World Mental Health Day has just passed, bringing with it the familiar reminders to look after ourselves and one another. There were messages about resilience, encouraging employees to seek support, and perhaps a few workplace activities designed to remind people that wellbeing matters.

I welcome the attention. I also find myself wondering what happens when the messages have disappeared, the T-shirts and pins are packed away and everyone returns to business as usual? We are much more comfortable talking about mental health than we were a decade ago. That is progress. I am less convinced that our workplaces have changed at the same pace.

Consider the employee who is encouraged to maintain healthy boundaries but regularly receives e-mails late at night with an expectation of an immediate response.

Or the team that has been short-staffed for six months and is congratulated for its resilience rather than given a realistic plan to address the workload. This contradiction has a real cost which must be recognised.

I have heard managers express genuine concern for an employee’s wellbeing while describing working arrangements that leave little room for that employee to recover. Their concern is sincere. The disconnect is that they see wellbeing as something the employee must manage, rather than something the organisation helps create and at times exacerbates.

There is an important distinction between offering support when someone is struggling and reducing the likelihood that work itself becomes an added and unwelcome source of distress. Both matter. One requires us to examine the decisions we make as leaders.

Workload is an obvious starting point. An occasional demanding period is part of most jobs. A permanent emergency is something else. When every deadline is urgent and every request is a priority, employees are not failing to manage their time. The organisation is failing to manage its expectations.

Management behaviour matters just as much. An employee who is afraid to admit a mistake, raise a concern, or say that a workload is unmanageable is unlikely to make good use of a wellness programme.

Psychological safety is not created by a poster with pithy statements and calming imagery. It develops when leaders pay attention to the quiet cues and respond constructively to uncomfortable information or inconvenient circumstances.

There is also a fairness dimension. Flexible arrangements, time off and reasonable adjustments can become sources of resentment when they depend more on case-by-case approvals rather than on clear organisational principles. Employees notice when the rules change from one person or department to another.

None of this means employers are responsible for every challenge in an employee’s personal life. They are not. Mental health is complex, and the workplace is only one part of the picture. Employers do, however, have considerable influence over how work is organised, how people are treated and whether asking for help feels safe.

There is another distinction worth making. Not every difficult day at work is evidence of an unhealthy workplace, and not every employee who is struggling is experiencing a problem caused by work.

Managers should not be expected to diagnose mental illness. They should, however, be equipped to notice changes, listen without judgment, explain what support is available and respond appropriately when someone says they are not coping.

That requires training and an organisational infrastructure that encourages employees to speak out and managers to speak up.

I would like to see more organisations measure what happens between their wellness initiatives. Are employees regularly working excessive hours? Do people take their leave?

Can managers identify signs of strain without turning a private health matter into office conversation? Are concerns addressed, or merely acknowledged?

Those questions are less comfortable than organising a wellness event. They are also more useful.

As we move beyond another World Mental Health Day, perhaps the most meaningful commitment is not a new programme. It is a closer look at the ordinary decisions that shape an employee’s working day. Our statements about wellbeing should be supported by the way we actually work. The real test is not how convincingly we speak about mental health during an awareness campaign.

It is how a manager responds when an employee says the workload is unsustainable, how quickly an organisation addresses persistent behaviour problems and whether leaders are willing to change expectations that have become unreasonable or impossible to achieve.

• For information on how organisations can start to build a framework of support, visitwww.mindfulemployerbermuda.org

• Kelly Francis is founder and managing director of Performance Solutions Ltd. She advises boards, business owners and leadership teams on the people decisions that shape organisational performance. Kelly can be reached at 441-232-5270 or kelly_francis@psolutions.bm