Real Voices, Real Change: Listening to Lived Experience at Work
Every year on 10 October, World Mental Health Day provides an opportunity to raise awareness, improve understanding and encourage conversations about mental health around the world.
The theme for World Mental Health Day 2026, set by the World Federation for Mental Health, is “Lived experiences heard: Real voices, real change.”
It is a theme with particular relevance for the workplace.
Over recent years, many organisations have made considerable efforts to bring mental health into everyday workplace conversations. Employees may be encouraged to speak more openly about their wellbeing, managers are increasingly receiving mental health training, and initiatives such as wellbeing programmes, Mental Health First Aiders and employee assistance programmes have become more common.
This year’s theme invites us to build on that progress by considering what happens when people do speak.
Are we creating opportunities to really listen to people’s experiences? What can those experiences teach us? And how can what we hear help shape healthier, more supportive workplaces?
Lived experience brings a different kind of knowledge
Policies, research and professional expertise all have an important role in supporting mental health at work. But there is another valuable source of knowledge: the experience of the people themselves.
The World Health Organization describes lived experience as knowledge and understanding gained through what someone has personally experienced. For World Mental Health Day 2026, it is emphasising that people with lived experience can identify needs and barriers that others may overlook, helping to make mental health policies, services and programmes more responsive to people’s actual circumstances.
The same principle can be applied within our workplaces.
We can learn about stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health difficulties, but that does not mean we automatically know what a particular person is experiencing.
Two employees experiencing anxiety may experience it very differently. The same is true of depression, prolonged stress or burnout. Something that one person finds supportive may be unhelpful to somebody else.
Listening gives us the opportunity to understand the person rather than making assumptions about what they need.
Creating workplaces where people feel able to talk
For people’s experiences to be heard, they first need to feel sufficiently comfortable to share them.
That doesn’t mean everyone should be expected to discuss their mental health at work. Mental health is personal, and employees will naturally differ in how much they want colleagues or managers to know.
Instead, organisations can work towards creating an environment in which people feel that they can speak when they want or need to.
Mental health literacy can play an important role here. Greater understanding helps to challenge stigma and misconceptions about mental ill health. It can also give managers and colleagues greater confidence when somebody does disclose that they are struggling.
The everyday culture of an organisation matters too. When wellbeing is discussed openly, when managers demonstrate that mental health is taken seriously and when people are treated with compassion and respect, it can become easier to ask for support before difficulties escalate.
Listening doesn’t mean having all the answers
One reason conversations about mental health can feel difficult is the belief that we need to know what to say or how to solve the problem.
But listening doesn’t require a manager or colleague to become a therapist.
Often, the first task is simply to understand.
Rather than immediately offering advice or trying to reassure someone, we might give them time to describe what is happening and ask simple questions such as:
What would be helpful for you at the moment?
Is there anything at work that is making this more difficult?
Is there anything we could change or adjust that might help?
Sometimes the appropriate next step may be practical. At other times it may involve signposting someone towards further support. And sometimes what the person most needs in that moment is simply to feel that somebody has listened without judgement.
Managers do, of course, need to understand the boundaries of their role. Mental health awareness training can help people recognise common difficulties, have supportive conversations and know when and where to signpost for additional help.
The aim isn’t to turn managers into mental health professionals. It is to help them feel more confident having human conversations about mental health.
From listening to meaningful change
The second part of this year’s theme is equally important: real change.
Listening to lived experience can help us understand not only how people are feeling, but also what might support them.
At an individual level, that might mean considering reasonable adjustments, communication preferences, workload or working arrangements.
But there can also be value in looking for broader patterns.
If employees repeatedly identify workload pressures, lack of clarity, poor communication or particular aspects of workplace culture as affecting their wellbeing, their experiences provide useful information for the organisation.
Employee surveys, wellbeing conversations, focus groups and informal feedback can all provide opportunities to listen. The important next question is: What can we learn from what people are telling us?
Not everything can be changed, and different employees may sometimes want different things. But involving people in conversations about wellbeing can help organisations make more informed decisions about the support they provide.
In this sense, listening becomes more than an act of kindness. It can become part of how an organisation learns.
Mindfulness and the skill of listening
Listening sounds simple, but genuinely giving another person our attention isn’t always easy.
We may be thinking about what we are going to say next. We may quickly form an opinion about what the other person should do. We might notice our own discomfort and try to make the situation better. Or, in a busy working day, part of our attention may already be on the next meeting, email or task.
Mindfulness can help us develop a different quality of attention.
At its heart, mindfulness involves intentionally paying attention to our present-moment experience with an attitude of openness and curiosity. With practice, we become more aware not only of what is happening around us, but also of our own thoughts, assumptions and reactions.
These skills can be valuable in our interactions with other people.
We can notice the impulse to interrupt and choose to listen instead. We can recognise that we are forming an assumption and become curious about whether it is accurate. We can allow a brief pause rather than rushing to fill a silence. And we can give somebody our attention without immediately trying to fix their experience.
Mindfulness therefore has a role at work that extends beyond helping individuals manage stress. It can support qualities such as attention, self-awareness, emotional regulation and more mindful communication, all of which can contribute to healthier working relationships.
Turning awareness into action
World Mental Health Day provides a valuable focal point for conversations about mental health, but the greatest impact comes when those conversations continue throughout the year.
This year’s theme offers organisations a useful principle to carry forward: listen to people’s experiences, learn from them and consider what can change as a result.
That might begin with improving mental health awareness. It might mean giving managers greater confidence in having supportive conversations. It could involve helping employees understand stress, anxiety or depression, or creating opportunities for people to develop practical skills that support their own wellbeing.
And it can mean developing something deceptively simple: our ability to give another person our attention and really listen.
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At Work Wellbeing offers a range of interactive workshops to help organisations support employee mental health and create healthier workplaces.
Our Mental Health Workshops include Introduction to Mental Health Awareness, Understanding Anxiety & Depression, Understanding Mental Ill Health, Mental Health Awareness for Managers and Understanding Stress. Sessions can be delivered individually or combined as part of a wider workplace wellbeing programme.
We also offer mindfulness-based workshops, including Introduction to Mindfulness, Mindfulness to Manage Stress, Mindfulness to Build Resilience and Mindful Communication, helping employees develop practical skills that can support wellbeing, resilience, attention and communication at work.
Workshops are available online and in person and can be tailored to the needs of your organisation.
This World Mental Health Day, create space for real voices to be heard and turn those conversations into meaningful action.
Explore At Work Wellbeing’s mental health and mindfulness workshops and talk to us about the right programme for your workplace.
👉 If you’re looking to support your team 📞 Book a call to find out more
