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

The old adage goes that a problem shared is a problem halved, but what if opening up about your mental health could put your job at risk?

A lack of trust, fear of judgement and precarious job security are some of the reasons why many marketers aren’t comfortable telling their team they feel overwhelmed, undervalued or emotionally exhausted.

More than two-fifths (42.5%) of the 2,350 respondents to Marketing Week’s 2026 Career & Salary Survey don’t feel like they can discuss their mental health with their manager or the wider business.

Some 43.1% of male marketers and 42.2% of their female counterparts would not be prepared to confide in anyone at work about their mental health. This rises to 44.9% of working mums, with 42.9% of fathers agreeing.

Almost half (44%) of CMOs and marketing directors wouldn’t feel comfortable discussing their mental health with the business, nor would 41.2% of senior managers/managers.

‘[People say] I don’t want a red flag against my name. I don’t want to be called difficult. I don’t want this to be thrown back at me.’

Claire Kelly

The free text responses reveal various reasons why speaking out is not an option. The perceived risk to job security emerges strongly, as does fear admitting to feeling overwhelmed would jeopardise their position. Some respondents are scared that discussing their feelings could hinder progression, or that they would be seen as “weak”, lacking resilience and “not in control”.

There is also a sense marketers should feel “grateful” for having a job at all, while others point out there is always someone “waiting to take over”.

Former director of marketing and partnerships at the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, Rachael Jordan sees marketers struggling to internalise increasing uncertainty.

“The world feels more uncertain than ever. For so many reasons, politically, economically, it feels unpredictable. Certainly, in my circles I know a lot of really talented people losing their jobs through redundancy,” she explains.

This widespread uncertainty brings with it a loss of control, while the very real prospect of redundancy leaves marketers scared and questioning their abilities, explains Jordan, who was made redundant just before Christmas.

“It feels like there’s no security potentially where there may have been before. If you are prone to overthinking, which people with imposter syndrome can be, then it would feel like your mind’s being torn in a million different directions about different worst-case scenarios,” she suggests.

Companies may argue people hide their suffering or the workplace isn’t aware, but marketers know anecdotally their peers are struggling.

“They forget people are sat at their desks in their offices suffering. Even at a very basic human, empathetic level, why wouldn’t you want to do something about that?” Jordan asks.

We worry that we’re essentially marking ourselves as a weakling, the runt of the litter and they’re just going to get rid of us.

Alice ter Haar, Badass Unicorn

Fractional CMO and former BrewDog global head of marketing, Sarah Warman, isn’t surprised marketers fear speaking up, with fragile job security fuelling this culture of silence.

“Not having that job security is a problem. That means you don’t necessarily want to voice your concerns and you’d much rather be seen as someone who you can just leave to get on with things. Having poor mental health, it inherently makes you feel like you would be a lower performer,” she explains.

Having trained as a mental health first aider during her 12 years at the Scottish brewer, Warman sees a link between the sheer number of people out of work and employers putting less energy into protecting wellbeing. There is a perception within some businesses marketers should feel grateful to be employed and could easily be replaced.

“It’s a perfect storm where things are getting worse for individuals and businesses are not making it any better. [Businesses] don’t feel that pressure to do so, because they can attract talent anyway,” she notes.

Warman warns that at times when mental health is challenged by corporate culture, economic uncertainty and global volatility, businesses should be investing in support, not pulling back.

“If it’s very sunny outside, you put sunscreen on. If it’s a bad economic climate, you need to invest more in mental health, not the opposite way round,” she argues. “You don’t just hope for the best.”

‘Absolute crisis’: Are marketers at breaking point?

Lack of respect

One of the reasons marketers are scared to speak out is because respect for the profession is disappearing, argues former head of marketing at Pets Choice, Claire Kelly.

“Everybody now has a social media account and therefore everybody is a marketer, so the level of respect for marketing has completely disappeared,” she argues.

This attitude permeates business culture, meaning marketers feel they won’t be taken seriously if they do decide to speak out. The fact they’re struggling is a “structural issue” with real life consequences, says Kelly, who recalls the difficulty she encountered getting former team members to ask for help.

“Their response is: ‘I’m not going to do that, because I don’t trust them [the company]. I don’t want a red flag against my name. I don’t want to be called difficult. I don’t want this to be thrown back at me. I’m embarrassed,’” she says.

“If someone’s leg had fallen off, they wouldn’t have an issue ringing in and going: ‘I can’t come into work today, because I’ve lost my leg.’ But if you have burnout, you just don’t want to admit it.”

They forget people are sat at their desks in their offices suffering. Even at a very basic human, empathetic level, why wouldn’t you want to do something about that?

Rachael Jordan

From a management perspective, Kelly has spent time in previous organisations pushing back to senior leadership, explaining why it’s not possible for marketing to take on more work.

