‘Dehumanised’: How ‘out of date’ workplaces are harming mental health

The scale of burnout and imposter syndrome within the marketing industry has reached worrying levels, but for many there are pressures to contend with beyond the day job.

Some 87.3% of working mothers and 78.5% of fathers have experienced imposter syndrome, feelings which have intensified for over half of mums (51.3%) and two fifths of dads (39%).

Of the 2,350 respondents to Marketing Week’s 2026 Career & Salary Survey, almost two thirds of mothers (65%) have felt overwhelmed in the past year, with well over half (60.8%) feeling undervalued and emotionally exhausted (56.6%).

Among working fathers within marketing, 60.8% have felt undervalued over the past 12 months, with 60.2% left feeling overwhelmed and 51.6% finding less enjoyment in their work.

Some 44.9% of working mothers and 42.9% of fathers wouldn’t feel comfortable discussing their mental health with their manager or the wider business, compared to 42.5% of the total sample. 

We know retention of working mums is a massive issue. We’re bleeding mums.

Rachael Jordan

It is not just parenthood placing strain on already under pressure marketers. Among the reasons respondents cite for not feeling comfortable opening up about their mental health, one marketer explained feeling like she needed “to be seen as strong especially as a menopausal older female”.

Reflecting on the factors pushing marketers to breaking point, former director of marketing and partnerships at the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, Rachael Jordan explains the workplace is “notoriously bad” at supporting the mental health of parents and carers. Anything that gets in the way of you “being always on and always on your A game is seen as a barrier”.

“Out of date workplace practices and cultures, microaggressions, they constantly tell us as mums that we’re substandard, because we’re a mum, or we’re not going to be as competitive or as intelligent, or as ambitious as we were before we became a mum,” says Jordan.

“It’s seen as a barrier. It’s seen as an inconvenience.”

Society doesn’t prepare mothers for the changes that occur when you become a parent, she explains.

Most marketers feel overwhelmed, undervalued and emotionally exhausted

“Because we don’t expect [these feelings] to happen, we feel like a failure when they do. We can go back to work feeling much less confident and not being sure of our identity anymore. Some of that is neurological, because of that huge hormonal shift. Some of it is natural, because you have another person to look after,” Jordan notes.

“Everything about your life changes and you’ve got to find yourself again, but you’re doing it and still expecting yourself to manage things as you managed them before you had children, which is impossible and unrealistic.”

Fear of redundancy and the impact on progression is silencing many working mothers, especially in an environment where working parents are seen as “replaceable”.

“There are so many people waiting in the wings who will do it, who want to work on this brand. I’ve heard that a lot. ‘A million people would kill to work on this brand.’ It makes you feel so dehumanised and commoditised,” she states.

It’s also often the case managers “don’t understand the language” needed to give working parents proper support. Jordan points to an acute lack of understanding around how to discuss perinatal mental health, for example, the feeling being that any issue without a policy to address it is easily forgotten.

Attack the problem

Balancing looking after two children under two with the pressure of an agency career, Jordan “burnt out completely”. She recalls being made to feel like her breakdown was her own failing, a story which sadly is “incredibly common”.

On a mission to “attack” the problem, Jordan notes that in 90% of family policies perinatal mental health is not mentioned, despite one in four UK women experiencing mental illness during or after pregnancy. Not only that, she explains, postnatal depression is one of seven mental illnesses mothers can experience in early parenthood.

Employee satisfaction surveys – if a business even conducts them – rarely ever address parenthood.

“There are so many people saying it’s not working, it’s broken,” says Jordan. “You’d think workplaces would want to at least assess how parents in their own organisation are feeling.”

[Menopause is] the most scary time for women and work don’t do anything. Organisations don’t do anything to support.

Claire Kelly

During her time at the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, she developed an employee engagement survey specific to parents, taking in the whole journey from deciding to have a family to your first couple of years back at work. A deep dive aimed at understanding the experience of working parents could have a major impact on talent retention.

“We know retention of working mums is a massive issue. We’re bleeding mums, because they feel like they just can’t either put up with it any longer or they feel like they have to leave,” says Jordan.

Former Deliveroo marketer and founder of training firm Badass Unicorn, Alice ter Haar, believes the concerning levels of burnout and imposter syndrome among working parents exist because the “stakes are so high”. That said, she points out non-parents, especially those with other caring responsibilities or health issues, are also facing many challenges.

“It’s so many different colliders that can come and shake that sense of self-worth. It’s hard to coexist with it all,” says ter Haar.

Culture of silence: Why marketers aren’t talking about their mental health

A mother of two and business founder, she recalls trying to manage the relentless pace of work when her first child was very young.

“Honestly, the intensity and the level I had to operate at in order to see those results it was horrendous. I couldn’t really cope with it,” she explains. “It’s like you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

Ter Haar sees working parents having to make a choice between progression, promotion and preserving their mental health. She describes the “sticky floor” mothers encounter, whereby they stay in role longer than they might otherwise because the maternity package is good and they want a second baby, or they don’t take a promotion as the stress is overwhelming.

