How to Advocate for Wellness Without Risking Your Role
By Marta Gongos Advocate for wellness by focusing on facts, not feelings. Speak up before burnout affects your work, point out changes in output consistency, ask for adjustments that support performance, and follow-up verbal agreements in writing.
Many employees feel pressured to stay quiet about their wellness needs, often worried that speaking up might hurt their reputation, spark confrontation, or impact performance reviews. However, carrying the burden alone inadvertently causes more issues down the road. It’s unsustainable for both your health and your career.
Pushing for balance shouldn’t put you in a tough spot. With a few practical, non-confrontational strategies, you can advocate for wellness while maintaining a good standing at work. Here’s how to advocate for wellness without risking your role.
Use Performance-Linked Framing
How you say something often matters more than what you say. When advocating for wellness at work, reframe your challenges as opportunities for collaboration and productivity. This demonstrates initiative, self-awareness, and strong motivation to build consistent, sustainable career goals.
| Instead of Saying | Try Saying |
| I’ve been feeling tired lately. | I want to stay sharp during critical work blocks. |
| I need to take a break for my work-life balance. | Short breaks help me reset and reduce mistakes. |
| I can’t handle all of this work. | I want to reprioritize X for quality work. |
| This is affecting my mental health. | I want to address concerns for long-term consistency. |
Schedule the Conversation Proactively, Not Reactively
Timing your meeting right is key. Waiting too long to speak up leaves managers little time to offer meaningful assistance before the situation spirals.
Proactive communication shows maturity and initiative. Don’t wait until you’re missing deadlines. It’s best to start the conversation once you start noticing red flags like:
- needing more time to complete routine tasks
- avoiding Slack messages or emails because you feel overwhelmed by even small requests
- snapping at coworkers or overreacting to feedback you’d normally take in stride
- letting recurring tasks pile up because of mental fatigue or emotional exhaustion
- struggling to prioritize or make decisions
Communicate Your Needs Effectively
When submitting a request, provide a clear and legitimate rationale for it. What seems unusual to you may not be alarming to others, so it’s beneficial to articulate measurable, objective alterations in your results, processes, or actions.
For example, your workload spiked significantly in the past month. Instead of saying you feel overwhelmed, you could say:
“My task queue has grown by 40% since last cycle, and I’ve noticed it’s starting to affect my accuracy and turnaround time.”
Give your manager a specific, objective problem that they can respond to and solve.
Request Adjustments, Not Exceptions
Fairness is a common concern when advocating for wellness, especially in teams where everyone’s carrying a heavy load. If you’re not clear and constructive, your request might get brushed off as an inability to adjust.
The key is to ask for adjustments, not exceptions. Look for simple changes that improve your effectiveness and job satisfaction without pushing extra work on others. That might mean:
- Blocking out deep work hours
- Requesting one remote day per week
- Shifting a recurring meeting that drains your focus.
Emphasize that they’re practical ways to stay consistent and perform at your best, not special privileges.
Pro Tip: Think about changes that could work for your whole team. If something helps you, it might also support overall employee satisfaction. Managers are more likely to support a request when it feels like a shared win instead of a personal fix.
Document the Agreement
Always ask for written follow-ups on verbal agreements. It’s easy to walk away from a good 1:1 meeting thinking everything’s set, but details can get skewed without written confirmation. Should priorities shift, it becomes harder to clarify the terms later. You’ll reduce the risk of misalignment and tension if you can reference something concrete.
Make sure you have formal documentation. If that’s not possible, clarify the meeting in other ways:
- Recap the meeting minutes via email, Slack, or Teams.
- Screenshot the highlights of your conversation.
- Jot down the key points in your notes or task manager as a personal reference.
Know Your Support System
You might have more support than you realize. Chances are, several departments, from HR to upper management, understand why workplace wellness is important. They likely want to maintain a healthy working environment as well.
See what benefits your company can provide access to. Contact HR about policies, mental health resources, health risk assessments, emergency counseling, and possible adjustments. Ask about ally managers or team leads who are open to these conversations.
You don’t have to navigate wellness alone. The employee well-being support you need could be just one message away.
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FAQs About Advocating for Wellness
Begin by explaining the reason for your request rather than just stating your diagnosis or emotions. Highlight how your mental state impacts performance, and use clear, actionable language to suggest practical solutions
Happy, healthy employees enhance work quality and contribute positively to team energy. Over time, they’re more likely to stick around. No one wants to feel drained to meet KPIs.
Adopting healthy habits and seeking support can enhance mental well-being at work. Set boundaries, monitor stress, embrace feedback, engage in social initiatives, and prioritize self-care while seeking help from leaders when necessary.
Key pillars of workplace well-being are mental health, physical health, social connection, purpose, and safety. Meanwhile, ergonomic setups, movement-friendly routines, and access to health benefits promote physical employee well-being. Social connections come from a supportive culture and peer interaction.
Examples of effective health and wellness programs include employee assistance, flexible schedules, wellness stipends, fitness classes, and mental health workshops, addressing multiple areas for best results.
In Short …
- Frame your wellness request around performance and quantified indicators.
- Show how wellness helps you (and the team) stay focused, consistent, and collaborative.
- Speak up early. Don’t wait until you’re missing deadlines or disengaging from work.
- Use specific, work-related observations. Point to measurable changes in workflow, not just how you feel.
- Ask for adjustments, not exceptions. Propose reasonable changes that support both you and the team.
- Follow up in writing and recap verbal agreements to avoid confusion later.
- Explore what’s already available. HR policies, wellness programs, and ally managers may already be in place. In all likelihood, you just need to tap in.
Discover a Workplace that Fosters Wellness With Ad Culture
Even when you take the right steps, feeling stuck can happen. A supportive workplace should prioritize wellness as essential for productivity and team success.
Ad Culture connects professionals with companies that value emotional intelligence, balance, and long-term success. If you’re ready for a role that doesn’t cost your mental health, book a consultation. We’ll help you land your dream job.
