Mental health at work: your rights and the conversation

Work is where most UK adults spend their best hours, and it's where mental health quietly falls apart — usually months before anyone notices. Here's what you're entitled to and how to ask for it.

What you have to disclose: almost nothing

You are not obliged to give your employer a diagnosis. You can describe the impact instead: concentration, sleep, workload capacity. Occupational health, if your workplace has it, is a separate conversation and only shares recommendations, not your medical detail.

Reasonable adjustments

Under the Equality Act 2010, a mental health condition that has a substantial, long-term effect on daily life counts as a disability — which obliges your employer to make reasonable adjustments. Things people successfully ask for:

• Later start times when medication or sleep is the problem
• Fewer or shorter meetings, camera off, written briefs instead of calls
• A quieter space or home days
• Reduced or reprioritised workload for a fixed period
• A phased return after sick leave, building hours back over weeks
• Regular short check-ins instead of one big review

Fit notes and sick leave

You can self-certify for the first seven calendar days. After that you need a fit note from a GP, which can say 'may be fit for work' with adjustments rather than signing you off entirely. Mental ill health is a legitimate reason for a fit note — it is written on them regularly.

Opening the conversation

Book time rather than catching them in a corridor. Lead with what you need: 'I want to keep doing this job well, and to do that I need to change a couple of things for a while.' Put it in an email afterwards so there's a record.

If it goes badly, ACAS (0300 123 1100) gives free confidential advice on your rights, and your union will act if you have one.

If work is the thing breaking you

Sometimes the honest answer is that the job is the problem, and no adjustment fixes a culture. Leaving is allowed. So is staying while you plan. Talk it through with someone before you decide anything at 11pm on a Sunday.

Samaritans are on 116 123, 24 hours a day, if it's heavier than a work problem.