesn't always look like a crisis. More often, it shows up in small, easy-to-dismiss ways:
- Difficulty concentrating: Tasks that used to feel manageable now take more effort and time.
- Reduced motivation: The drive to start or finish projects feels harder to access.
- More mistakes: Mental fatigue makes errors and oversights more likely.
- Shorter fuse: Irritability and lower frustration tolerance can affect how you work with others.
- Procrastination: Avoidance tends to increase when your emotional reserves are running low.
None of these are character flaws. They're signals worth paying attention to before they grow.
Small habits that support your mental health at work
Small, consistent habits can make a real difference, both for how you feel and how you show up at work.
- Move your body regularly. Physical activity is one of the most well-supported tools for easing psychological distress. Even moderate movement, a 20-minute walk or a short strength session, can lower stress hormones and lift your mood. Consistency matters more than intensity here.
- Protect your sleep. Sleep and psychological distress have a two-way relationship; poor sleep worsens distress, and distress disrupts sleep. A consistent sleep schedule and a wind-down routine are two of the most direct ways to support your mental health. Your circadian rhythm plays a bigger role than most people realize, and keeping it aligned can make a real difference.
- Build in micro-recovery moments. Short breaks throughout the workday, even five minutes away from a screen, help your brain reset. Stepping away isn't slacking; it's how you protect your focus and reduce mental fatigue over the course of a day.
- Set boundaries around work hours. Blurred lines between work and personal time are a known driver of psychological distress. Where you can, establishing clear start and end times and protecting your time off from work notifications can help reduce the low-grade stress that builds up over time.
- Reach out before you hit a wall. One of the most important takeaways from this research is that productivity loss begins at moderate distress, not just at the severe end. That means the time to act is before things feel urgent. Whether that's talking to a therapist, leaning on a trusted colleague, or simply naming what you're feeling, early support matters. The connection between mental and physical health is increasingly well-documented, and both are worth tending to.
The takeaway
Psychological distress doesn't have to reach crisis level to affect your work. This 14-year study found that even moderate mental strain can increase sick days and even reduce output on the days you do show up. Presenteeism, the habit of showing up while unwell, is where much of that loss happens.
Tending to your mental health early, through movement, sleep, boundaries, and support, is one of the most direct investments you can make in how you perform and how you feel.