“As soon as you say that as a senior leader in any structure, you get: ‘Well, what are you doing? What have you been doing all year? Why does it take so long?’” she says.

Thinking back to the pandemic, Kelly saw companies investing in marketing to survive the crisis, but during the intervening six years the “sheet’s been pulled away” from beneath marketers and pressure is mounting.

“[The attitude is] marketing you need to spin 4,000 plates. We’re not going to give you any focus. We’re going to give you 24 hours’ notice. That strategy’s gone. We need to rip it up and start again. We need to get the receptionist in on this. We need to get the operations guy in on this. We need the postman on this who delivers our parcels every day. We need everybody’s opinion,’” says Kelly.

Many businesses are blinkered and fail to give marketing the credit it deserves, she observes. Layer on top a sense of chaos, with a lack of structure, limited focus and unclear goals forcing marketers to leave or risk their mental health.

Kelly recalls a former colleague who recently disclosed issues she was facing at work.

“She said: ‘I don’t like being this person. I don’t like how I’m reacting.’ I had to stop her and be like: ‘This is not you. You are reacting to how the business is treating you. This is not a ‘you’ problem. This is just your coping mechanisms kicking in,’” Kelly explains.

Time to push back

In an environment where marketers don’t feel comfortable disclosing how they feel, Warman urges managers to pick up on the cues their team are distressed.

“I’ve been through it [burnout] and I didn’t see it coming at all. I think that was down to management. I was showing them that I was capable, because I looked that way. So they were piling more and more onto me,” Warman recalls. “But actually, I did reach the end of that road and I did burn out as a result.”

She explains how important it is for managers to give their team breathing space so they don’t overstretch themselves. This is a live issue given the risk of burnout is increasing due to the “challenge placed on creativity”, which Warman says is forcing marketers to second guess themselves and obsess over ROI.

There is also external pressure to contend with. As brands fight to stand out in a crowded market, the expectation to deliver cut-through makes marketing leaders vulnerable to public criticism.

If it’s very sunny outside, you put sunscreen on. If it’s a bad economic climate, you need to invest more in mental health.

Sarah Warman

“When [marketers] come out with a concept, they’ve got their peers ripping it apart on the sidelines and on LinkedIn. It massively compounds all those elements. Everyone thinks they know what good marketing looks like, because they see marketing every single day,” says Warman.

“There’s a constant pressure [on marketers] to prove value and justify ideas, over and above what another department might have to, because they’re not seen as an expert over my uncle on WhatsApp.”

Former Deliveroo marketer and founder of Badass Unicorn, Alice ter Haar, agrees there is increased scrutiny on marketers as their work is often outward facing and open to criticism.

“If we think about ourselves as animals, the more eyes you have on you, it’s hunter and prey. That means we’re much more exposed,” she notes.

Marketers are putting themselves in “risky, threatening positions” by staying in roles where they are unhappy, because imposter syndrome affects how they perceive their self-worth, ter Haar explains. 

Most marketers feel overwhelmed, undervalued and emotionally exhausted

“Then we come up for air and say: ‘I can’t take on that project. I can’t do that thing. I failed at this. I’m struggling at home. I have a lack of sleep. I’m dealing with the cost of living crisis.’ We worry that we’re essentially marking ourselves as a weakling, the runt of the litter and they’re just going to get rid of us,” she says.

With marketers silenced and struggling, the responsibility falls on managers to create pockets of psychological safety. This means deciding which projects are urgent and important, versus where an extension is possible, a meeting could move or the “light version” would work just as well.

“You’ve got to be quite a brave manager to do that, because it’s about pushing back on targets and pushing back on deadlines, and really sticking up for your team. That’s scary,” ter Haar adds.

However, with teams moving at such rapid speed, marketers are under pressure to make their resource work at all costs, notes The Whole Marketer founder Abigail Dixon.

This is regardless of being overwhelmed, burnt out and forced to balance a growing workload with reduced headcount. In this kind of environment, where marketers don’t feel safe to be honest and vulnerable, they are never going to share how they feel, says Dixon.

Change comes from breaking the issue down into what’s a ‘me’ problem, ‘you’ problem and ‘us’ problem, she suggests.

“There is an us problem that we are accepting doing more with less. We are taking greater accountability. We’re so thankful that we’ve been asked to cook Christmas dinner, but we’re not asking for anyone to contribute the money to it,” she says.

“We’re saying yes, or we’ve been pressured to say yes. We’re not pushing back hard enough. We are being tasked to live that ambitious growth objective with less money and less team.”

If the company culture leaves no room for the psychological safety needed to challenge the status quo, Dixon urges marketers to ask if they can realistically change it or whether their energy could be best channelled elsewhere.

Marketing Week will continue our reporting of marketing’s burnout crisis as the series continues. You can see all the Career & Salary Survey content we’ve published so far here.