“They’re making choices to purposely deprioritise things like their career just so they’ve got a hope in hell of being able to survive the rest of the gauntlet, because these things have to coexist,” ter Haar notes.

Reclaiming the conversation

Of the 40 symptoms women experience during perimenopause, anxiety, memory lapses and lack of sleep have a tangible impact on confidence in the workplace, explains The Whole Marketer founder Abigail Dixon.

She recalls a 2022 edition of her podcast on menopause recorded with then Lidl UK marketing director, now Wagamama CMO, Claire Farrant.

“Claire said something really profound that we go to the meeting and we can’t remember what we said because brain fog kicks in. We then leave that meeting. We then worry about what we’ve said. And then we don’t sleep very well as a result and the cycle goes round again,” says Dixon.

Society’s limited understanding of perimenopause is compounded by the lack of psychological safety women feel discussing their symptoms. While firms say they want the experience seasoned female leaders bring, in reality many businesses aren’t creating environments where these women can thrive.

It’s so many different colliders that can come and shake that sense of self-worth. It’s hard to coexist with it all.

Alice ter Haar, Badass Unicorn

“Menopausal women are already feeling a bit vulnerable anyway and then having to do a job where everyone’s stretched, overwhelmed, don’t feel supported, not with the resource. Then there’s a cultural environment where you can’t share how you’re feeling and how it’s impacting you,” she adds.

Someone who can identify is former head of marketing at Pets Choice, Claire Kelly, who agrees businesses risk losing female talent by failing to support women through the menopause.

She recalls being hair shamed by a senior leader in a previous business. While her thick red hair had always felt like a “superpower”, as her hair started to thin during perimenopause the male leader would make a point of commenting on her appearance.

“He would say: ‘You look prettier with your hair down Claire.’ He would not let it go. This was constant. He was senior and now is two levels off the global CEO of his company,” Kelly explains.

The Marketing Week Podcast: Addressing marketing’s mental health crisis

She can understand the Career & Salary Survey respondent who didn’t feel able to discuss their mental health under pressure to present as a strong, menopausal woman. The perception remains that struggling with perimenopause is a “sign of weakness”, which underestimates the impact on a woman’s entire life.

“Going through the perimenopause was the scariest thing ever, because I did not know what was happening and I’d lost who I was. I want that person back. I’m losing myself physically, I’m losing myself mentally. It’s the most scary time for women and work don’t do anything. Organisations don’t do anything to support,” says Kelly.

She is passionate about smashing the taboos around menopause and not letting others define your self-worth, not least because Kelly knows many of her peers are suffering in silence.

“There are so many times I’ve sat in meetings and not been able to say words that would fall out of my vocabulary with ease 10, 20 years ago. I stop and I call it out now. There was a time where I wouldn’t call it out, because I was so embarrassed,” she explains.

“Now I will actively use it and I will stop mid-sentence and say: ‘I’m sorry, menopause, brain fog.’ I will actively say: ‘This is what happens.’”

Being ‘human-led’

To help individuals grappling with their mental health it’s essential to destigmatise the struggle, says Jordan. However, as with the perception of menopause, there are many societal barriers for working mums to overcome.

“We’re so conditioned by society and by brands – brands have got to take some responsibility for this as well – to believe that we can just swim into motherhood and everything’s going to be – I hate these words – natural, joyful, easy,” she explains.

Change starts with organisations being empathetic and tailoring their actions to the individual’s needs, rather than a default response, Jordan suggests.

She urges businesses to think “completely differently” about how they approach parenthood, fertility challenges, maternity leave, baby loss and care for children with complex needs. Workplace culture is often a deciding factor in whether parents feel comfortable speaking out.

‘Absolute crisis’: Are marketers at breaking point?

“You can have all the policies and processes in the world, but if people think there are going to be implications from opening up about how they feel or disclosing a diagnosis, they’re not going to do it,” says Jordan.

A lot of this comes down to how able they feel to have difficult, personal conversations with their manager. However, managers can struggle to negotiate these discussions due to the lack of practical resources to help.

For Jordan, a simple solution is developing “human-led” policies written in the language people actually use around imposter syndrome, anxiety or intrusive thoughts. There are “sensitive, hopeful ways” to discuss mental health that help people feel more confident opening up, she suggests.

When it comes to the individual, removing the pressure and being kinder to yourself is a good starting point.

“Maybe going back to how it used to be [before you had a child] is not the right answer, because you are different,” Jordan reflects.

“Maybe it’s finding that new you with your new talents and your new skills from going through this period of your life, and let’s do something that suits me, rather than I’m going to force myself to be at the client dinners and on the 10pm calls with America.”

Marketing Week will continue its reporting of the mental health of marketers in the coming weeks.