Pleasanteeism is a health risk we can no longer ignore
- Michelle Francis
- Jul 22
- 3 min read
Key Takeaways
Many people feel they have to put on a brave face at work, but that can hide real mental and physical health risks.
Pleasanteeism isn’t just a cultural issue. It can delay diagnosis and stop people getting the care they need.
When we don’t feel safe to speak up, we also stay silent about things like fatigue, pain, and stress.
True resilience means supporting both mental and physical health, not just bouncing back emotionally.
At Lime Health, we build in clinical care at every step, so early signs don’t go unnoticed.
Behind the stats are real people. We must treat pleasanteeism as a warning sign, not a work ethic.
At Lime Health, we believe healthcare doesn’t begin at crisis. It begins at the first missed sign of risk whether mental or physical.
Our landmark Pleasanteeism research uncovered a reality that many people experience daily. The pressure to appear okay when we are not. Over half of UK workers say they feel they must put on a brave face at work, while a quarter are struggling to cope altogether. We gave this phenomenon a name, pleasanteeism but it should not be seen as just a cultural issue. It must be considered a clinical warning sign.
Putting on a brave face is no longer a sign of strength, it is a barrier to care.
It undermines both mental health and whole-person resilience. While most of the current conversation and research centres on mental wellbeing, we must remember that resilience is just as deeply rooted in physical health.
When people do not feel able to speak up about stress, they also stay silent about physical symptoms. They hold back from mentioning persistent fatigue, changes in bowel habits, or unexplained pain.
Building resilience must include the ability to recover physically, manage long-term conditions, and meaningfully engage in life and work. That’s why we need clinically sound, prevention-focused care that embraces the individual and does not see them as solely part of a bigger picture.
When individuals hide or downplay symptoms to push through the day, early intervention is missed, allowing issues like fatigue, digestive problems, headaches, sleep disruption, or even early signs of long-term conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes to go unreported. This can delay diagnosis and lead to preventable deterioration. Recognising its clinical impact is vital, pleasanteeism is not just about lost productivity; it is about safeguarding people’s lives.
In the digital world, it can be tempting to treat healthcare as content. It can be seen as a helpful nudge, a timely notification, a risk score but clinical input transforms those touchpoints into something more powerful, it gives us a safety net.
At Lime Health, we build that safety net into every pathway. Always in partnership with our suppliers, we shape:
How questions are framed
How thresholds are defined
How language is used in feedback
How and when support is escalated
And most importantly, what might otherwise be missed
Whether someone is quietly living with stress, battling fatigue and poor diet, or ignoring symptoms they fear might be serious, we make sure our services are not just accessible, they are clinically safe and responsive.
Pleasanteeism reflects a system failure to listen and act when people feel unable to communicate their needs.
Our Pleasanteeism report found:
26% of people are struggling to cope at work
51% feel they can’t show how they really feel
69% face barriers to accessing help rising to 93% among 16–24-year-olds
Behind these numbers lie countless unspoken symptoms: poor sleep, weight gain, low energy, blood pressure spikes, musculoskeletal strain. We must view these as clinical warning signs, not just wellbeing trends.
Mental health may be the most visible part of the resilience conversation, but that can make physical health risks easier to miss unless, of course, we are looking for them.
As the research makes clear, the stakes are high. If we are serious about strengthening the resilience of the UK workforce and about preventing avoidable disease at scale then we cannot rely on technology alone. We need constant clinical input, built into every user journey. Not to react to crisis, but to spot the signs long before it arrives.
Undoubtedly, digital health will continue to move fast. But it must not move without care, without context, or without clinicians in the room.
At Lime Health, we’re proud to ensure that every digital journey reflects the whole human experience: mental, physical, and emotional. Because that’s how you build trust. That is how you build resilience. And ultimately, that is how we can take all that we have learnt and mobilise it to change lives.
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